Charlene Farrugia

Maltese pianist Charlene Farrugia studied with Dolores Amodio and Diana Ketler at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was subsequently mentored by Boris Petrushansky for several years. Farrugia gained her doctorate in performance under Kenneth Hamilton with a thesis on piano repertory for the left hand.

In 2018 she received Malta’s International Achievement Award, and in 2020 she was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of her contribution to the music profession. An ambassador of EMMA for Peace (Euro Mediterranean Music Academy), under the auspices of UNESCO, she is currently associate professor of piano at the Academy of Music of the Juraj Dobrila University in Pula, Croatia.

With a wide repertory ranging from Baroque to contemporary works, she made her concerto debut with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra playing Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at the age of 13 – the orchestra’s youngest ever soloist. She has since toured widely, with engagements taking her throughout Europe to North America and the Far East, appearing in venues such as the Teatru Manoel in Valletta, Théâtre Princesse Grace in Monaco, Château Sainte-Anne in Brussels, Smetana Hall in Prague and Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

Among her recordings are Camilleri’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (Naxos 8.573373), Karl Fiorini’s In the Midst of Things (Grand Piano GP880), and a Khachaturian anthology including his Children’s Albums and Recitatives and Fugues (Grand Piano GP834).

charlenefarrugia.com