THE JUBILATE DEO CHOIR
The choir was formed by the then parish priest of
Naxxar, Rev Paul Caruana in 1974 as a girls’ choir and sang for the first time at Christmas that same year. In the following
months male voices were added and the enlarged choir sang for the first time in the Good Friday celebrations of 1975. Eventually
adult female voices were added and the choir became an SATB choir.
The first big occasion for the choir came in 1980
when the members took part in the monumental mass composed by Maestro Joe Fenech, who also led the choir on the 50th
anniversary of Mons Carmelo Scerri’s ordination. Having passed that test the choir moved ahead. Not only did the choir
perform regularly in the liturgical feasts in the parish church, at Christmas time, Good Friday and Easter as well as the
parish feast, the Nativity of Our Lady, but the choir was also invited to take part at the Manoel Theatre for consecutive
years during the operetta season; it took part in the BBC production “Songs of Praise” which was televised worldwide;
it was also one of the choirs which sang during the papal mass during the pope’s visit to Malta.
Throughout these years the choir had been led by
Rev Richard Borg and grew under the leadership of Rev Rene Vella. In the last couple of years, Fr Rene was too busy with other
priestly duties and had to give up. On many an occasion Lawrence Scicluna deputised for him. In June 2004 the choir was entrusted
to Christopher Muscat.