Former Artistic Director and principal conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Opera Brian Schembri told The Malta Independent that his contract had occasionally been broken.

Recently, Schembri announced on Facebook that his contract was terminated last August, adding that the decision was unfair and abusive. The termination of his contract has prompted many of Malta's prominent talents to speak out in his favour.

This newsroom had previously contacted National Orchestra Chairman Sigmund Mifsud, who said that there is no doubt of the artistic capabilities of Brian Schembri.

Mifsud however, mentioned that there were internal issues which escalated. He said that despite one grave incident, management tried to reach an agreement with Schembri, but did not manage.

This newsroom has contacted Brian Schembri and asked him why, in his opinion, his contract with the Malta Philharmonic Opera was terminated.

Schembri said: "In the email I received regarding my termination, Executive Chair of MPO Sigmund Mifsud wrote that since I had not accepted proposed amendments to my contract, the Board unanimously agreed to terminate the then current and still valid contract." "In fact the contract had been regularly and repeatedly broken in one way or another by Mifsud throughout the whole period of my tenure. I can of course give many concrete examples if and when necessary. At one time, Sigmund Mifsud unilaterally and without any explanation decided to withhold part of my monthly salary, refusing to pay my full dues or to at least answer any of the several emails my lawyer sent about the issue. It took five months of protestations with the authorities resulting in a very strong intervention by the Ministry's Permanent Secretary Johan Galea, to rectify such an unacceptable attitude.

"However, since I strongly believed in our common aims and the great work that was being done together with the development of the orchestra that was already starting to show, I always treated these issues internally directly with Sigmund Mifsud - which I think was the right way.

"After the first three years of my tenure - with the successes that have been generally acclaimed - and while my contract was still on going and valid, in January 2017 the Board, under the chairmanship of Sigmund Mifsud and with the Perm Sec's approval (according to Mr Mifsud) sent me a new contract. This was done without any previous discussion with me on the subject. The new terms I was being asked to accept were insulting and unethical. For example, not only did they want to change my indefinite contract to a definite one, but they also insisted on changing my employment status to one of self-employment. Besides this, the intention of the new contract was to effectively remove my prerogatives as Artistic Director. Naturally it was impossible to come to an agreement on such terms."

In his original Facebook post, Schembri said that he felt his termination was abusive. Asked why he felt that way, Schembri said; "One major reason is definitely that our legally binding agreement specifically stipulated that any change to the contract had to be agreed with, under condition that the new contract was at least not less favourable than the current one. Although I had already accepted several changes in a sign of goodwill, things became really unacceptable when some of these already agreed upon changes were either suddenly ignored or also changed again to even less favourable conditions by the MPO! Naturally my lawyer would be the best person to explain other details as he has already done several times to the interested parties since last February."

Mediation meetings had taken place to try and calm the situation. Schembri indicated that such mediation meetings began last February.

"Sigmund Mifsud was always absent or unavailable for meetings set up or planned by the Ministry's Permanent Secretary Johan Galea when I was in Malta. I personally met the Perm Sec a number of times and had already by March agreed to certain changes in my still ongoing legally binding contract in an attempt to offer a quick solution to a situation which was quickly degrading. Eventually, after the situation was left to deteriorate dramatically, a July mediation meeting did take place - this, after quite some strong insistence from my side and a number of cancellations and changes of dates from the other side.

"This meeting was presided by Malta Arts Council Executive Chair Albert Marshall with the Perm Sec Johan Galea present. As a result of this meeting the MPO Board again proposed some changes to the contract most of which I agreed to. However, when we had nearly arrived at a positive conclusion, I was informed that some cardinal points about which there was already agreement (including one agreed to since March), were now not valid any more and were again changed to unfavourable terms that were unfavourable to me. This, of course changed the whole situation again. The feeling was that whenever I was agreeing on anything, they would change their position and that eventually the other side's attitude became more of a « take it or leave it » one. I regret to have to say that as time passed, the mediators in fact ended up acting more as spokesmen to the other side.

"This gives me the impression that the decision had already been taken even before the July mediation meeting took place, that I should not be given any choice but to accept a less favourable contract or be sacked. So much so, months before I started being pressured to accept the new contract in January, I was already being little by little over-ruled or completely side-lined by Mr Sigmund Mifsud from several artistic decisions that were being taken, especially those regarding artistic programming - naturally my role's major prerogative according to my contract. The programming of this current ongoing season was already being planned and finalised completely behind m y back during this last year, when I was still Artistic Director of the MPO! In addition, various people were privately contacting me since many months expressing concern about rumours that my contract was going to be terminated in May!"

Asked whether he has received his termination pay yet, Schembri said no, "and to date my lawyer's two legal letters seem to have been ignored."

Asked what comes next, he said he would be defending his "legal rights so that I can close this chapter in my life and take a new direction towards new adventures, which I believe will continue to strengthen me as an artist of strong principles, passionately dedicated to Art and Music. At the same time I will as always defend my hardly earned professional reputation as an honest musician of integrity, which no success, routine, or professional setback, such as the present one, will ever crush."