Songs of Hope is a heartfelt performance celebrating the resilience of the arts and artists, featuring leading international singers and musicians. They have come together to perform a set of beautiful songs from the classical repertoire, under the artistic direction of Malta’s Cultural Ambassador Lawrence Renes.
The performance will be televised on the 1st May on TVM at 9pm.
May also brings on the Valletta Green Festival – which will be spreading across the city – starting at City Gate and spanning towards St George’s Square, where the main activities will be taking place, between the 7th and 11th May. This year’s infiorata is designed by Zack Ritchie on the theme of ‘Zero Pollution’. One may also enjoy the Roof Garden at the Valletta Design Cluster, which is now in full bloom. The roof garden is fully accessible via a lift linking the space to the ground floor and the central courtyard of the Valletta Design Cluster and is open to the public daily from 8am to 6pm.
This is the largest edition since the festival started to be held, eight years ago.
Valletta visitors will be welcomed by a temporary garden inspired by the formal gardens of the past at Freedom Square, in front of Parliament, from the 3rd May. This City Gate Garden installation bears a classical layout that blends beautifully with Valletta’s elegant architecture and serves as an invitation to reflect on the importance of urban greening. It has been constructed using salvaged wood, a testament that abandoned materials may too be infused with a new life and purpose.
The collaborative visual arts exhibition and research project ‘fuse’ takes place in the area outside the Valletta Design Cluster (Il-Biċċerija l-Antika). Curated by Elyse Tonna, it responds to the communities surrounding the Old Abattoir building through site-specific, public art interventions by eight contemporary artists and artist collectives including Aaron Bezzina, Victor Agius, Tom van Malderen, Laura Besancon, Noah Fabri, Fatima AM and Chakib Zidi, Text Catalogue and Andrea Zerafa, Samuel Ciantar, Giola Cassar and Aprille Zammit.
Strada Stretta Concept, under the artistic direction of Prof. Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, continues with the filming and release of Loin des yeux du Monde, a performance of the Russian-born composer Olga Vassileva and French author Anna Civert of their cycle collaboration of 30 songs. In the same month, one of Malta’s leading jazz musicians Sandro Zerafa, together with two different ensembles – a duo and trio – will present ‘Last Night When We Were Young’, on the 28th and 29th May at The Splendid, at 8pm. In this project, which is supported by Arts Council Malta, free masterclasses will be delivered.
The photography project TNAX continues with Martin Agius’ photo ‘Believers’. The photo stems from his fascination with the contrasts created by the shoes left outside St James’ Church in Valletta and the clothing worn by Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees who attend mass on Sunday.
