What a week!

Singer, teacher and actress Phyllisienne Brincat tells Ramona Depares about life in the fast lane

Music is my life, I’ve been singing in public since I was three years old. I still remember every detail of my debut! The occasion was a baby show and all the other toddlers were doing something different. But I was the only one who sang. My mother chose Rita Pavone’s La Zanzara for me and it must have gone down well because I won. After the prize was given out, I remember that some journalists wanted to speak to me, they asked me so many questions…

Of course, it was all very exciting for a three-year-old, having all these grown-ups wanting to know all about me. I remember telling one of them that Rita Pavone was my cousin. How they all laughed at that! Some people ask me how I can remember everything when I was still a baby, but this was the event that got me hooked on singing, so it does make sense that I can recall everything.

Today I still get the same rush from my performances that I got that first time. Which is why I don’t mind that almost my every hour is filled with music, whether I’m teaching, performing, or doing some work in my recording studio. I am the only woman in Malta to own her own recording studio. It’s called Sweet Notes and it’s an annexe to the apartment where I live, which makes it very convenient. I’ve already recorded three albums: Christmas Miracle, which was mine, Revival (by Martin Elvis) and Mimlija Bil-Grazzja, by singer Michael Chetcuti. When it comes to studio work, I do everything myself: the only difficult part was getting used to the computer part. Oh, and using the mixer. But where there’s a will there’s a way, I always say. Ma naqta qalbi minn xejn, I never give up on anything.

My week is a varied one, although most activities relate to music. That’s the way I like it, I cannot remember ever waking up and thinking to myself that I didn’t feel like working. Monday blues do not exist in my world – one of the reasons being that I work every single day of the week. At present I sing in a number of pubs and hotels, my main regulars are the Selmun Palace Hotel, the Pergola, Santa Marija and The Seabank every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday respectively. The Christmas season was particularly crazy as you can imagine, in fact right now I am taking a small, very small break before the seasonal lull is over and things start getting hectic again.

I teach every day, not just at my place in Qawra but also once a week at the YTC in Valletta, every Saturday afternoon. I also do weddings, which makes my weekends pretty busy: last Saturday it was a mad rush from lessons to the wedding to the hotel. I don’t just sing, I play the keyboard as well, which helps. I like being independent. Now I’ve also discovered acting, look out for the play Disgrazzja bi Grazzja by Elio Lombardi.

Teaching I do enjoy, especially the little ones. They end up liking me so much that their parents use me when they want to punish them for some mischief. So it will be: You’ve been very naughty this week and if you don’t pull your socks up no lesson with Phyllisienne this week. It makes me laugh, but I do tend to fall in love with all of them. They see me as a kind of mother figure I suppose.

But I don’t teach just kids, many of my students are in their teenage years or even older. Some of them are married. And that makes me become their ‘counsellor’, of course, especially the youths. They are forever coming to me with their problems but I don’t mind, it makes me feel part of their life.

One of my greatest satisfactions is seeing my students become established singers. Fabrizio Faniello, Lawrence Grey, Miriam Christine Borg, Olivia and Marvic Lewis, Glenn and Eleonora…. These were all my students and it gives me great pride to know that I can claim a percentage of their success. They come to me with dreams of success and I do my best to make that dream come true for them. People laugh when I say this but I do shed some tears every time I see a student on television, success feels even sweeter when I know that they have started from scratch.

The funny thing is that some of them are quite stunati when they first come to me for lessons. Some singers, who are great names today, could not sing one single note when I first saw them. How do they manage to reach a good standard? Through sheer will and persistence both from my part and theirs. Which just goes to show that what I said earlier was quite true: where there’s a will there’s a way. When you have someone who wants to become a singer but he can’t hold a note to save his life, the only thing to do is repeatedly sing the same note for him over and over again until he gets it right. It’s a terrible strain on my voice but it can’t be helped.

And if they come to me already good singers – it’s a question of talent –I thank God for having sent them to me. And I try to teach them all I know so that they can further their talent, of course. I’m not one of those singers who keep their technique to themselves so that no-one gets as good as them! I give my students all that I can.

I’ve never had a student who came to me for lessons just to while away the time. They all take it pretty seriously and have some ambition to sing in public. We do have some incredible talent in Malta. As for opportunity to show that talent off, yes, we do offer quite a number of opportunities. To say nothing else, there are at least five to six singing festivals every month and all budding singers can take part. Festivals are a good showcase for talent. I remember taking part in the Eurofestival di San Remo dei Ragazzi when I was eleven years old. I will never forget being described by the Italians as ‘a Callas’ and as having ‘la voce piu straordinaria del festival’. At the time I did not even know who Maria Callas was. But it was a great compliment. I’d just started lessons with Antoinette Miggiani at the time and I was the only young student that she had accepted. Normally she only accepted older students because their voice would already have developed. But even at that young age, I had a developed voice. There were countless other festivals and victories but the San Remo festival will always hold a special place in my heart.

But back to today’s budding singers. The opportunities are there, even the Eurovision song festival is a great opportunity. No matter what critics say, taking part in the Eurovision can open many doors for the local singers. But I have to say that they are focusing too much on the younger singers when picking out who will represent Malta. They do not give the more established talent a chance.

Like I said, most of my time is taken up by music. On weekends I go salsa dancing at Fuego to wind down. I spend some two hours straight on the dancefloor! I like to walk too, because that is the only time I can give free rein to my fantasies and dreams. And of course I spend time with my three children, Isidora who’s eighteen, Engelbert, 14 and Kyle, the youngest at five years.

No day is completely free however, I work even on weekends. But because my work is music, I don’t mind.