Maltese composer Kristian Schembri has been awarded the 2021 Joseph Vella Award.
Established in 2018 by Jennifer Margaret Barker, the head of the composition department at the University of Delaware (UD), US, the award celebrates the late Gozitan composer’s extraordinary career, musical legacy and warm and affable character.
The recipient of the award must create an outstanding portfolio of compositions during their programme of study at the University of Delaware and also demonstrate great humanity and kindness of spirit to the community.
Schembri began his studies at the University of Delaware in August 2019 and has recently graduated with a Master of Music degree in composition with the highest honours. He has achieved significant accomplishments in the US. In his first semester, he won the 2019 UD Symphony Orchestra Composition competition with his symphonic opus Íthos. This same work won a call for scores by the US label Ablaze records, and earlier this month it was recorded by the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra of the Czech Republic under the baton of British conductor Mikel Toms.
Schembri is also a current finalist in the American Prize for Composition with his new musical setting of the Marian prayer Regina Coeli. He also pursued both orchestral and wind-ensemble-conducting studies at UD and, in 2020, he was appointed assistant conductor of the UD Symphony Orchestra.
He was also an active member of the percussion studio at UD, studying with Gene Koshinski and Tim Broscious of the world-renowned Quey Percussion Duo. The Maltese composer also studied marimba with acclaimed Puerto Rican marimbaist Orlando Cotto and was a member of the graduate percussion ensemble and served as principal percussionist of the UD Wind Ensemble, with whom he performed at the 2020 CBDNA conference at Temple University, Philadelphia.
Schembri was a teaching assistant for the theory department and was responsible for teaching the Fundamentals of Music course to undergraduate students at UD. Just prior to graduation, he composed and wrote the libretto for his socio-political micro-opera Last Days. This opera was performed in concert format in April 2021. The fully-staged production will take place this autumn in Delaware.
The Maltese composer has also just been invited to become a member of the national American honours society for music, Pi Kappa Lambda. The society’s objective is to recognise and encourage those individuals with the highest level of musical achievement and academic scholarship.
Schembri has been offered a scholarship for doctoral studies in composition by the prestigious American conservatory the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), founded in 1920 by esteemed composer Ernest Bloch. He will commence his studies at CIM in August with distinguished composer Keith Fitch.
Meanwhile, he has kept busy with many projects including collaborating with his partner Aiveen Gallagher, an international award-winning violist. His composition for viola and string orchestra, Echoes of Shenandoah was performed by Gallagher and featured at the 2021 Virginia String Teachers Association Conference.
Schembri also had two works virtually premiered by the New Music Concert Series at UD. He has also been entrusted with the digital engraving of two oratorios by Joseph Vella which will be performed later this year.
As international travel is still limited, Schembri will remain in the US for the summer months and will attend the Atlantic Music Festival where he will have the premiere of a new work and the opportunity to study with composition professors from Yale University, The Juilliard School and The Manhattan School of Music.
Schembri is grateful for the support of his family and to the BOV Joseph Calleja Foundation and the Janatha Stubbs Foundation.