Tuesday will see the start of the fifth International Spring Orchestra Festival. Pamela Hansen met up with its artistic director,

31-year-old, Paris-based composer, KARL FIORINI and found that though diffident in his manner, he certainly does not lack confidence in his music

I first came across Karl’s work when I heard his arrangement of Gershwin’s Summertime, played by Equinox at the American Embassy. I had not yet met him, but when I heard that he was back to prepare for the festival, I thought that people would be interested to know about the young man who is not only behind the festival, but is making a name for himself in the classical music world.

In September 2004 he won first prize in an international, composition competition at Boston University in the US, with Alea 111. Then, in December of that year, he won another competition in Barcelona with his Trio Lamina for violin, clarinet and piano, the last work he wrote before leaving Malta for London, where he lived for a few years.

Karl believes that “the perception of beauty is in your surroundings” and says his music is influenced by his environment. He graduated in Music in 2002 from the University of Malta at age 22 and started studying for an MA at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London two years later.

A chance meeting on the London underground with a fellow musician led to him being asked to compose a four-minute piece for the Bournemouth symphony orchestra in March 2005. “I had to start from scratch and produce the piece in three days. I had told the director that I already had a piece ready to secure the commission.

“Since it had been made very clear to me that unless my piece was good enough it would not be played, I worked most nights to get it right and my sleepless nights paid off, because my composition was chosen and was received very well.

“That was also the year I started experimenting. I had been experiencing stagnation due to getting ensconced in a comfort zone. I needed to start taking some risks with my music. That was when I developed a march I had written at 13, City of Lost Chances, into a piece for clarinet and piano.

“This was the time I was being influenced by jazz and it is audible in this piece. In fact, I am still trying to get away from the stereotypical ‘classical’ genre.” It is Karl’s belief that classical musicians do not use improvisation. He wants to break that mold.

“My instrument is the piano, but I felt I could not reach the level of experimentation I wanted to achieve. That was why I opted for orchestral work,” he told me.

However, despite his achievements, 2005 was a very sad year for Karl; his mother died of cancer amid other domestic problems he was experiencing. He had just finished his Master’s degree in the UK and came to Malta to be with his family.

“I was extremely depressed at the time, but at the end of that year a friend suggested I create a spring festival. I liked the idea and it got me out of the rut. I started working on it and two years later we had the first festival in April 2007.

“We had string players from all over the world playing five to six performances in a glorious week of music making and the festival has been held each year since then,” he told me.

In 2008, he was commissioned by the European Union to compose a piece for its chamber orchestra. Called Harmonies étendues, it was performed in Granada. He later started thinking again about composing just for piano and that is ongoing.

Although music became Karl’s world at an early age, his first reaction to music lessons when he was seven years old was that he wanted nothing to do with them. His parents were keen that their children learn a musical instrument, but Karl made the mistaken connection with the after-school dutrina classes, which he dreaded, and he was sure he would hate yet another after-school activity.

But about four years later, his sister Karina started taking piano lessons and his curiosity was aroused. “I sat at the piano and hit the keys for the first time and something happened. I started to see colours. I experienced synaesthesia,” he told me.

He was hooked, so he told his parents that he would start guitar lessons. However, those classes were full so he joined Karina and started taking piano lessons. His first lesson made such an impression that he still remembers not only the month and year, but also the day of the week of the event that was to steer his life.

One could say he was a precocious musician because he soon wanted to write his own score. He made up his own notation and wrote his first piece at 11, which he still has, after his first few lessons.

“Mozart was the first composer to fascinate and influence me. It wasn’t just his music but the man enthralled me,” he said.

When Karl gave his first performance at 12, he was so excited that he froze and that recital did not go at all well, he recalls. His teacher had misunderstood his agitation, put it down to nervous anxiety through lack of confidence, and asked him whether he wanted to give it up. “My response was ‘no way’. I had already decided that I wanted to be a composer,” he told me.

“I justified my stance by giving a successful rendition of Mozart’s Al la Turca sonata in A major K331 at the concert the year after. That was when I moved on to the Litz phase and when my obsession with Paris took hold.

“At 15, I took the music option at Junior College. There, as well as at university later, well-meaning advisers asked me what choices of career music would give me, indicating that a career in music was not very promising with regard to sustaining oneself financially. But life is not all about stability and security, I knew that what I wanted to do was make music,” he said.

Karl eventually moved to Paris in 2008. “When I first arrived in Paris I had no job, in fact I still don’t. I live on commissions. So my advisers at college and university might have had a point with regard to stability and security. I had written to all the music conservatories and dance schools. My bread and butter earnings come from accompanying dancers at academies.

“While in London, I had worked with the London School of Contemporary Dance and had composed a piece to choreography by one of the dancers. That helped when I was looking for similar work in Paris,” he told me.

“But what about the Spring Festival now in its fifth year. What inspires you to make it happen?” I asked him. “Classical music should be enjoyed by everyone, but many might still have the impression that classical music is elitist and is only enjoyed by the bourgeoisie.

“I want to dispel that myth. I would like sceptics to take the first step. I want to arouse their curiosity. The first concert will be held on Tuesday at Piazza Tigné at 6pm. The orchestra conducted by Roberto Beltran-Zavala (who has been here before) will present an exciting and enticing programme that includes a performance of Haydn’s 70th Symphony by the Rotterdam Ensemble, Bartok’s Divertimento for strings and Shostakovich’s Piano concerto No1.

“Since the venue is frequented by shoppers and sightseers and the concert is free, I am hoping to whet their appetite for classical music and attend even more concerts at the festival and beyond,” Karl said.

Another concert is being held in collaboration with the Ministry of Resources and Rural affairs at the St Antnin Waste Plant in Marsascala aimed at the local community on Thursday 28 at 8pm.

The next day, on Friday the 29th, two concerts are taking place at the Manoel Theatre. Aimed at children, the first is at 1pm. and the second at 1.45pm.

In addition to these grass roots oriented programmes, the International Spring Festival Orchestra is also launching a Classical Music Marathon for young debutantes at Sala Isouard, Manoel Theatre, on the final day of the event.

The marathon will start at 10a.m. and will include 10 one-hour-long solo and chamber concerts. Ten established local musicians will also be performing with the debs. The event will end with an orchestral concert at 8pm at the Manoel Theatre.

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