Coming up for Air in Malta

Flute workshop with flutist Kathryn Williams

Ahead of her performance at the Three Palaces Festival on 30 October, flutist Kathryn Williams brings her internationally acclaimed project Coming Up for Air to Malta for the first time. Described as “ingeniously inventive” (Tempo) and “strangely fascinating” (BBC Music Magazine), the project examines and redefines the role of breath in performance.

Initiated in 2017 as a personal response to chronic respiratory illness, Coming Up for Air invites composers to create works limited to a single breath. The collection has now grown to more than 150 pieces, spanning playful, poetic, and theatrical explorations that highlight the body’s physical limits while celebrating breath as music’s life force.

In this interactive session, Williams will share insights from her creative practice, perform selected single-breath works, including submissions from University of Malta students, and reflect on how limitation can spark artistic possibility. Participants will be invited to explore breath as sound, gesture, and performance, connecting their own embodied experiences to music-making. This workshop offers a unique opportunity to engage directly with an evolving international project, while discovering practical tools for performers, composers, and listeners to rethink how we breathe, play, and listen.

The session will take place on 29 October, 10.00 - 12.00 in OH127, University of Malta, Msida Campus.  Discover more about Kathryn Williams by clicking here: http://www.kathryngwilliams.com/coming-up-for-air.html