I, together with Joshua Alamu and Maria Abdilla,  organised our annual Artist Development Showcase on 1 December 2012.  This concert is always held to showcase our students’ talents and to be a platform for them to gain experience on stage. Music accompaniment is always live and directed by Mro. Paul Abela.  This time backing vocals were done by us three and up-and-coming talent Jasmine Abela. This is not a competition, however there were two judges in attendance to provide their feedback on the performance as a whole. This is for the students to know how well they are doing and what they have to work on in the future. Judges on the night were Raquela and Emi Green.

Once again De La Salle College was buzzing with energy this summer as the drama group prepared for their annual show.  Through drama, people learn to understand themselves better, relate to others and build a social awareness that allows them to face their fears and build their confidence.  As in previous years, I worked in this production as a vocal coach for the soloists and also some of my students took part.  This year’s theme was Destination: Musicals one more time and was held from 2-4 November.

I, together with some of my students, participated in this year’s edition of Voices – a 200-strong choir and a live band of volunteers who dedicate their summer every two years to raise funds for a deserving cause. This year’s theme was Dream a little dream.  Performances were held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta from 3-7 and 10-14 October 2012 and included a mixture of pop and rock classics from across the decades, including Beatles, Adele, Sting, Katy Perry, Zucchero, Queen, Abba, Alicia Keys, Pink Floyd, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson.  The proceeds raised from the concerts will be distributed between the lead project, Dar Mamma Margherita and several other organisations.

Photo courtesy of Joe Peel

On Saturday 18th February I had the pleasure of welcoming Lucienne Camilleri to my studio where she conducted a drama workshop for my students. Over the years Lucienne has contributed to the theatre as an actor and choreographer. She has also co-directed and directed several musical productions. For the past twelve years she has been tutoring acting skills and technique and is now employed by De La Salle College.

Drama is important in singing because expression is always needed to engage an audience. During this workshop the students learnt to use facial expression, their body and their voice to enhance their performance. They worked on posture and diction, and also learnt how to do a different type of warm-up to loosen up facial muscles and to open up all their resonators.

The drama workshop given by Lucienne Camilleri was something new and refreshing for me – learning that in a performance the voice is not everything. She explained how body language, facial expression and the voice have to move hand in hand to give the best performance one can give. She explained and gave us examples how to express emotions in our voice and face. I also learnt that sometimes the simpler your movements are the more you give to the audience. It was an amazing experience and I hope that there will be a next one in the near future. A big thanks goes to our teacher Claire who gives us these opportunities to learn different ways of becoming better performers.
Jeanelle Aquilina

It was definitely an eye-opener! Lucienne gave us some wonderful performance tools to build confidence and really get to the core of a song’s essence. Thank you Claire and Lucienne.
Michelle Brincat