The Jubilate Deo Choir will be performing its annual Christmas Concert on Thursday 21 December at the Parish Church in Naxxar. Under the direction of its music director Christopher Muscat and together with organist Ronald Camilleri who will play the historic 1775 Santucci organ, the Jubilate Deo Choir will perform a varied programme of works by Camille Saint-Saens, David Willcocks, John Rutter and Mykola Leontovych among others. Furthermore, as homage to 89-year-old Naxxar composer Joseph Fenech, the choir will sing two excerpts from Fenech’s Messa Pastorale. Christmas plain chants will also feature in this concert sung by the choir’s own Cappella Gregoriana.
This year’s concert is being held in aid of the Richmond Foundation. The Richmond Foundation aims to help persons with mental health problems by providing residential and day, community-based rehabilitation facilities, by providing opportunities for housing and assisting them to remain in the community and to live as full a life as possible. The Richmond Foundation also provides opportunities for training, employment and support at the work-place and promotes the development of self-help in the field of mental health while assisting in the promotion of good mental health within the general public.
The popularity of the Jubilate Deo Choir’s Christmas Concert is increasing year after year and this event has become an annual appointment for many – an appointment that the choir has kept since its foundation in 1974. Throughout the years the choir was led by Rev. Paul Caruana, Rev. Richard Borg and Rev. Rene Vella (who was at times assisted by Lawrence Scicluna). In June 2004 the choir was entrusted to Christopher Muscat. Since then the choir has embarked on a number of ambitious projects and has taken part in a number of extremely successful concerts, among others last year’s Christmas Concert in which the choir performed the first Malta performance of Camille Saint-Saens’ Oratorio di Natale and the recent revival performance of Paolino Vassallo’s majestic Messa da Requiem with the National Orchestra of Malta.
The concert starts at 7.30pm and admission to the concert is free. Proceeds from a collection during the concert will go in aid of the Richmond Foundation.