Top International Artists at ISO Festival

Kicking off on Friday 28 April and presenting a programme filled to the brim with established international artists, this edition of the International Spring Orchestra Festival (ISO Festival) is set to raise the bar for editions to come.

Kicking off the week will be Italian violinist Lorenzo Meraviglia on the Omobono Stradivari 1730 and pianist Andrea Carcano in the Uno Stradivari per la Gente concert at Palazzo Pereira. The same Palazzo will then welcome the Baltic Neopolis Quartet on Thursday 4th May. The string quartet consisting of the leaders of the Baltic Neopolis Orchestra (two violins, a viola and a cello) will perform contemporary works by Maltese composers Veronique Vella, Albert Garzia and Christopher Muscat, among others.

Multi-award winning violinist Edward Zienkowski will be performing works for violin and piano by Mozart, Debussy and Franck at the Friday 5 May concert taking place at the National Museum of Archeology. He’ll be joined on stage by the gifted Maltese pianist Charlene Farrugia, who is carving out an international career with her undisputed talent. The day after, in fact, she’ll be playing at the same venue as part of the Schwingungen Trio Wien together with violinist Sanghee Cheong and Kropfitsch.

Sunday 7 May, the French cello quartet Quatre de Pique will perform Italian and French cello repertoire, while the piano and vocal recital on Monday 8 May will see baritone Ken Scicluna and pianist Sarah Vella interpret works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Chopin and Verdi among others at the Robert Samut Hall in Floriana. The Festival will close with Beethoven’s majestic 9th ‘Choral’ Symphony in a concert at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.

Following every concert, audiences can also meet the organisers and artists for drinks and dinner at Michael’s on Archbishop Street, Valletta.

The ISO Festival is supported by The Ministry for Finance, the 2017 Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU, the ADRC Trust, Malta Enterprise, the Central Bank of Malta, the Ministry for Education and Employment, the Office of the Prime Minister, Griscti Advocates & Associates, and the French Embassy. cellist Stefan

Free entrance for children 15 years and under while students and senior citizens are entitled to 50% discount. For more information, please visit www.iso-festival.com. For ticket reservations, please visit: www.teatrumanoel.com.mt or call on 2124 6389.