Alexander Vella Gregory

My musical works encompass a wide range of styles and forms, from chamber music to full-blown stage works. I have a keen interest in identity, communities, and narrative.

Alexander Vella Gregory was born in Malta in 1984. He studied piano with Paul Borg and Joanne Camilleri and obtained a Fellowship of the London College of Music (FLCM) diploma in 2013. In 2002, he won the Ian Tomlin Napier/Malta Music Scholarship which enabled him to pursue a B.Mus(Hons) degree in composition at the Ian Tomlin School of Music, Edinburgh Napier University, where he graduated in July 2006 with honours.

Alexander is active as a composer, pianist, accompanist and teacher. His works have been performed in Malta, London, Berlin, Paris, Edinburgh, Vienna, Frankfurt, Prague, Lisbon, Finland, Armenia, Bulgaria, and the USA. His works are published by United Music Publishers.

He is also very active in the theatre scene, and has written music for various theatrical productions including Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (MADC, 2007), Euripides’ The Bacchae (MADC, 2008), Ospizio (Teatru Anon, Malta Summer Arts Festival, 2010) and Każin Barokk (ODC Ensemble, 2018), a Valletta 2018 devised theatre project directed by Greek theatre director Elli Papakonstantinou. December 2018 saw the premiere of his operetta for voices and wind band called Il-Madonna Tiegħi Aħjar Minn Tiegħek (My Madonna is Better Than Yours) to a libretto by Trevor Zahra, and commissioned by Teatru Malta.

In 2015 two songs from his song cycle Mill-Qamar sal-Qabar were recorded by leading Maltese soprano Miriam Cauchi for her album Riflessi. Another set of songs, this time from the song cycle Verità, were also recorded that same year by soprano Gillian Zammit, mezzo Clare Ghigo and harpist Britt Arend as part of an MPO project. In 2019 his horn quartet Sonata sopra l’Agnus Dei, recorded by the Argotti Ensemble, was released on the album ‘Fantasia’. In 2020 his song cycle Tluq was recorded by Gillian Zammit (Cantilena, Navona Records) and his orchestral suite Riħ was recorded by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra (Contemporary Colours, Navona Records).

Alexander has participated in several music education projects for children, including The Carnival of Animals (2009), a dance performance for kids, and The Classical

Experience (2009), a project which targeted schools. He has also worked on KantaKantun (2014-19), an education project commissioned by Valletta 2018 Foundation on music and architecture.

Alexander is also an active researcher and has worked with the Notarial Archives Resource Centre in Valletta (Parallel Existences, Kite Publications, 2018) and The Lost Voices Songbook (Filfla Records, 2021). Current research projects include Ritwali, a research project on ritual in Malta, and Minn Fuq l-Ispalla a project on rhyming verses within the festa ritual in Malta, in conjunction with the Department of Maltese within the University of Malta.

Alexander holds a PhD in Music Composition with Edinburgh Napier University focusing on city narratives using Valletta as an example. Alexander is also the Artistic Director and a founding member of the Cappella Sanctae Catharinae, Malta’s only male choir. He is a Trustee of the Ian Tomlin Malta Edinburgh Music Scholarship Fund, and a visiting lecturer with the University of Malta.