Watch: All the world’s a stage, including this Senglea home's living room

A Senglea resident has converted the ground floor of his house into a theatre to provide a new performance and rehearsal space for free to young musicians.

Music enthusiast Khoen Liem moved to the area around 10 years ago after a successful engineering career that took him across Europe.

But when the Dutch Indonesian national retired, he moved to Malta and decided to turn his hand to something new, embracing his passion for the arts by turning part of his home into a concert venue with space for an audience of 40 people.

“The concept of this tiny theatre is that this is like a living room, like a salon,” said Liem, explaining that hundreds of years ago, classical music was written to be performed in such spaces.

“A lot of these pieces were written to be performed in a living room,” he told Times of Malta from the ground floor of his home.

The theatre, featuring exposed traditional Maltese stone walls, bookshelves and soft furnishings is free for performers to use. There is no charge for entry, but audience members are asked to contribute to the artist.

There are two grand pianos – one more suited to classical performances, the other to jazz – and state-of-the-art lighting.

Liem has used rugs and cushions to provide the best acoustics while leaving the historic walls untouched: “I wanted to preserve as much as possible the history of the room.”

He explained that the space had been used by a greengrocer for decades but faced with rising costs, the store owner decided to close shop in 2023, leaving Liem free to buy the bottom floor and link to the townhouse that had been separated for around 130 years.

The property was built around 450 years ago, but in 1890 was separated into two, with one side of the family turning the ground floor into a taverna before it was later used as a greengrocer, he said.

Asked what drives him, Liem said, “If I can just help a little bit by creating a venue where young musicians can have the use of a reasonably decent piano, then I think that is a step in the right way”.

And the impresario’s efforts have found a dedicated following, with audience members regularly attending to watch the concerts taking place.

“The reaction was quite positive – today we have a full house again,” he said, hours ahead of a recital by Serbian pianist Tea Stojsic, who said she was “blown away” by what Liem has created.

“To actually put so much love and care and interest into this space, and the general idea of what this space represents, I’m really impressed,” she said. “Him giving the space to culture is phenomenal.”

Works are under way to turn the basement into a recording studio.

Liem announces performances on his private Facebook account and the first 40 to respond are welcomed into his home.

And while the theatre is now up and running, having already hosted around half a dozen performances, Liem is not finished yet and is busy converting the basement level under the theatre into a recording studio.

He explained that a friend donated recording equipment to the project, and said he even intends to use an old well shaft running through the basement as an acoustic chamber providing natural reverb for vocal recordings.

“It’s not quite finished yet, but we are almost there,” said Liem.

Emphasising the importance of the theatre being in Senglea, he explained that while researching the area he had discovered the city had once been home to many artists and musicians, who left the area amid the falling bombs of World War II. 

“I think there is a need for something like this to happen... And I think having a little bit more cultural events and sites in Senglea actually just reflects how it was,” he said.