Schola Cantorum Jubilate was asked to hold a private concert for the English Delegation which visited the island of Gozo. The 60 delegates from different counties are members of the English Speaking Union. Their visit marked the formation of the English Speaking Union of Malta. It is surely another effort to encourage good spoken and written English. Lord Watson of Richmond, who is a well known broadcaster, politician and advertising executive, was present together with other distinguished guests. The concert was held at the Basilica of Maria Bambina in Xagħra at 3.30pm. The choir performed ‘O Sacrum Convivium’ (Bartolucci), ‘Sicut Cervus’ (Palestrina), ‘Jesu Dulcis Memoria’ (Portelli) and ‘Tini ‘l Ħlewwa’ (Caruana). As encore, the choir performed ‘Alleluia’ by Gabrieli. Those present remained surprise with the choir’s timbre and professionalism. After the short recital, the choristers met the delegation which had words of praise for both the choir and the Basilica. The fact that the choir is composed of youths impressed them a lot. They all talked how committed the members are on realizing that the majority are still university students with loads of study to do in this period of the year. They asked for the choir’s recordings which they bought so as to be able to listen to further polyphonic interpretations.
