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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 NOVEMBER 2023 6 ALMANAC My essentials KRIS SPITERI 46 years old, musician, musical director, composer, and occasionally a lyricist. I am mainly involved in musical theatre, and I have directed shows like Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, Mamma Mia, We Will Rock You, Matilda, Grease and I am currently working on Oliver. After graduating in music studies, I co-wrote Porn the musical which won Best New Musical at the Off West End Theatre Awards in London and was the critics' choice in Time Out London. Other theatrical shows I co-wrote include Daqsxejn Ta' Requiem Lil Leli, Paramm Paramm and Il-Qfil U l-Ħelsien Skont Manwel Dimech. I also wrote music and lyrics for Kafena's album Lukanda Propaganda, Tbissem sung by Ira Losco and Matthew James Borg, amongst other songs. I am currently working on the MADC Panto and Oliver. 4 5 1. Book 2. Film Internet / TV 4. Music 5. Place ONE thing I would like to have more on the internet and on video sharing platforms such as You Tube is the presence of great material which makes use of the Maltese language. We have im- proved but we can certainly do better. Starting from material for kids which is motivational, educational, and entertaining. In 2023 you would expect to have a website which includes Diction- ary, thesaurus, Rhyming diction- ary, Idioms, encyclopaedia, and sound files with different pronun- ciations of our native language. A strong Maltese spell checker for mobile devices would be useful too, I guess. THERE are some albums which I often return to, and it is very hard for me to imagine my life without these albums. The first one that comes to mind is Grace by Jeff Buckley. It's an album which fascinates me up to this very day. Brad Mehldau's Day is Done was on repeat for a very long time. Glenn Gould playing Bach's Well Tempered Clavier with his evocative interpre- tation of the C minor prelude and Fugue. Kubelik conducts Mahler's symphonies and Ka- rajan's Beethoven Symphonies. Bill Evan's You must believe in Spring, Bowie's Station to Sta- tion, and Joni Mitchell's Blue amongst others. ONE of my favourite plac- es on the island is Marsax- lokk. When I need to relax or spend some quiet time that is always my first choice. I never get tired of London and one city I would like to visit again is Berlin. I'm a jazz music lov- er and I must have watched most, if not all, of Woody Al- len's movies so it kind of kills me that I did not manage to visit Manhattan yet. America in general is certainly on my list of places to go to. THE book I was recent- ly reading is a collection of poems called Ħuta by immanuel Mifsud. I must admit that Imma- nuel is one of my favour- ite authors. He always manages to flare up the imagination and to leave his readers want- ing for more just like a concert experience of sorts. One of the poems in this book can pretty much sum up what I am trying to describe here. I am a father of two five-year- olds and as you can imagine our TV set is not mine anymore. However, I did manage to watch some shows when Peppa Pig, Duggee and Shaun the Sheep (a guilty pleasure of mine) did not abduct telly. I highly rec- ommend the four short mov- ie adaptations of Roald Dal's stories; Poison, The Swan, The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar and the Rat Catcher. I was impressed with how little the set there is but how much of the narration is told through its design. I am a big fan of Black Mirror and I cannot not men- tion Moonage Daydream being a Bowie admirer. Compiled by Laura Calleja suggestions by email lcalleja@mediatoday.com 1 This article is supported by Arts Council Malta 3 2