The festival, now in its 16th year, will see the participation of nine male, female and mixed choirs from Belgium, Latvia, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, Colombia and Malta. These choirs will be competing to emerge as the winners of this prestigious international festival. There are various trophies to be won as well as E10,000 in cash prizes. The first prize for the winning choir is E5,000.

The performance dates and times of this year’s festival are as follows: Tuesday, 9 November: first semi-final night; Wednesday, 10 November: second semi-final night; Thursday 11 November: third semi-final night; Friday 12 November: final night.

All performances start at 7.30pm and end at around 10pm, with the final night ending at around 11 pm.

There will be a musical entertainment break each evening, where Maltese artistes will entertain the audience. Special guest artistes include the Daphne Lungaro Folklore Group, harpist Caroline Calleja and Flautist Silvio Zammit, the Joseph Vella Saxophone Quartet and Moods String Quartet.

Tickets will be available from the ticket booth at City Gate, Valletta from Saturday until Friday, 12 November from 10am to 1pm and 4.30 to 6pm or from the entrance of the Mediterranean Conference Centre prior to each performance.

Tickets for the semi-final evenings cost Lm3, while tickets for the final night cost Lm5. A block ticket costing Lm8 entitles one to attend all the semi-finals as well as the final evening.

More information on the Malta International Choir Festival is available from the MTA’s events website: www.maltafestivals.com, by email: [email protected] or on telephone nos: 2138-1392 or 6996-073/4.