Francesco Sultana

Francesco Sultana is a Maltese musician hailing from the village of Rabat, Malta. Born in 1991, Francesco’s artistic journey began at a young age studying music and learning the clarinet with the local L'Isle Adam band club of which he formed part for seven years. Feeling uncomfortable in a situation where the artistic barriers of performance were set in boundaries, a journey of discovery of new music and musical instruments began in 2006. This immersed Francesco in the ‘World Music and Jazz’ scene where he started learning and playing percussions in 2007 as informal jamming sessions with friends. He quickly became interested in various percussions and woodwinds from around the globe. Since then, the artist started forming his own musical creations and discovering new sounds with his first public performance in 2009 with an original piece he composed and with a band he formed in the 6th form talent show. After that, Francesco quickly began making contacts and started taking part in established local bands and artistic projects namely: Iskay (Peruvian fusion music) and various performances with local singer-songwriters in the yearly Earth Garden festival and the Għanja tal-Poplu competition(where he placed 3rd, 2nd and ‘best new talent’ prize together with the various groups). Later on, Francesco started aiming for more permanent commitments that would yield more fuel to creativity such as the Nisġa Project (fusion of arts – world fusion) and the local alternative group Plato’s Dream Machine that released their first album in 2014 with the help of MAF, breaking the boundaries pretty much felt within music in the Maltese language. Two years later the band left their mark again in 2016 with their innovative synth-pop inspired album ‘Ġuf’, also in the Maltese language. The latter two groups gave an opportunity to re-discover the clarinet that was forgotten from his childhood and also accentuating the potential of improvisation and challenging the boundaries of the ordinary-played clarinet. Aside from these projects, Francesco also participated as a session musician with other bands contributing to Malta’s contemporary music scene and MAF funded projects such as Mistura, Kantilena, Brikkuni and Brodu, Metamorfosi by Adrian Buckle, Stories of Islands during V18 and Workshops on folk instruments. Apart from such projects, Francesco is also perhaps best known presently as oe of the last-remaining craftsman dedicated to preserving Malta’s tradition of old folk wind instruments making, such as the Maltese Żaqq, Żummara and Flejguta. He hopes to instigate another revival of such instruments such as other folk pioneers such as Ruben Żahra, Peter Paul Farruġia, Edmond Jackson and Ġużi Gatt. He has perfomed on two occassions as a soloist with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra with such instruments and has delivered many workshops to the public and schools on the subject.

External Links

• Performing as the Nisġa Project, Għanafest 2012.

• Zaqq and Tanbur Playing with Michael Galea.

• Performing Mesogeios by Christopher Muscat live with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra