Following the success of the Good Causes Fund Concert last December, Tonio Fenech, parliamentary secretary in the Finance Ministry, announced that a similar concert will be organised on Saturday.
The concert is being organised in collaboration with the National Orchestra and Mr Fenech thanked all those involved for the professional manner with which the concert was being organised.
The concert will be held under the patronage of President Eddie Fenech Adami and Mrs Fenech Adami. It will be held in the courtyard of the Presidential Palace at 8pm.
Mr Fenech said it was in the interest of the Finance Ministry to assist in the organisation of such events which would further promote the country’s music culture.
The National Lotteries Good Causes Fund, which the ministry uses to fund such events, is also intended to assist anyone wishing to organise sports, educational, social or cultural events.
“Our country’s culture is invaluable and should be protected and sustained,” said Mr Fenech.
Lino Attard, chairman of the National Orchestra, said Eugen Prochác, a musician of international fame, has been invited to perform during the concert.
Mr Prochác received his elementary music education at the Bratislava Conservatory and later at the Music and Drama Academy.
He won a number of national and international competitions, including the Competition of Slovak Interpretation in 1983 and the Premio Valentino Bucchi in Rome in 1990.
Mr Prochác participated as a soloist in a number of large orchestras and famous festivals in important European centres, as well as Canada, Japan, Thailand, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates, among others. He currently works as a cello professor at the Music and Drama Academy in Bratislava.
Mr Attard also spoke about Christopher Muscat, who will be directing the National Orchestra during the concert.
Mro Muscat studied at the University of Malta and later the University of Surrey in the UK. He obtained the Master of Music degree, with a rare pass with distinction.
Among the awards he received, Muscat won the Joyce Dixey Competition in Surrey, the International Polyphonic Competition organised by the Orgeo Misericordia in Spain, with his version of the Ave Maria.
In May 2005, his prologue to Der Leiermann, composed by Franz Schubert, was performed for the first time at the Berlin Philharmonie.
Mro Muscat also formed part of a panel of judges for a number of international music competitions, including the Valentino Bucchi competition in 2005.
Mro Muscat said the concert will open with the popular music of Franz von Suppè, Light Cavalry Overture. Eugen Prochác will play Dvořák’s Rondo for cello and Orchestra and David Popper’s Hungarian Rhapsody.
The orchestra will then play two brilliant pieces – Aram Khachaturian’s Masquerage Suite and Nikolay Rimksy-Korsakov’s Cappriccio Espagnol.
Tickets for the concert may be obtained from the Finance Ministry in Old Mint Street, Valeltta (Tel. 2599-8244 or 2599-8383). A Lm5 donation will be collected on every ticket. All the funds collected will go towards the Malta Community Chest Fund.