Prosecco, Piazzolla and a Priory: Valletta’s Most Intimate New Concert Series – Starting March 2026

There’s a door on Old Bakery Street that most people in Valletta walk past without a second thought. Behind it is the apse of St Augustine’s Priory — a recently restored 16th-century space that very few visitors ever see. On 14th March, it becomes the setting for something that doesn’t exist anywhere else on the island.

Sip & Listen is a new concert series launching this March, built around a simple idea: classical music in small, atmospheric spaces, with a glass of prosecco in hand, no formality required. The opening night is called Rhythms of Fire: Spanish Passion for Music, and it features Ramona Zammit Formosa — one of Malta’s finest pianists — playing an hour of Spanish and South American music that moves between the elegance of Granados, the brooding intimacy of Mompou, and the raw sensuality of Piazzolla’s tangos.

The Programme

Ramona opens with Enrique Granados’ Danzas Españolas — pieces that carry the sound of 19th-century Spain in their bones, flamenco rhythms filtered through a concert pianist’s hands. From there the evening moves through Federico Mompou’s Canción y Danza, Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla, and Ernesto Lecuona — composers whose music sits somewhere between the concert hall and the street, between restraint and fire.

The closing section is three tangos by Astor Piazzolla, the Argentine composer who made the tango into something you could play in a church without anyone objecting. In a priory apse with stone walls and candlelight, that’s not a small thing.

The Venue

St Augustine’s Priory Apse on Old Bakery Street is not on any tourist map. The building dates to the 16th century, the same period when the Knights of Malta were constructing everything else that makes Valletta what it is — and the Spanish connection in tonight’s programme is not accidental. The Knights operated under Spanish crown protection for much of their time in Malta. The music and the walls have a common origin.

After the concert, the venue opens up in a way that almost no other evening in Valletta does. Tickets include access to the archaeological site and courtyard, a 16th-century chapel and priory remains, a World War II air raid shelter dug beneath the building, and the crypt and ossuary below. It is not the evening you planned, and that is the point.

Practical Details

When: Saturday 14 March 2026, 7:30pm Where: St Augustine Priory Apse, Old Bakery Street, Valletta Price: €30 suggested donation, prosecco included Tickets: [email protected] / [email protected] / +356 7968 0952

Tickets are also available from the venue directly. Numbers are limited — this is an intimate space and they mean it.

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The same organisation also runs weekly lunchtime concerts at Our Lady of Victory in Valletta — a separate series worth knowing about if you’re on the island for more than a few days.