World-famous piano competition recognises Maltese composers with special prize timesofmalta.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesofmalta.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The 15th edition of the International Spring Orchestra Festival (ISOF) will be taking place next month.
Inspired by music from Germany labelled ‘Degenerate’ and banned by the Nazi authorities between 1933 and 1945, the ISOF will host seven concerts over five days in various locations, mainly in Valletta.
International guest artists – including some familiar faces on the local classical music scene – are flying in from all over Europe to join their Maltese counterparts.
“Despite the pandemic-imposed delay, the International Spring Orchestra Festival remains a highlight of Malta’s cultural calendar,” artistic director Karl Fiorini says.
“Year in and out, it attracts fresh blood in the form of music new to Malta that has been regarded for decades as ‘modern repertoire’.”
By J. Dennis Robinson
It’s enough to make anyone believe in miracles. On Jan. 30, 1981, a $10.5 million FB-111A jet bomber plummeted directly toward the most densely populated section of Portsmouth. Roughly 2,500 people lived in the low-rent apartment complex then known as Sea Crest and Mariner’s Village. A spray of jet fuel set buildings on fire as the pilotless plane ripped into the earth. But 40 years later, what might have been the world’s worst aviation disaster is scarcely a footnote in local history. There was a cascading liquid fire burning across the tops of the buildings, police officer Albert Pace recalled years later. It looked like a great wave at the beach coming in only it was all flames of liquid fuel. It was pretty spectacular.