Valletta will be the European Cultural City for 2018 and various activities are being discussed and planned for this special year. The established talented Ruben Zahra composed a new piece for this special nomination. It is for choir in SATB accompanied by percussion.
The piece is entitled ‘Vrbe Nova’ and brings along a very ambitious project. Mr. Zahra chose Schola Cantorum Jubilate to record this piece which will eventually give a start to an online community choir project. The recording was held at Lito’s Place Recording Studio in Floriana earlier in June.
The lyrics talk about the ‘Vrbe Nova’, the new city - Valletta - built right after the Siege of Malta in 1565. The St. John’s Order founded the new city of the Xiberras peninsula. The foundation stone was laid by the Grandmaster of the Order, Jean Parisot de Valette on 28th March 1566 at the Our Lady of Victories Church.
The project aims in developing into a music/video-art projection featuring choirs from all over Europe. Each chorister will record his/her own part via webcam technology and eventually it will be mixed and edited to create one massive virtual choir.
To officially launch this project, a special attraction will take place during the upcoming Notte Bianca on Saturday 5th October. It will consist of an architectural projection together with live-performance at Auberge de Castille.
For more details about the project visit the website: http://www.vrbenova.eu/
