The renowned orchestra director Riccardo Muti is to become the honorary president of the newly set up Mediterranean Music Academy, one of the latest endeavours of the Tourism and Culture Ministry.

At a press conference at the Hotel de Russie in Rome in front of a good number of international journalists on Monday, Maestro Muti lauded the island, and its historical, geopolitical and artistic attributes as the visibly satisfied Minister Francis Zammit Dimech looked on.

In fact, it was the minister who broke the news that the Neapolitan maestro has accepted to endorse the academy, and will personally conduct a seminar between 29 August and 5 September.

Malta, said the minister, was at the centre of the Mediterranean, the point where West meets East, an ideal place where to entertain an intercultural dialogue, thus justifying the island’s place, both in history and geography.

With the setting up of a musical academy in mind, said the minister, it felt natural to turn to our Italian neighbours to seek cooperation in this endeavour, and it was an honour that Maestro Muti had accepted to become the honorary president of the academy.

The Mediterranean Musical Academy, said Dr Zammit Dimech, would be offering seminars and courses to young musicians from different cultures and nations and the opportunity to work with masters of classical music.

The first seminar on Italian Opera will be conducted by the maestro himself, and will focus on the rehearsal process of an opera production, rehearsing the orchestra, the singers and the choirs, as well as organising the representation.

Maestro Muti will be giving demonstrations while rehearsing the production of a concert version of Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale as well as a performance of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Salve Regina of Nicola Porpora

Minister Zammit Dimech said the Stabat Mater and Salve Regina will be performed at St John’s Co-Cathedral, a place which condenses the coming together of European nations through the chapels of the different Langues of the Order of St John. On the other hand, Don Pasquale will be performed at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, the Knights’ former hospital.

The seminar conducted by Maestro Muti, said Dr Zammit Dimech, would give them the courage to kick start the academy.

For his part, the Neapolitan conductor said that Don Pasquale would be performed in a place “that served as a hospital for the body, but now it is a hospital for the soul”. The academy’s destiny seemed to be bound to that of hospitals, given that it would be based at the former Naval Hospital in Kalkara.

He said he was very happy to return to the “beautiful Maltese Islands”, the pulsating heart of the Mediterranean. The maestro said when the possibility of this cooperation cropped up, he embraced it with enthusiasm, and he was looking forward to working with young musicians from all over the world in Malta. He described the islands as a meeting point for the different cultures to come together and make music in Malta.

The maestro showed he knows his Maltese artistic history pretty well, as he described the magnificence of St John’s and how he was impressed by “that absolute masterpiece”, the Beheading of St. John’s. He pointed out to his international audience that the painting was the only Caravaggio masterpiece that bore the master’s signature. Then, he moved on to describe the 17th century Manoel Theatre as “an extraordinary jewel”.

The maestro also showed he is a connoisseur of Gozo and its natural beauty, and said that Maltese, like the Southern Italians, were temperamental and an Italian could also feel at home in Malta, even because the Maltese speak Italian fluently.

Maestro Muti said that during the seminar, he would show the participants how to interpret work in today’s taste while respecting the composer’s work. He also announced that the following seminars and courses that will be held in October 2008 and November 2009 would be conducted by famous instrumentalists from world renowned orchestras such as the Vienna and the Berlin Philharmonics who have accepted the invitation with enthusiasm.

On Sunday, Maestro Muti conducted Verdi’s Requiem at the Quirinale, the Italian Presidential palace, which was preceded by a Lebanese chant performed by Sister Marie Keyrouz.