Concert to cap visit of Maltese composer Joseph Vella to campus

5:21 p.m., May 5, 2016--The University of Delaware Department of Music’s New Music Delaware concert series will highlight the music of the leading composer of Malta, Joseph Vella, in a special program on Saturday, May 7.

Malta, who has held the positions of composer-in-residence with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and professor of music at the University of Malta, has gained international renown as a conductor of orchestral music and operas. In consideration of his significant contributions to the arts throughout Europe, Vella recently received the Cavalliere dell' Ordine della Stella d'Italia, presented to him by the president of the Republic of Italy. 

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The May 7 chamber music concert, scheduled at 3 p.m. in the Gore Recital Hall of the Roselle Center for the Arts, will feature Department of Music faculty and guest artists performing five chamber works written by Vella, as well as an interview with the composer by James Allen Anderson, orchestral conductor at UD.

Chamber works will include a work for clarinet and piano, a woodwind quintet, a work for soprano and piano (with text in Maltese), a work for solo horn and a trio for violin, horn and piano. 

Tickets for this concert, which will be available at the door, are $15 for adults, $10 for UD faculty, staff, alumni and seniors and $5 for students. Only cash or check will be accepted. 

In addition to the May 7 chamber music concert, the University of Delaware’s Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Anderson, will premiere Vella’s Concerto Grosso for harp, harpsichord, piano and orchestra. This performance is scheduled at 8 p.m., Friday, May 6, in the Puglisi Orchestra Hall in the Roselle Center for the Arts. 

Advance tickets for May 6 concert are available through the REP box office, and if available, will be on sale at the door. Prices are $15 for adults, $10 for UD faculty, staff, alumni and seniors and $5 for students. 

Throughout this week Vella has been in residence at the University, working with UD student composers and speaking with UD music students and faculty not only about his music and the music of Malta, but the fascinating, extremely rich, ancient history of the islands of Malta.