Marouska Attard
Director, SCJ Children's Choir (Malta)

A singer herself, Marouska has always had this great fascination for the voice as an instrument and she finds it intriguing how the simple gestures of a conductor can affect the sound that is being produced. In fact, from a very young age she was actively involved as a chorister with several choirs in Malta with whom she participated in several concerts and opera productions. Later on, as a university student she was involved with the university choir participating also as a soloist in several concerts locally and abroad. This association has instilled in her the passion and the drive for choral singing.

Thereafter she moved on to direction of the Schola Cantorum Jubilate, a youth choir which she helped establish. She has been the director of this eminent choir since the year 2000, when it began as a group of friends and went from strength to strength under her dedicated direction. Performing in venues at home and abroad, the choir has visited Corsica for ‘Recontres des Musicales’ in November 2003; a musical-cultural tour in Rome and Assisi in September 2007 and in Vienna, Linz and Salzburg in August 2009, in Chevaigne and Rennes - France in June 2012 and in November 2015 in the Veneto region, in the cities of Padua and Venice. Under Marouska's direction, the choir has been organising Carols by Candlelight for the past ten years. This Christmas concert has progressively gained popularity both locally and abroad. In fact, in 2010 it was quoted in The Guardian as one of the best top ten Christmas concerts in Europe.

Throughout the years Marouska had the opportunity to work with different choir directors amongst them; Mons. Renzo Cilia, who was assistant director of the Sistine Chapel's Choir in Rome. She also took private tuition in choral direction with Dr. Colin Durant and also took part in a choral director course 'The Art of Choral Directing' directed by Josephine McNally at Sherbourne Summer Music School in the UK.

The Masters she followed at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Choral Conducting gave her the possibilities to work with international acclaimed choral conductors such as Simon Halsey, who is the chief conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir and the chorus director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus and London Symphony Chorus. Other choral conductors include Neil Ferris, Sarah-Tenant Flowers, Peter Hanke and Dr. Karen Grylls.

Marouska works as a qualified music teacher at the Malta School of Music and at the Gozo Visual and Performing Arts School. Her main objective is to inspire and instil awareness about the importance of music education, in particular the importance of being part of a choir, even from a very young age. She currently serves as the choral conductor of The SOM Young Singers at the Malta School of Music, SCJ Choir, SCJ Children’s Choir and SCJ Teenage Boys’ Choir in Gozo.