This year marks Marco Polo’s 700th anniversary – the legendary traveler, writer, explorer, merchant… That triggered Venice, and a whole array of possibilities in my head.  Firstly, I looked at the music of this great city through another iconic Venetian figure in Western classical music culture.  Antonio Vivaldi’s celebrated I Quattro Stagioni became my springboard.  Then all things started to come together in the realms of interconnectedness. The exploration of space became an exploration of time.  

​

The journey along The Silk Road became a journey across the seasons and interpretations and facets of the influences of one work.  Thus, we are creating our own musical “journey” with The Four Seasons – from its original setting to a world of colour and fireworks and ever-changing seasons – including the work re-composed and re-interpreted by Max Richter, a rather idyllic painting of seasons by Tchaikovsky, and the sensual passion of the Argentine Tango with Piazzolla’s interpretation. All of this, with exceptional Maltese musicians. We are also taking this concept across genres and dipping our toes into dance with a newly-commissioned choreography; the visual arts, with a new display of paintings on easels in every palace to showcase the work of artists living in Malta; and artisanal heritage craft showing off our beautiful traditions with mosaic, weaving, filigree, and lace-making.  

​

The spatial element in all of this has not been lost. And in this year’s edition of the festival not only shall we be traveling from palace to palace, but we are also playing on the idea of spatiality within the same space, linking to another composer – Giovanni Gabrieli, with the shift from the Renaissance to the Baroque, and the culmination of the Venetian polychoral style made famous (and possible) with the splendor of the architecture of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice.  Here in Malta, we have our magnificent St John’s Co-Cathedral – and what an inspiration that is for the performance of sound that travels through space.  

​

Happening for the first time in Malta, is a “Come and Sing” – an event where everyone can be a participant.  One cannot think of Venice and not think of lushness and gold and silks and calligraphy and masks, as will be captured through our various workshops for children, youths, and adults.  I am particularly proud to be working with several local councils in Regjun Lvant (East) - this year’s region dedicated to culture in Malta.  Beyond this, buskers using ‘The Silk Road’ as a brief -: where East meets West, and Africa meets Europe, and inspired by different cultures - will be performing in the streets of the Baroque splendor of Valletta, our capital city, in a country that, parallel to the trade and culture routes of Venice, epitomizes all of this, and more, bang in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.