Our members of staff produce world-leading research on subjects ranging from aural music traditions in the Mediterranean to the music dramas of Richard Wagner to the international avant-garde tradition. We welcome postgraduate proposals from an enormous variety of research areas. In musicology, particular emphasis is laid on Maltese music history and its composers, and the study of works by composers from Malta and Gozo (Malta’s sister island). Expertise in this area of study has maintained a research programme focusing on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Maltese and Neapolitan music. Publications and multimedia projects by members of our Department have been produced by leading international publishers and record labels such as Boydell & Brewer, Cambridge University Press and Classic Produktion Osnabrück. Students’ knowledge in archival research is enhanced by hands-on experiences in editing music from the hundreds of manuscripts, most of them dating from the seventeenth century onwards, which are catalogued and kept in numerous archives around Malta.

Staff members in the area of ethnomusicology have been involved in research and projects of many kinds ranging from research projects in oral musical traditions of the Mediterranean to studies in Maltese popular music. Such research has been published in leading musical reference works such as the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, and the SAGE Encyclopedia of Music and Culture. Other research was published by Ashgate and Routledge. Current staff research areas include: World Music analysis; Maltese popular music; North African music; music aesthetics; and Mediterranean music of the oral tradition.

In our Department, students in ethnomusicology take advantage of Malta’s location at the geographical centre of the Mediterranean to undertake research projects in Mediterranean music, with particular interest in music on Mediterranean islands such as Malta. Other students opt to take up research projects that focus on issues and themes that cut across cultures, such as folk music and political propaganda, continuity and change in music, and traditional music and colonialism.

Our teaching staff members have a number of strong research specialisms, working in areas as diverse as performance practice in baroque and classical performance, nineteenth-century piano performance, contemporary music performance, and projects on contemporary Maltese music, working with other institutions and notable artists from all over the world. Furthermore they have active lives as performers, playing on internationally renowned podia, as soloists and with leading ensembles.

An ongoing collaboration with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra provides staff and students the opportunity to participate in rehearsal sessions and concerts, as well as to research orchestral playing and participate in orchestral tuition. Staff members in performance have produced a range of recordings with renowned record labels. 

Staff members in composition are active composers, working closely with colleagues and performers both in and outside academia, at institutions and venues both in Malta and abroad. Our members of staff in this field cover a wide range of areas, from orchestral and chamber music to electroacoustic, and live electronic music. Their compositions have been performed and recorded both locally and internationally by renowned orchestras and ensembles. Our composition tuition aims to help students learn to compose music that inspires and interests them without preference towards any particular ‘house-style’.

Tuition and supervision in this area is tailored to equip aspiring composers with proficient skills in the techniques of musical composition.  All composition students have opportunities to hear their works presented in a variety of performance settings such as through collaborations with ensemble classes, visiting professional ensembles, and during collaborative opportunities with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.