Treasures from Malta

Dr Joan Abela is synonymous with archives. She is a well published historian who achieved distinction throughout her academic journey and now in turn fires up her students with enthusiasm for the past. She has wowed us with her many discoveries, her incredible, infectious passion for the past but most of all her almost militant attitude to combat neglect and defend archives and their collections with extraordinary zeal. Her conviction about preserving at all costs, in the face of a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to paper heritage, has grown and grown. Several have joined her crusade and she now counts on a team of volunteers and professionals who follow a common ideal that she has set. For her commitment to saving archives and preserving collections she has been honoured by the State and her name has become a household name thanks to her constantly finding ways to keep paper heritage in the news. 

Nico Conti is a ceramic artist who is working clay in exciting, radical new ways. From his undergraduate days at MCAST in Malta to finishing top of his class at the Royal College of Art in 2019, he has continually excelled. In the short space of a few years he has won numerous prestigious awards and scholarships. He is represented by major galleries and has already  exhibited in craft fairs where his work was singled out for praise. His name is now synonymous with 3d printing, but his work is rooted in tradition and Malta’s historical legacy, producing  incredibly beautiful porcelain vessels that have this timeless, calm quality to them and an elegance that is classical.   

Daniel Cilia is one of Malta’s foremost photographers. His artistry is much admired, going to great lengths not only to record what might soon disappear, but making seemingly impossible photographs that continuously elicit awe and wonder from his ever growing fan base. He is a Gozitan with a deep love for his birth island. Through his photography, and, it must be said, incessant curiosity he has made several discoveries and proposed theories about cultural conundrums. He has also increasingly turned his rightful indignation at the destruction of old buildings into activism, using his great skills in photography and digital art to show up the apologists and would-be destroyers. He has received numerous awards for his photography work both locally and abroad and has exhibited widely. He is also a book designer sometimes combining both his photography and his design skills in the production of a book. He has photographed for and designed a remarkable 136 books, with more in the works! 

Rug and interiors designer Suzanne Sharp has had a very colourful career! Together with her husband, Christopher, she has risen to become one of the leading exponents in rug design internationally. Her roots are Maltese, and indeed the first shop that set the couple on their incredibly successful design path, was a shop they opened in Sliema. Since then they have never looked back, establishing the Rug Company and growing their business in several areas. From retailing traditional oriental rugs, they made the leap into designing artistic high-end carpets, as well as commissioning big name international artists and designers and expanding into tapestry design and more. Suzanne Sharp has in recent years turned increasingly to interior design, furniture and wallpaper design. She has also returned to her roots, turning a historic building into a unique hotel that is slated to open in 2023 in Attard, Malta.  

Timmy Gambin is a maritime archaeologist and an associate professor at the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta. His interest is specifically in wrecks that lie deep below Maltese waters - whether they are ancient or date to World War II you can be sure he has either discovered them or knows all there is to know about them. He has directed several underwater surveys not only in Maltese waters but also in Spain, Italy, Croatia and other parts of the Mediterranean but his passion remains the World War II period and he has indulged it by discovering and exploring wrecks of submarines, ships and aircraft from this time period. But perhaps his most exciting project to date is the ongoing excavation of the Phoenician shipwreck off Xlendi, Gozo which is currently considered the oldest shipwreck in the Central Mediterranean and for which, together with his team, he has pioneered new methodologies for excavating a wreck at a depth of over 100 meters, which is likely a world record. 

Matty Cremona is an accomplished cook and food history writer. She has written four books and numerous articles about the history of food and the context of dining in Malta. Her knowledge of Malta’s food history, honed through years of research both in the archives and in her kitchen, has revealed new information and translated these old writings into modern-day doable recipes. The interest in food, what it means and how we prepared and ate it in the past, is universal. But Matty Cremona takes this interest to a new dimension. Her excitement at her subject enthuses all who listen to her. For those of us lucky enough to have actually tasted the food she prepares based on recipes she has discovered in the archives, the experience is exceptional. For those who cannot partake of her dishes, Matty’s books gently guide us on forays into the past while advising us how to recreate these recipes with ingredients easily at hand. 

Anna Borg Cardona is a musician and music researcher whose eyes fire up with incredible excitement whenever she talks about the discoveries she keeps making in our many rich historic archives here in Malta. Through the decades she has discovered musicians and musical instrument makers from the past, she has uncovered and played long forgotten sheet music, and pieced together much of Malta’s rich ethnographic music history. She has lectured extensively at the University and delivered many public presentations, she has formed a musical ensemble to promote Malta’s musical heritage both locally and in performances overseas, and has published books on Maltese music history that have become landmark studies in the discipline. She has also curated exhibitions on musical instruments the most recent being the major Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti exhibition ‘Music in Malta: From Prehistory to Vinyl’ held in 2019 as well as publishing myriad articles, papers and studies that continue to build on our previously sketchy knowledge of the musical legacy of Malta. 

An excerpt from the following track can be heard in the podcast: 

‘Ghana Melody’ played by the Ġukulari Ensemble, 2005 from the CD – Doqqli Daqqa! Traditional Music of the Maltese Islands. Copyright:  Anna Borg Cardona

Prof. Joe Friggieri is a philosopher, a playwright, a theatre director, a poet and an author, not to mention a person who has been an influencer in the arts in Malta from decades before an influencer became ‘a thing’. He has packed all of this into a very industrious lifetime that commenced its academic trajectory with Ph.D.s from both Milan and Oxford, followed by a professorship at the University of Malta. On a parallel with his academic career, he has written and directed numerous plays, has penned several poems and short stories in Maltese, which have been translated into foreign languages, and have won a plethora of literary awards. He has presented and produced many radio and tv programmes with his characteristic lucid and accessible style bringing learned discussions ranging from history to language to philosophy to a wide audience in a most engaging way. For his many contributions to art and culture in Malta he has been honoured by the Maltese state and has been entrusted with a number of key positions related to culture due to his deep commitment to the arts.   

Wayne Marshall is a conductor, pianist and organist of great international repute. He has performed widely in all of the principal concert halls and opera houses around the world, both as conductor and pianist, and sometimes simultaneously ! He is celebrated for his interpretation of Gershwin and Bernstein and other 20th century composers however his repertoire is actually far greater than that. His achievements have earned him numerous plaudits and earlier this year he was honoured with an OBE (that is an Officer of the British Empire) in Her Majesty The Queen’s New Year’s Honours list. 


Excerpts from the following music that you will hear throughout the podcast were played and recorded by Wayne Marshall: 

An Improvisation on The Lonely Goatherd

Toccata Latino Improvisee

Prelude in A Minor BWV 543 by J S Bach

In this podcast episode, we meet a knight!  Frà John Edward Critien is a professed member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the only Maltese to have ever been elevated to the highest ranks of this International Order. For several years he lived in the Order’s Headquarters at the historic Palazzo Malta in Rome where he was Conservator of the Magistral Palace Library and Archives and Curator of the art collections of the Order. In 2000 he moved to Malta to take up residence at Fort Saint Angelo, where, to this day, he is the only Knight Resident occupying and caring for this incredible site, laden with history, overlooking the Grand Harbour of Malta. He has been received into various orders of chivalry and honoured with the award of several prestigious decorations from various States. He wears all this very lightly, and his warmth and charm, his welcoming nature and a charitable disposition shine through in this conversation.