The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra Concert Series kicks off with a concert at Teatru Manoel on Friday, 31 October. The concert will be conducted by internationally acclaimed French conductor Jean Marc Burfin, featuring Maltese pianist Charlene Farrugia.  Praised by musicians, audiences and music critics as an "enfant terrible of Maltese piano", Ms Farrugia is one of the best pianists to have ever emerged from Malta. At the age of 13, Charlene was the youngest soloist to ever perform with the National Orchestra of Malta at the Manoel Theatre. Since then, she has been a regular soloist with the orchestra, her most recent performance being Rachmaninov's 4th Piano concerto which she performed under the baton of Brian Schembri to excellent press reviews.Jean Marc Burfin is the artistic and musical director of the Lisbon Academy Metropolitan Orchestra and lecturer at the National Superior Orchestra Academy of Lisbon. Finalist of the Besançon International Competition and winner of the Moscow Radio-Television Symphonic Orchestra prize, Mro Burfin has conducted prestigious orchestras such as the Orchestra of Paris, the Concerts Colonne Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Brandenburg and the St Petersburg Capella Orchestra, among others.The programme opens with Bartok's Hungarian Sketches which in a letter to his mother dated 15 August 1931, the composer himself described as "pleasant, not too difficult to perform and which will probably be played and broadcast often". He had indeed predicted the fate of his work! The second work in the programme is Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. The work was commisioned by Paul Wittgenstein who had lost his right arm in the first months of the 1914 war. Ravel was enchanted, and rose to the challenge writing for one hand as though it were three! The final piece to be performed is Dvorak's cheerful and optimistic Symphony No 8, which was composed in 1889 on the occasion of his election to the Bohemian Academy of Science, Literature and Arts. The concert starts at 8pm. There are discounted seats for students and kartanzjan holders, with a pre-concert talk at 7.15pm free for ticket holders. 
To book log onto www.teatrumanoel.com.mt, [email protected] or phone on 2124 6389. For further information visit www.maltaorchestra.com