Dr Anna Borg Cardona will deliver a talk about music and musical instruments of the Maltese Islands.

Sound or music have always accompanied us through life’s cycle, through festivities and rituals, joys and sorrows. Weddings were already given great importance in medieval Malta and Gozo. We also find that particular instruments have long been associated with specific times of year, primarily with Christmas, Carnival and Holy Week. This presentation will be sharing some thoughts on the instruments, musicians and music of the Maltese people, with special focus on Gozo.

Anna Borg Cardona, Ph.D Music (Southampton), focuses her research on Malta’s music history and musical instruments. Author of several books, among which Musical Instruments of the Maltese Islands – History, Folkways and Traditions (2014), and recently Musical Culture and the chitarraro Mattheo Morales in Seventeenth -century Malta (2022). Author of articles in local and International Journals, contributor to The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, ed L. Libin (2014). Curator of FPM Exhibition Music in Malta from Prehistory to Vinyl (2019) and co-editor of its catalogue publication; co-curator of In Harmony – Folk music in Gozo as part of the Gaulitana Festival (2023). Founder of the Ġukulari Ensemble (2002).