BERNICE SAMMUT ATTARD

Music, not a hobby, a lifestyle... a young musician’s journey.

INTERVIEW WITH BERNICE SAMMUT ATTARD

MUSICIAN

They say, “Once a musician, always a musician.” Indeed, music is a lifestyle for Bernice Sammut Attard and the best is yet to come for her incredible talent. She is a true star. She is smart, inquisitive, adventurous, with a deep passion for music and a thousand plans for the future. The world is her home and the sea is where Bernice is at peace. All those who know her on a daily basis, will certainly tell you that beneath that shy outer crust lies a strong, focused and very determined person as her mother, Simone, instilled in her with a character that evokes traits only great musicians posses.

Classical music was something which she grew to love more and more as the years progressed. Listening to great musicians such as Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov and Evgeny Kissin stimulated her passion for music and were a source of inspiration for her career path. From a very young age, music was just something which felt was natural and easy to relate to when performing. Moreover, music is a means for her to connect with different people from all over the world, sharing ideas and memories whilst creating and appreciating wonderful music together.

Bernice started studying both violin and piano from a young age, with Marcelline Agius and Karen Briscoe respectively. At the age of sixteen, she left

Malta, becoming the first Maltese person to attend the prestigious music school in Manchester, UK - Chetham’s School of Music, where she studied piano and violin as a joint principal study with Duncan Glenday and Ruth Hahn respectively. This was a decisive point in her life both from a career point of view but also from a personal perspective. Her independence developed tremendously. Living abroad proved difficult at first. She was in a boarding school and found it hard to accept that she didn’t have an actual home to go back to at the end of the days’ classes. The first term studying abroad was the most challenging from a musical, academic, and social standpoint. Bernice points out, “I felt it was a huge change at first. I had to continuously think about so many different things that I never really had to consider prior to going abroad, but I grew really quickly because of that.”

She has performed and attended prestigious festivals in several countries including the UK, Poland, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Seattle. She has just come back from a week’s residency at Le Rosey in Gstaad, Switzerland where she was selected to attend the "Rencontres Musicales Internationales" - the Menuhin Academy’s Summer Master Classes.

In 2020, she was very lucky to have had her last piano recital in Malta exactly prior to the cancellation of events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the 1st of March,

Bernice gave a 1hr piano recital at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.

Although not particularly keen on music competitions, the few that she’s done have helped her in many ways. In 2017, Sammut Attard was a finalist in the Chetham’s Bösendorfer competition, and went on to be awarded the second prize in the Malta International Music Competition. She also received an honourable mention in violin, and won both the joint third prize and joint best Maltese pianist in the Malta International Piano Competition. Soon after, she rose to international prominence when she represented Malta in Edinburgh in the 2018 edition of the Eurovision Young Musicians contest, after winning the final round of the national edition of the competition.

In 2019, the young pianist embarked on a tour, performing in Russia, Armenia, and Kazakhstan as part of the Days of Maltese Music project organised by the European Foundation for Support of Culture. Bernice performed the Grieg Piano Concerto with a number of orchestras ‒ including the North Caucasus Orchestra, the Eurasian Symphony Orchestra, the Ryazan Symphony Orchestra and the Astrakhan Symphony of the Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theatre ‒ collaborating with conductors Alexei Galea Cavallazzi, Mikhail Kirchhoff, Sergey Oselkov and William Garfield Walker.

Malta is still close to her heart and she feels it is the right place to wind down and connect with her roots. Bernice notes, “I love Malta in so many ways and I still think of it as home. However, musicwise, you need competition and you need to meet lots of people – it is just the way the music world works.” She finds the common prevailing societal perception that music is only an option if you are not academically good to be irrational and that it only shows that there is still not enough exposure to music education.

Most recently she has been awarded the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Sibelius Essay Prize for her work on Scriabin’s Modernist Ideas. Writing, more specifically languages is what Bernice loves to do in her free time. Languages, music-making and travelling are really her favourite things in life and the fact that a musician’s life connects all three of them together is truly what gives her a fulfilling life.

Bernice regularly posts about her past and future projects and concerts on her Facebook Page: Bernice Sammut Attard (@ bernicesammutattardmalta). She is currently preparing to start her final year of her Bachelor of Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow, (a world Top 3 institution in the QS World University Rankings 2021), after which she will continue to further her studies in the field in order to really become the best possible asset to the music profession. She is a keen musician in the broadest sense and her willingness to continuously learn is what will definitely lead to a bright future for Bernice.

THE CONSTRUCTION AND PROPERTY MARKET

The Construction and Property market have been one of the main drivers of our economy during the past 6/7 years. Those in the sector definitely remember the slow down they experienced during the years leading to 2013. So once in office in 2013, one of the first schemes that the new Government launched to kick start the economy, was to exempt the payment of tax for the first time buyers to the value of €150,000. This measure helped all those who were buying their first home to be exempted from paying up to 5,000 in tax.

The popularity of this scheme left an immediate impact, with more than 19,326 individuals benefitting to more than €61 million between January 2014 and July 2019. The Government continued with this scheme throughout its next budgets and going a step further by increasing the amount on which stamp duty is exempted first to €175,000 and to a further €25,000 last year. Now whoever buys his first property is not charged stamp duty for the first €200,000 of the price of the property, with any amount over and above charged at the rate of 5%.

The Government made numerous measures to assist people in becoming home owners.

We know that young people who decide to become home owners, find it difficult to have the 10% deposit requested by the banks to get a loan. So the Government issued a scheme whereby a personal loan covering the 10% deposit is issued payable over a period of 25 years with the Housing Authority paying the interest on this 10% throughout the 25 years.

A scheme for the second home buyers, for those who sell their first home which has become small or large and decide to buy a bigger/smaller property.

A temporary COVID-19 measure providing for a reduced tax and duty rate of 5% and 1.5% respectively on the first €400,000 of immovable property transferred inter vivos.

To encourage individuals to acquire residential property situated in Gozo by the end of 2021, including a garage as defined, or land on which only one residential unit is to be built, the rate of duty is reduced from the standard 5% to 2% on the higher of the consideration or value of the property.

Join the Digital Skills and Jobs platform

The Digital Skills and Jobs Platform is now online! National stakeholders and the European Commission have joined forces to create the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform to accelerate digital upskilling in Europe. The platform provides a wide range of high-quality information, resources and opportunities related to the area of digital skills and jobs across all levels, from very basic to advanced. Up-to-date insights are offered in an accessible way to new users, while more experienced professionals can benefit from targeted content relevant to their field of expertise. Additionally, a collaborative space is available for Community members to network, interact and grow together.

This portal has been created as one of the initiatives launched under the Connecting Europe Facility Programme. It will contribute to the Digital Europe Programme – an ambitious EU programme that strives to make Europe more competitive in the global digital economy through digital capacity-building and ensuring a wide use of digital technologies across the EU. Enforcing the digital skills pillar of the programme, the Platform aspires to boost the digital competencies of European society and workforce.

Funded by the Connecting Europe Facility at the request of the EU Member States, the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform brings togeth er:

• Insights into EU and national initiatives and actions in digital skills and jobs

• Training opportunities and career development support

• Good practices, expert advice, resources and tools • Funding opportunities and financial instruments

• Thriving interactive community spaces

• News, opinions, and events

The platform will become a unique reference point for digital skills enabling all Europeans - citizens, businesses and public organisations - to make the most of the digital transformation of our society and economy. The platform will function jointly with the 25 national coalitions for digital skills and contribute to reaching the EU’s Digital Decade targets.

Article by Claude Calleja Executive at eSkills Malta Foundation

Internal Commissioner for the Market Thierry Breton said:

“Whether looking for a new job or starting a business, digital skills are key to success. Bringing together hundreds of initiatives from around Europe, the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform is a unique place for citizens to enhance their learning experiences and to discover new opportunities.”

The platform has been created to bring together European and National efforts together. Often visions do not materialise because of lack of collaboration. The Platform aims to change this.

eSkills Malta Foundation would like to invite you to join this ever-expanding community and start exploring this platform which is the home of digital skills information across Europe and the heart of the Digital Skills and Jobs Community. Visit, register and share the platform https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en.

The Digital Skills and Jobs Platform is financed by the European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility.

This article was prepared by collating various publicly available online sources.

Designs for a sustainable, mixed-use masterplan for LA FABRICA

Marking the practice’s first project in Chile, designs for a new masterplan for La Fabrica have been revealed. The project centres on the regeneration of an existing mid-twentieth century factory building to create an integrated mixed-use urban quarter in the heart of Santiago, Chile. Underpinning the sustainable focus of the project, the design is based on the adaptive reuse of an existing building while introducing timber as a new primary building material. Extending onto an adjacent site with a 550-unit residential development, the masterplan establishes an ideal live/work model that looks firmly towards the future.

David Summerfield, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, said, “La Fabrica offers an incredible opportunity to interweave the industrial heritage of the city with the urgent present need to establish a sustainable model of development. The project brings together the revitalisation of a historic landmark, the creation of an exciting mixed-use neighbourhood and the construction one of the largest new mass timber buildings in the region which will form the benchmark for sustainable buildings in the region.”

Located in the industrial neighbourhood of San Joaquin, the historic factory was once a major contributor to the in Chile revealed textile industry in the country. A progressive development for its time, the workers in the factory were provided housing and day-care facilities on neighbouring sites, creating a large low-density community. The new masterplan seeks to

re-establish the live/work links by creating a new mixed-use urban quarter with a significant residential component that responds flexibly to the contemporary needs of society.

With half the building currently occupied by a retail mall, La Fabrica features a distinctive lightweight concrete vault roof that is characteristic of the innovative industrial buildings of the time, with roof lights that allow daylight to flood the interior. The challenge was to extend the naturally ventilated mall to the entire building while densifying the edges of the site to respond to the surrounding urban fabric. One of the primary design moves creates a sheltered pedestrian boulevard through the centre of the building, from the existing clocktower to the north to the southern edge of the site. With a raised roof over this central axis, it activates the heart of the building and allows visitors to appreciate the distinctive profile of the vaulted roof. The edges of the site have similarly been animated by pedestrian routes with a rich mix of low-rise office spaces, sports, entertainment, medical facilities, market stalls, shops and restaurants, creating a bustling, thriving ground plane that integrates the development with the surrounding neighbourhoods.

The mixed-use ground plane flows seamlessly into an adjacent site towards the northwest corner of the factory, where a new low-rise, high density residential development is located. It features a central octagonal square at the intersection of two generous tree-lined boulevards that are lined with shops, cafes and other neighbourhood retail. Four eight-storey residential blocks are arranged around the central square, with a series of smaller courtyards towards the interior of the site that mark the transition between public and private spaces. The apartments are flexibly designed to accommodate a range of different individual and family units, from compact studio flats to two-bed apartments. Building on the Chilean tradition of timber construction, this is one of the first large-scale timber framed and cross laminated timber developments in the region. The project will use sustainably sourced timber which greatly reduces the embodied carbon in the buildings, creating a sustainable model of development for the future. Juan Frigerio, Partner, Foster + Partners, commented, “La Fabrica, our first project in Chile, seeks to establish a new approach to sustainable urbanism in Santiago, with lush landscaped civic space. The incredibly rich mix of uses at ground level with a variety of retail and social spaces tie the residences with the rest of the masterplan, creating a complete ensemble that is integrated at every level. The compact and flexible design of the apartments showcases a beautiful palette of natural materials that reflects the sustainable focus of the entire masterplan.”

THREE BRANDS UNITED IN BEAUTY

Decorté X Baccarat X Marcel Wanders

Since 2010, Marcel Wanders studio has been serving as the art director of the prestigious skincare and beauty brand Decorté. Bringing its spirit to life in all of its facets, from form to film. In honour of the 50th anniversary of the brand, one of our other longlasting partners, legendary crystal manufacturer Baccarat, joined the union. Aligning decades of craftsmanship and fusing three areas of expertise together to be one. Grounded in an artistic approach and a desire to celebrate beauty, an iconic design treasuring Decorté’s prestigious AQ Meliority Intensive Cream unfolded.

The sublime crystal jar preciously holds the ultimate highperformance cream at its heart. Adorned with elegant curves and deep cuts, the design refracts light with geometric precision, creating a theatrical play that sparks the imagination. A lid surmounted by a dazzling red octagon, the signature of Baccarat, reveals its inner beauty and gives the jar its stature. The enclosed resin spatula, a small piece of art on its own, enables one to apply and blend the cream with utmost care.

Only 999 pieces of this one-of-a-kind creation are available worldwide, each featuring its own unique serial number.

Restoration and Conservation of VILLA ANNA TERESA, St Julians

Villa Anna Teresa is a hidden gem of St Julian’s architectural heritage. Up to recently, it was only showing from the thoroughfare a narrow frontage set back from the line of the street, which does not give away anything about what lies behind. The demolition of the house next door, a later, less inspired addition, allows passers-by a glimpse of the principal façade. Indeed, the villa is exclusively orientated towards the adjoining garden and walled garden set out “en enfilade”.

The fabric of the Villa is in a typical neo-classical style that was prevalent in the early period of the British era. The main façade sits over a raised terrace and rises two storeys above it. It displays a main body, five-bay wide, flanked with slightly recessed wings on either side. The piano nobile is adorned with a stone balcony with cast and wrought iron railings, originally running along the whole breadth of the façade.

The setting of the Villa is a more elusive affair. The Estate has seen a number of alterations, in content as well as extent, over time. The remaining palimpsest only reveals the strong connection with the walled garden, which may well have been providing the main access to the villa. The relationship with the surrounding urban fabric at the time of its construction is not easily legible nowadays.

The project for the creation of a care home on the site of the Villa is an amazing opportunity to bring back the Villa to a state closer to its former glory. The demolition of the neighbouring house has freed up the corner of the Villa, this being a first step towards giving back its symmetry to the garden façade. It will allow the reinstatement of the missing section of the stone and iron balcony. The iron railing of the balcony is the element of the Villa which is requiring the most attention, in terms of restoration and conservation works. The lower rail supporting the delicate balusters was made U-shaped thus trapping rainwater. It was found heavily decayed and in need of complete replacement. The Villa has suffered the expected deterioration brought about by the harsh climate and the pollution. Fortunately, the overall condition of the Villa was fair as it remained in use and some maintenance was being carried out. Although, some intervention involving the use of cementitious materials have also been detrimental to the fabric. The main forms of decay encountered where the deterioration of mortar joints, with a few damages also visible on the stonework, the formation of black crust and the development of biological growth. Proper pointing of joints is considered one of the most important aspects of restoration of buildings. Most of the deterioration starts from the loss of pointing. It is of great importance that, in restoration work and in the replacement of masonry of ancient buildings, the correct techniques and materials linked to the history of the construction discovered during the restoration itself are used. With a wall built of globigerina stone like the ones of the Villa and many others from Maltese architectural heritage, this involves the use of a lime-based mortar. The black crust is the result of attack of sulphates in the atmosphere. Sulphur dioxide is very aggressive. It reacts readily with the water in the atmosphere to form sulphurous acid. The latter attacks limestone directly to produce calcium sulphite which, combined with oxygen, forms gypsum. Gypsum is slightly soluble in water, and under normal circumstances is washed away by rainwater, keeping the stone surface clean, albeit contributing to its erosion. In sheltered areas from the rain, a gypsum crust is formed. In high humidity levels, acid droplets in the polluted air condense on the crust. This reacts with the unchanged limestone surface and binds any available particulate pollutants to the surface. The crust thus becomes less permeable and acquires as a result its black colour. Excessive biological growth, which occurs when water is allowed to pool or concentrate on part of the façade, forms

dark stains that affect the aesthetic quality of the masonry. These stains are mainly the results of defects in the fabric of the building, by design or by wear, like the lack of a drip mould at the top of a wall or a leaking rainwater pipe. Where water is swiftly shed away as it should be, the biological growth participate in the formation of a patina, which is highly sought after feature for an historic building as it is unique display of its history and is therefore considered as the graceful way to age for a stone building. The aim of the restoration and conservation intervention should always be to treat decay and sources of further decay, while highlighting the beauty of the architecture and its natural aging process.

Sustaining the role of the central seat of power, by the French, British, and today the President of the Republic, the sovereign edifice on the Maltese Islands welcomes around 200,000 visitors each year. However, only the armoury (at ground floor) and five staterooms at the Piano Nobile level together with the main staircase, were open to the public. On the 19th of November 2018, Heritage Malta embarked on one of its most ambitious restoration projects. The entire project aims to attract a projected increased audience of 300,000 annual visitors and will grant access to over eighty-five percent of the building footprint.

Targeted to be completed by October 2022, the first phase of this project (€10 million part-financed via the European Regional Development Fund), shall see the reinstatement of the Armoury in its original location – the former Parliament Chamber; the restoration of the artworks in the corridors and Uccelliera of the Piano Nobile; and a visitor centre in the rehabilitated former Casa del Monte and Orangerie.

Covering a footprint of over 900sqm, the restoration of the Piano Nobile corridors and re-discovered Uccelliera (aviary) started with a 3D laser scanning documentation of the current condition. This was followed by the removal of the painted soffit and lunettes. The former revealed an unforeseen situation where large sections of the concrete ceiling – a post-war intervention - were severely damaged and threatening collapse. Heritage Malta acted fast, and after securing emergency funds, turned this challenging situation into an opportunity, reinstating the earlier timber beam and ‘xorok’ roofing system.

The restoration of the 18th century soffit paintings of the renowned decorator Niccolò Nasoni, painted in 1723-25, began by detaching the original canvas from its polystyrene backing. This methodology was adopted in the 1970s when the soffit was reinstalled after being taken down during WWII for safekeeping.

A one-is-to-one print of the corridor was spread out in the former Armoury Hall, over which the canvases were re-laid. This allowed for missing segments and the original sizes of the canvases to be identified and be properly aligned. Conservator-restorers moved in, cleaning the over-painting and previous interventions to uncover the original paint layers. Missing areas of the painted surfaces were infilled and retouched to regain the unity of the entire decorative scheme.

In the meantime, a new hanging system for the soffit was being designed. The system enables conservators to easily handle the artworks for maintenance and future conservation interventions. The latest lightweight state-ofthe-art materials, consisting of a sandwich panel with a core in aluminium honeycomb, were chosen over which the canvases were relined. Following the reinstallation of the panels, strips of Japanese paper were attached over the seams between the panels to conceal the gaps. These were then retouched to integrate with the rest.

The intervention on wall paintings/decorations were preceded by an analysis of the paint layers via the preparation of ‘scaletti’; in some instances over 16 superimposed layers were revealed! Restoration in the Uccelliera and in the corridors brought to light many (lost) decorative features in the wall and lunette areas, including coat of arms and a landscape featuring a sea view with a flamingo previously unseen.

Sketches by German-Danish artist Charles Frederick de Brochtorff in the early 1800s demonstrate that the original floors of the corridor were paved with yellow limestone slabs. In the second half of the 19th century, they were replaced with marble, and the insignias and coats of arms were added at a later stage. Over the years, the polychromed marble floors have suffered from wear and tear and from past incompetent interventions. As a result, the restoration intervention started with the identification of those elements that survive from the original installation, and any ‘alien’ elements/materials are being replaced accordingly.

“In such a complex 500-year old building with a juxtaposition of historic layers … deciding what to keep or remove is a difficult decision since the fabric itself is its best document … and tearing a page from a book is not recommended! Hence any decision is based on thorough archival research, on-site testing, and multi-disciplinary discussions, keeping in line with the provisions of international charters, and when exposing underlying layers, the process is rigorously recorded.” Perit David Zahra (project leader) added that “Restoration is a dynamic thought process … continuously developing … keeping true to the cultural significance and intrinsic values of the building … retaining its authenticity and increasing its legibility …. of its entire history!”

With the regeneration of the Grandmaster’s Palace, visitors will be able to experience the new interpretation of the centre of power in Malta for 500 years as a historic house based on the blueprint of a baroque palace.