The National Orchestra is celebrating its 10th anniversary in style; its next season is packed with grand concerts, trips abroad and collaboration with international stars such as Richard Clayderman and the Royal Choral Society of London.

The 2007-2008 season was unveiled by orchestra chairman Lino Attard, after resident conductor Michael Laus paid tribute to Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti following his death yesterday.

Mr Attard said this was the third consecutive launch of the orchestra’s season at its premises. The National Orchestra, said Mr Attard, has in the past improved its profile thanks to its dedication and has become a performer in its own right. He went over the 2006-2007 season highlights, in which the orchestra accompanied famed tenors Andrea Bocelli and José Carreras as well as a number of singers from the Metropolitan Opera House of New York.

Mro Laus delved deeper into the coming season that will see a renewed collaboration between the National Orchestra and the Teatro Borgatti of Cento, Italy after last year’s successful representation of Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff during the BOV Opera Festival at the Manoel Theatre. The orchestra will next year team up with its Italian partners to stage Gioacchino Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Manoel as well as in Lugano.

The orchestra’s own record label, Orkestra Nazzjonali Live will release two recordings; a recording of Paolino Vassallo’s Messa da Requiem under the baton of Mro Christopher Muscat, the orchestra’s general manager, and a recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Triple Concerto as well as Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Italian Capriccio performed by the National Orchestra on January 2006 under the baton of Mro Laus.

The maestro also spoke about the orchestra’s involvement in the EUROMED Festival for Composers finals that will be held on 15 December at the Manoel Theatre.

Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech praised the orchestra for becoming a staple component of the local artistic scene. This, said the minister, reflected the orchestra’s professionalism, dedication and its labour of love. He also commended the orchestra for promoting the work of Maltese composers both locally and abroad through its concerts and record releases.

Dr Zammit Dimech praised Mro Muscat for his arrangement of the national anthem that was played on Thursday by the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini directed by Riccardo Muti.

Prior to the press conference, a section of the orchestra played Charles Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette, which has been immortalised by the of the popular 50s TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

It was performed by Fiorella Camilleri on the flute, Anne Lofgren on the oboe, Mario Micallef on the bassoon, clarinetists Tony Galea and Joe Camilleri and Emanuel and Alfred Spagnol on the French horn.