Charlene Farrugia

SCHOLAR DESCRIPTION

Charlene Farrugia was recognized at an early age as a particularly gifted child and was referred to as the “enfant terrible of Maltese piano.” In 2018, she received Malta’s International Achievement Award and was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2020. She is one of the ambassadors of the Euro Mediterranean Music Academy (EMMA for Peace) under the patronage of UNESCO and Honorary President Riccardo Muti. Charlene made her concerto debut with the MPO at the age of 13. Since then, she has been a regular performer on the Maltese cultural scene. She has toured widely, engagements taking her throughout Europe to North America and the Far East, appearing in venues from the Théâtre Princesse Grace, Monaco and Château Sainte-Anne, Brussels to the Smetana Hall, Prague and the Shanghai Oriental Art Center. So far, she has recorded a total of seven CDs for major record labels: Naxos, Sony Classical, Grand Piano and Navona. The BOV Joseph Calleja foundation sponsored her solo album of works by Khachaturian, which was released in 2021 to critical acclaim, reaching 18 million streams on Spotify alone.

Charlene studied locally with Dolores Amodio, and with Diana Ketler at the Royal Academy of Music in London. For several years she was mentored by Boris Petrushansky. She gained her doctorate in performance under Kenneth Hamilton with a thesis on piano repertory for the left hand. She is currently an associate professor of piano at the Music Academy, in Pula, Croatia.