In 2018, Malta’s capital Valletta was declared Europe’s capital of culture. To mark this event, the European Foundation for Support of Culture held a series of major projects – “Days of Maltese Music” all around the world.
Between 31 May and 3 June 2019, concerts were held as part of the Days of Maltese Music in Kazakhstan, at Nur-Sultan’s best musical venues, including the Zhambyl Zhabaev Concert Hall (Kazakh National University of Arts). Eminent Maltese and Kazakh musicians shared the stage.
The Days were inaugurated on 30 May with a concert featuring Zhibek Musurgalieva (violin), recipient of the Presidential Cup won at Kazakhstan’s 20th Shabyt International Festival of Creative Youth Competition; she was supported by the Eurasian Symphony Orchestra conducted by famous Maltese conductor Alexei Galea Cavallazzi, graduate of Oxford University and the Moscow State Conservatory.
The cultural project also featured performances by Eurovision Young Musicians contest in Malta winner Bernice Sammut Attard (piano) and concertmaster of the trombone section of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra Roderick Bugeja.
During the Days of Maltese Music in Kazakhstan, true connoisseurs of classical music were treated to works by such Maltese composers as Joseph Vella, Charles Camilleri, Karl Fiorini, Alexey Shor and Albert Garcia, and to works of famous European composers such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Johannes Brahms, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov and Franz Schubert.
All the performances of the project were extensively covered by the national and international media, including popular TV and radio stations.