The ninth edition of the Victoria International Arts Festival opens today with the Italian choral ensemble Stirps Jesse at St George's cloister and the adjoining concert hall, Aula Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia, in Victoria.

The festival, which offers more than 30 events and concerts, ranges from solo performances, chamber ensembles, choirs, wind bands, brass bands and orchestras to literary evenings and the inauguration of a baroque organ donated to the Basilica by Oxford scholar Richard Vendome.

It will feature artists from the UK, Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Holland, the Czech Republic and the US.

Lori Belilove, a ballet dancer and champion of the Isadora Duncan ideal and technique, will be performing music adapted from Gluck's Orfeo et Eurydice along with three other dancers from New York. A wind and brass band from the UK will also be present together with Malta's own Versatile Brass Ensemble.

More information about the festival can be found at www.stgeorge.org.mt or by e-mail: frgfrendo[at]yahoo.co[dot]uk.