It was a great privilege to visit Malta last month and have my music embraced with such enthusiasm by two wonderfully devoted young musicians – concert organiser and fellow composer Mariella Cassar, and pianist Alexei Galea. Mariella’s energy extended not only to ensuring that every detail of the two concerts – at St George’s Basilica in Gozo and the Sala Isouard of the Manoel Theatre in Valletta – had been covered, but also to rehearsing and supervising no fewer than seven of her own compositions. Alexei, in addition to spending weeks studying my piece (to the point where he could play this demanding score from memory), also prepared a solo repertoire for the whole first half of the evening and accompanied at several points in the second.

My impression, as a first time visitor to the islands, is that I was witnessing here something quite rare, of considerable significance, and something that is urgently in need of further support, namely the attempt to establish and promote contemporary music in Malta at a time when public tastes and commercial interests have largely turned their back. I believe we should never forget that the new music of today is the classical music of tomorrow, and without new composers writing with a contemporary awareness, the whole of the classical music scene can only fade into a museum of tired and irrelevant ditties.

The Manoel Theatre should be lauded therefore for its excellent work in supporting venture, and I would urge it to capitalise on the encouraging attendance figures: perhaps lower the charge and broaden the promotion to attract a wider demographic, consider extending its facilities to allow performers a green room to prepare mentally for the performance, and ensure that there are no conflicting events taking place near enough to interfere sonically with the performances.

Maltese composers, meanwhile, might take solace from this small step forward and be willing now to engage with a radical musical language that can respond to the profound times in which we live, willing to see music as more than mere entertainment but as a crucial mode of human expression. Steeped as it is in such cultural diversity, rich as it is in such geographical beauty, and affected as it is by such overwhelming historical upheaval, Malta has the potential to become a melting pot of a refreshing, relevant and deeply moving New Music scene.

Dr Christopher Best

Reader in Music Composition University College Falmouth (Dartington Campus),

Devon

UK