The Three Palaces Festivals 2026 - ORA Singers: Golden Ages
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Ticket admission includes access to view the Caravaggio Wing at St John’s Co-Cathedral. Ticket admissions open at 6:30pm, an hour prior to the start of the concert.
Artists: ORA Singers and Suzi Digby OBE.
With guest composer and cuatro player, Cristian Grases
The award-winning ORA Singers and Suzi Digby OBE return to Malta to celebrate ten years of music making with a choral highlights programme featuring key works. Alongside Renaissance polyphony by Tallis, Byrd, and Gibbons sit 8 contemporary pieces from their ground-breaking 100 commissions catalogue, including, tonight, the world première of Lucis Creator by Cristian Grases.
Prior to the performance, the St John’s Cathedral Foundation will be opening up the Caravaggio Wing for patrons to visit, where you can watch ‘Meet Caravaggio’: a short docu-drama on the life of the artist in Malta between July 1607 and October 1608, first as a novice, then as a knight of the Order, thereafter, his dramatic escape from imprisonment in Fort St Angelo. The Oratory houses ‘The Beheading of St John the Baptist’, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, c. 1608 – oil on canvas, 520cm x 360cm, as well as his ‘St Jerome Writing’ c. 1607 – oil on canvas, 117cm x 157 cm.
ORA Singers and The Three Palaces Festival are grateful for the support of the Michael Marks Charitable Trust in supporting the commission and premiere of this piece.
ORA SINGERS
Soprano - Lucy Cox, Sarah Keating, Natalie Houlston, Isabelle Gibber, Anna Grieve, Rachel Haworth
Alto - Hannah Cooke, Kim Porter, Sophie Timms, Joy Sutcliffe
Tenor - Benedict Munden, Jack Granby, Edward Beswick, Nick Todd
Bass - Will Dawes, Simon Grant, Jonathan Pratt, Tim Murphy
ORA Singers
The award-winning ORA Singers is recognised for its modern take on the centuries-long choral tradition, and was born out of a belief that we are in a second golden age of choral music, matching that of the Renaissance. It is one of the world’s foremost commissioners of contemporary choral music, which it often performs alongside Renaissance masterpieces in its celebrated concerts and recordings. Since its description as "a musical comet", ORA Singers has continued to blaze a trail as one of the UK’s leading vocal ensembles. Directed by Suzi Digby OBE, the group was named ‘Ensemble of the Year’ at the 2018 Opus Klassik awards, and has received critical acclaim both for its "unfailingly elegant" performances and its “superb and exciting” recordings, most recently winning the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for its 2023 disc, Sanctissima. 2026 marks the group’s 10th Anniversary and the completion of their renowned 100 Commissions Catalogue. The 100th commission, Into thine hand, by Brett Dean, was premiered at the group’s special Anniversary Concert at Wigmore Hall on 24th October.
Suzi Digby OBE
Suzi Digby was born in Japan and lived in Hong Kong, Mexico and the Philippines before settling in London, Cambridge and Bath. She is an internationally renowned choral conductor and music educator. She has trail-blazed the revival of singing in UK schools and the community over three decades. Suzi founded the following pioneering National Arts/education organisations: The Voices Foundation (the UK's leading Primary Music Education Charity); Voce Chamber Choir; Vocal Futures (nurturing young audiences for Classical Music); Singing4Success (leadership and Accelerated Learning for Corporates) and London Youth Choirs (a pyramid of 5 choirs [aged 8-22], serving multiple diverse communities in London's 33 boroughs). Her professional vocal consort, ORA Singers (commissioning choral works as reflections of Renaissance masterworks) won the Opus Klassik 'Best Ensemble of the Year', 2018, and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for their 2023 album, Sanctissima.
Cristian Grases
Cristian Grases joined the USC Thornton faculty in the Fall 2010 semester and is the former Vice Dean for the Division of Classical Music and Composition. He is currently a professor and Chair of the Department of Choral Music, and conducts the USC Thornton Chamber Singers. Born in Venezuela, he earned degrees from the Simón Bolívar University (MM) in Caracas, Venezuela, and the University of Miami (DMA). Dr. Grases has participated in numerous festivals, workshops, competitions, and events as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and conducting pedagogue in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. He has also presented sessions in the World Choral Symposia in Denmark, Argentina, and South Korea. Additionally, and at several ACDA regional and national conventions. He is an award-winning conductor and composer, and has been commissioned to write for several prestigious organizations such as the Piedmont Children's Chorus, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the Golden Bridge Choir, the ORA Singers, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, to name just a few. His works have been performed world-wide in prestigious stages such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Taipei National Performing Arts Center, and Carnegie Hall. In 2013 Dr. Grases started a new Choral Series entitled “The Choral Music of Latin America and the Caribbean” published by Gentry Publications as an editorial outlet for Latin American choral repertoire. Dr. Grases was elected into the Board of Directors of the International Federation for Choral Music in 2008 and served as a member of the Executive Board as a Vice President representing the region of Latin America and the Caribbean until December of 2020.
The Three Palaces Festival returns between the 27th October and 1st November. 🎭
For more tickets and information visit www.festivals.mt/ttp
The Three Palaces Festival is organised by Festivals Malta, with the support of the Ministry for the Arts, Culture and National Heritage. Sponsored by Schweppes.
Artists: ORA Singers and Suzi Digby OBE.
With guest composer and cuatro player, Cristian Grases
The award-winning ORA Singers and Suzi Digby OBE return to Malta to celebrate ten years of music making with a choral highlights programme featuring key works. Alongside Renaissance polyphony by Tallis, Byrd, and Gibbons sit 8 contemporary pieces from their ground-breaking 100 commissions catalogue, including, tonight, the world première of Lucis Creator by Cristian Grases.
Prior to the performance, the St John’s Cathedral Foundation will be opening up the Caravaggio Wing for patrons to visit, where you can watch ‘Meet Caravaggio’: a short docu-drama on the life of the artist in Malta between July 1607 and October 1608, first as a novice, then as a knight of the Order, thereafter, his dramatic escape from imprisonment in Fort St Angelo. The Oratory houses ‘The Beheading of St John the Baptist’, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, c. 1608 – oil on canvas, 520cm x 360cm, as well as his ‘St Jerome Writing’ c. 1607 – oil on canvas, 117cm x 157 cm.
ORA Singers and The Three Palaces Festival are grateful for the support of the Michael Marks Charitable Trust in supporting the commission and premiere of this piece.
ORA SINGERS
Soprano - Lucy Cox, Sarah Keating, Natalie Houlston, Isabelle Gibber, Anna Grieve, Rachel Haworth
Alto - Hannah Cooke, Kim Porter, Sophie Timms, Joy Sutcliffe
Tenor - Benedict Munden, Jack Granby, Edward Beswick, Nick Todd
Bass - Will Dawes, Simon Grant, Jonathan Pratt, Tim Murphy
ORA Singers
The award-winning ORA Singers is recognised for its modern take on the centuries-long choral tradition, and was born out of a belief that we are in a second golden age of choral music, matching that of the Renaissance. It is one of the world’s foremost commissioners of contemporary choral music, which it often performs alongside Renaissance masterpieces in its celebrated concerts and recordings. Since its description as "a musical comet", ORA Singers has continued to blaze a trail as one of the UK’s leading vocal ensembles. Directed by Suzi Digby OBE, the group was named ‘Ensemble of the Year’ at the 2018 Opus Klassik awards, and has received critical acclaim both for its "unfailingly elegant" performances and its “superb and exciting” recordings, most recently winning the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for its 2023 disc, Sanctissima. 2026 marks the group’s 10th Anniversary and the completion of their renowned 100 Commissions Catalogue. The 100th commission, Into thine hand, by Brett Dean, was premiered at the group’s special Anniversary Concert at Wigmore Hall on 24th October.
Suzi Digby OBE
Suzi Digby was born in Japan and lived in Hong Kong, Mexico and the Philippines before settling in London, Cambridge and Bath. She is an internationally renowned choral conductor and music educator. She has trail-blazed the revival of singing in UK schools and the community over three decades. Suzi founded the following pioneering National Arts/education organisations: The Voices Foundation (the UK's leading Primary Music Education Charity); Voce Chamber Choir; Vocal Futures (nurturing young audiences for Classical Music); Singing4Success (leadership and Accelerated Learning for Corporates) and London Youth Choirs (a pyramid of 5 choirs [aged 8-22], serving multiple diverse communities in London's 33 boroughs). Her professional vocal consort, ORA Singers (commissioning choral works as reflections of Renaissance masterworks) won the Opus Klassik 'Best Ensemble of the Year', 2018, and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for their 2023 album, Sanctissima.
Cristian Grases
Cristian Grases joined the USC Thornton faculty in the Fall 2010 semester and is the former Vice Dean for the Division of Classical Music and Composition. He is currently a professor and Chair of the Department of Choral Music, and conducts the USC Thornton Chamber Singers. Born in Venezuela, he earned degrees from the Simón Bolívar University (MM) in Caracas, Venezuela, and the University of Miami (DMA). Dr. Grases has participated in numerous festivals, workshops, competitions, and events as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and conducting pedagogue in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. He has also presented sessions in the World Choral Symposia in Denmark, Argentina, and South Korea. Additionally, and at several ACDA regional and national conventions. He is an award-winning conductor and composer, and has been commissioned to write for several prestigious organizations such as the Piedmont Children's Chorus, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the Golden Bridge Choir, the ORA Singers, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, to name just a few. His works have been performed world-wide in prestigious stages such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Taipei National Performing Arts Center, and Carnegie Hall. In 2013 Dr. Grases started a new Choral Series entitled “The Choral Music of Latin America and the Caribbean” published by Gentry Publications as an editorial outlet for Latin American choral repertoire. Dr. Grases was elected into the Board of Directors of the International Federation for Choral Music in 2008 and served as a member of the Executive Board as a Vice President representing the region of Latin America and the Caribbean until December of 2020.
The Three Palaces Festival returns between the 27th October and 1st November. 🎭
For more tickets and information visit www.festivals.mt/ttp
The Three Palaces Festival is organised by Festivals Malta, with the support of the Ministry for the Arts, Culture and National Heritage. Sponsored by Schweppes.
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Where is it happening?
St John's Co-Cathedral, St. John Square, Triq San Ġwann, Valletta, VLT, Malta
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherThe Three Palaces Festival
