A performance by the Pete Galea Quartet will be taking place at Rumours restaurant in Pietà on 27 December, with Pete Galea on drums, Alan Portelli on bass, Warren Galea on guitar, and Daniel Sant on keys.

It will be a night of original compositions and arrangements in the jazz fusion style. This will be the first performance in Malta organised and directed by Galea, a young Maltese drummer and musical director, since completing a B.Mus.(Hons) in Professional Music Performance at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, Surrey, U.K.

Through this course, Pete has widened his capacity and versatility, and is currently performing around London with different artists and bands playing jazz, fusion, pop, rock, and acoustic singer-songwriter music.

Other opportunities extended to gig slots around Guildford by ACM, which led to contacts for other projects, studio sessions and gigs. One particular gig with the soul-funk band Cee and the Sirens eventually led to Pete performing his first gig as a session drummer in London a few months later. Throughout the past 2 years, Pete has also set up his own projects, including jazz-fusion groups Sassy’s Reprise and Beanstalk and other projects such as the electronica duo nBOME and seven different Final Performances at the end of second year.

At present an increasing number of young Maltese artists are becoming inclined to further their studies abroad, giving musicians, in particular, the opportunity to hone their skills and techniques, developing their unique voice as artists through immersion in listening, composition, recording and live performance of music in many different genres. Through studying in institutes such as Guildford’s ACM, musicians have the opportunity to benefit from tuition with world-class musicians involved in the industry as well as gain access to high quality recording studios and slots in local gigs and festivals.

All this would not have been possible without the Malta Arts Scholarship scheme, through which Pete was assisted to fund his course to take his studies to the next level with the aim of reinvesting in the Maltese music scene.