The Gaulitanus Choir’s three up-and-coming soloists – Patricia Buttigieg, Stephanie Portelli and Annabelle Zammit – accompanied by the choir’s musical and artistic director, Colin Attard, have returned from a successful concert-tour in Florence, Italy.

The first concert was held at the Sala Consiliare ‘Orazio Barberi’ in Scandicci and was organised by the Centro dell’Arte Vito Frazzi as part of the organisation’s 2015-2016 concert season. The concert was very well-attended and the audience included Vito Frazzi president Fortunato Della Guerra and artistic director Giuseppe Fricelli. The musicians acknowledged the audience’s enthusiastic response with a numbers of encores.

Operatic works by Mozart and Verdi, chamber arias by Verdi, Puccini, Bellini and Donizetti, as well as works by composers Colin Attard, Nicolo Isouard and Carmelo Pace, were performed.

On Sunday afternoon, a sacred concert was held at San Marco’s Basilica in central Florence. This was organised by the Associazione Culturale ‘Beato Angelico per il Rinascimento’. Works by Pergolesi, Stradella, Faure and Attard were performed. After the concert, the artists animated the Messa degli Artisti celebrated by the Beato Angelico’s director Padre Alfonso Fressola. These events were also featured on Toscana Oggi.

The musicians acknowledged the audience’s enthusiastic response with a numbers of encores

Florence’s renowned concert venue, St Mark’s English Church, was the venue for the last concert, which featured a secular repertoire quite similar to the one given in Scandicci, but also including works by Sullivan, Novello and Loewe. The mostly English-speaking audience was led by St Mark’s choirmaster, Oliver Bowes, who was also responsible for co-ordinating the event.

During the concert at St Mark’s, Albert Storace introduced and concluded the concert, his words shedding some light on the Gozitan and Maltese musical scene.

The project was another great opportunity for the three young sopranos to perform on the international platform, following their highly successful participation in the 17th edition of the Rencontres Musicales de Mediterranee held in Corsica, France, last November.