Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1497281
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 APRIL 2023 8 ALMANAC My essentials MARK AGIUS 52, composer, conductor, and CEO/ Chair of Medina Foundation for Music I am passionate about music of course and love working and performing with my orchestra; however, I also enjoy writing, photography and practice Historic European Martial Arts (HEMA), specializing in rapier fencing. I am also Grand Prior of Malta of the Sovereign Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem. 1 4 5 1. Book 2. Film 3. Internet 4. Music 5. Place AGAIN, not much time for this sort of stuff and social media is something I tend to keep away from as a general rule. One blog I came across quite accidentally and do look at once in a while is Sci- ence of People. Essentially it looks into career advice, psy- chological research, person- ality tests, entrepreneurship, body language and more, delivered in brief humorous articles. Easy reading and in- formative at the same time. I would have to say Christo- pher Tin, a relatively young, American composer whose work I came across a couple of years ago and had the pleas- ure of corresponding with. His work is primarily orchestral and choral, often with a world music influence, and primarily for video games and film. He is probably best known for his choral piece Baba Yetu from the video game Civilization IV, which in 2011 became the first piece of video game mu- sic to win a Grammy Award and can be found in his first album Calling All Dawns and which, incidentally, introduced me to his music. Other albums include The Drop That Con- tained the Sea, To Shiver the Sky and The Lost Birds. Defi- nitely worth a listen. WHILE I cannot say it is my favourite place to have visit- ed, I must say it is one which left a very deep impact. I vis- ited Auschwitz and Birkenau in 2018 and the emotion I felt there led to my most recent composition for orchestra, choir, solo voices and solo vi- olin, Lullaby for Birkenau – A Mass for Peace, which was premiered at St Paul's Met- ropolitan Cathedral, Mdina, in October 2022. We are cur- rently in discussions to have the work performed in the concentration camp itself in 2025, which is the 80th Anni- versary from the liberation of Auschwitz – Birkenau by the allied forces. PAULO Coelho's 'The Al- chemist' is a book that I have gone back to time and time again since I first read it about ten years ago. At face value it is the story of a shepherd who travels to Egypt in pursuit of a treasure, however it is rich in allegory with the central theme being the following of one's dreams and fulfilling one's destiny – metaphorically the turning of lead into gold. I personally consider life to be an on-going journey of growth and self-discovery, so I find that it resonates strongly with my core beliefs and values and going back to it reminds me that the journey is just as im- portant as the destination. I don't have much time to watch tv, however one film I did enjoy recently was Glass Onion, starring Daniel Craig. It is a sequel to Knives Out (2019), a whodunnit where the detective Benoit Blanc follows up the case of a mystery mur- der weekend on a Greek is- land, planned by a millionaire for his friends, which literally takes a deadly turn. Nothing deep but well written and an- all-star cast which makes for a relaxing and entertaining evening, which is what I would need if I find the time! 3 2