Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1187474
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 NOVEMBER 2019 5 THIS WEEK MUSIC within a wider context and everyone is very much looking forward to it. It is our chance to sing to new audiences, and also col- laborate with foreign mu- sicians. We are also very excited to be presenting our Maltese Carols project abroad. This tour was also made possible through the Arts Council Malta – Cul- tural Export Fund. The concert will also feature work done for the Malta Carols Project. Could you tell us a little bit about it, and how that all came about? The Maltese Carols Project started off in 2016 following a conversation with a friend of mine whose dad still remem- bered old Maltese carols that he sang in his childhood. I asked her to record him sing- ing those carols, which he did. We then committed our- selves to introducing a 'new' Maltese carol every Christ- mas as part of our commit- ment to our intangible herit- age. We were also very lucky to have recorded them, since John Zammit, our source, passed away a couple of years later. This project is a tribute to his memory and lifelong commitment towards music, and we are currently intro- ducing our fourth carol. We are also continuing our research and expanding our search in order to salvage more intangible heritage. I have recently come across a small publication from the 1950s which has several Mal- tese carols, most of which are unknown, but most of which Zammit sang for us! The publication also hints at oth- er choirs that sang particular carols, and we are currently following some very excit- ing new leads. Once you start digging, the stories you un- cover reveal themselves to be quite amazing! What do you make of the local musical scene? What would you change about it? I would expand that ques- tion a little. Very often we speak of a 'music scene' or an 'arts scene' and that ap- proach unfortunately often leads to creative and cultural isolation. We are currently undergoing great social and cultural upheavals and unlike past periods of transition this is not a gradual process but a violent sweeping away or dis- tortion of the past. We can see the results in the way we are destroying our tangible heritage: horror stories of old buildings being demolished or gutted, old books being discarded, and art disappear- ing or deteriorating before our very eyes. But the worst victim is our intangible heritage, precise- ly because it is not visible. The gutting of a building, the throwing away of an old book, and the disappearance of an art object result in the eradication of our stories. Sometimes even the most insignificant annotation on a piece of paper and the con- text in which it was found can shed light on our past. On top of that is our na- tional passivity in the face of this destruction – mostly because people do not real- ise the importance of what is being lost. This is not about aesthetics – it is about our national identity. It all boils down to education, because the system gears its citizens towards economic gain, and not cultural gain. But what are we without our stories? The result is the fake exist- ences we have created for ourselves in the digital world – a world of algorithms and filters. Why like a picture of a church or a video of a song when you can go and physi- cally be in that space and lis- ten to that music live? Many people think of change as being a govern- ment policy or a 'roadmap'. It isn't. Change is us: telling our stories, and creating new ones together – expanding on the narrative we have in- herited from our ancestors. So I will not speak of change as a future hope but rather as the present in action: salvag- ing stories, retelling them, and expanding them. What's next for you? Well, this is our anniversary season so we have an exciting programme ahead of us. Our Lenten concert will be ex- ploring the idea of a roaming performance – a choral pil- grimage where we invite the audience to join us on a med- itative journey across several beautiful spaces. Without divulging too much informa- tion all I can say is that it will happen in Valletta on April 4, 2020. Our end of season concert in June 2020 will also be a special one being held in collaboration with Heritage Malta. This time we will be exploring music and food… but more about that later on! Cappella Sanctae Ca- tharinae's 10th anniversary Gaudate concert will be tak- ing place on December 7 at the Parish Church of the As- sumption in Gudja, 7.30pm. I will not speak of change as a future hope but rather as the present in action: salvaging stories, retelling them, and expanding them