Positioned between Southern Europe and North Africa, Malta has long been an artistic crucible that forms one of the Mediterranean’s most significant cultural crossroads. With its intense pianistic colours, Charles Camilleri’s African Dreams explores that continent’s native rhythms and melodic lines, while Carmelo Pace and Carlo Diacono look towards the worlds of Liszt and Chopin. Josie Mallia Pulvirenti’s rarely heard Impressione sinfonica is a concert masterpiece of virtuosic majesty, steeped in the piano’s Golden Age. Award-winning Maltese pianist, Charlene Farrugia, has done extensive research into the life and work of composers from her homeland.

Maltese pianist Charlene Farrugia studied with Dolores Amodio and Diana Ketler at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was subsequently mentored by Boris Petrushansky for several years. Farrugia gained her doctorate in performance under Kenneth Hamilton with a thesis on piano repertory for the left hand. In 2018 she received Malta’s International Achievement Award, and in 2020 she was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of her contribution to the music profession. An ambassador of EMMA for Peace (Euro Mediterranean Music Academy), under the auspices of UNESCO, she is currently associate professor of piano at the Academy of Music of the Juraj Dobrila University in Pula, Croatia. She has toured widely, with engagements taking her throughout Europe to North America and the Far East.