left to right: Professor Alfred Vella, Mr Francis James Camilleri, Prof. Michael Laus

Rector, Professor Alfred Vella, presented Mr Francis James Camilleri, a second year student of the Department of Music Studies, with the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship Competition (Piano) certificate. This award carries with it a Euro 1000 scholarship that may be used by the winner for the advancement of his studies. This year’s YMFE-Scholarship Competition was open to full-time piano students not older than 25 years at the time of the application.

Yamaha, one of the world‘s largest manufacturers of musical instruments, established the Yamaha Music Foundation (YMF) in Tokyo in 1966. The purpose of this Foundation is to stimulate interest in the playing and enjoyment of music amongst people from all over the world. The Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe (YMFE) is a European non-profit making charity that, above all, is dedicated to supporting talented music students in Europe. Since 1990, YMFE has awarded scholarships worth more than 1 Million EUR to over 1000 outstanding young musicians all over Europe. The discipline for the 2016/2017 scholarship was piano playing.

The participation of the Department of Music Studies in this competition was possible thanks to an agreement signed by Rector on behalf of UM and the YMFE. Thanks are also due to Mr Joseph Piscopo of Olimpus Music Ltd (importers of Yamaha musical instruments), Mr Thomas Capellmann of YAMAHA Music Europe GmbH, Mr Simon Sammut (UM Secretary), Prof. Michael Laus (piano tutor in the Department of Music Studies), and all the resident academic staff members of the Department of Music Studies.