Multi-percussion player and composer Renzo Spiteri is a sought-after independent musician distinguished by his ability of adapting to a wide range of musical styles - jazz to classical, from solo percussion performances to fusion,contemporary, folk and world music. A music graduate with an artistic career spanning more than 25 years, Renzo has given more than 1000 concerts and live performances across the globe, as well as having appeared and performed on numerous radio and television broadcasts.
Based in Malta (Europe), Renzo’s concert schedules have taken him on a beautiful musical journey across the globe, from Greenwich Village (New York City) to South Korea. He has performed in major festivals (WOMAD, Festival of the Desert, Musica Viva, PASIC) and theatres, and has worked alongside exceptional musicians to the likes of Trilok Gurtu, N’faly Kouyate (Afrocelt Sound System), Guo Yue, Mercan Dede, Idan Raichel and Michael Alcorn (SARC). Through his ongoing World Music Projects, Renzo regularly engages musicians from various ethnic communities to collaborate and create unique musical dialogues. These cross-cultural exchanges and concerts have consistently mesmerised and intrigued audiences, and in 2008 Renzo was appointed Ambassador for the European Union’s campaign “Year for Intercultural Dialogue”.
His creative and inventive approach to challenging projects has earned him high-profile assignments from local entities, foreign diplomatic bodies and international arts councils. He has scored and recorded music for the visitors’ audio guide of Hal-Saflieni Hypogeum, Malta (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), performed the contemporary “Sounds Unlimited” during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2005 (presented by The National Arts Council of Northern Ireland and The British Council), presented installation performance “Re:Public” as closing event celebrating Cork (Ireland) as European Cultural Capital, and “Sketches from Home” performed during the Festival of Cultures in Viareggio (Italy) (by invitation of the Italian Ministry of Culture).
As an educator, Renzo collaborates with the music departments at Queen’s University (Belfast), University of Iowa (USA) and China Conservatory of Music (Beijing). His residency/research period at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) in Belfast (N. Ireland highlighted his enthusiasm for more contemporary and experimental presentations of percussive music, merging the resonance of “found objects” and more conventional percussion instruments with live-electronic manipulation. He has released two albums with his works: “INKONTRI” (2010), also featuring Joe Friggieri that merges Friggieri’s poetry with contemporary music composed and performed by Renzo; and, “THIS IS MY LANGUAGE” (2005), a solo album with Renzo’s own original works for percussion using traditional as well as unconventional percussive instruments.
