The Academy of Sacred Music Francesco Azopardi, recently launched by the Maltese Church, is organising various courses for people involved in liturgical choral singing and Church music ministry and animation. The courses are offered in collaboration with the Pastoral Formation Institute.

The courses for the current academic year include Animating Liturgy, starting in November; The Organ in the Liturgy and the Christian songwriting programme Ħarbex, both starting in February 2025; and Singing during Liturgy for Priests, starting in May 2025.

In February, the academy also introduces an intensive Choral Singing for the Liturgy course aimed at children aged seven to 14. This programme will prepare participants to sing in a liturgical choir through sessions in choir practice, vocal lessons and music theory, and will lead to a VET Level 3 certificate accredited by the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority.

The recently launched local academy aims to provide professional training for quality Church music ministry, opportunities for students to join the choirs and musicians of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Malta, and to transmit and strengthen the Catholic faith through sacred music.

It collaborates with renowned international institutions in the field of sacred choral music such as the Cappella Musicale del Duomo di Milano – Europe’s oldest cathedral choir – and Accademia AERCO (Associazione Emiliano-Romagnola Cori) that encompasses 246 associated choirs from Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.

The academy is named after Maltese composer and pedagogue Francesco Azopardi (1748-1809), who, after studying in Naples, served as Maestro di Cappella at the Mdina Cathedral and St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta. Through his musical treatise Il musico pratico, he was among the first to place Malta on the international music map.

Interested applicants can find more information at asm.mt.