Tano Monseigneur

The urge to create new musical compositions has flourished in me throughout the years and has simply become stronger as time went by. Whether it be music for wind bands, orchestra, sacred or chamber works, it’s the passion that drives me to continue composing.

Tano Monseigneur, born in Malta in 1973, started his first music lessons at an early age with the St Gaetan Band Club of Ħamrun. He continued his studies in euphonium under Mro Paul Borg. Furthermore he studied harmony and at a later stage composition under the supervision of Mro Ray Sciberras, obtaining the A(Mus)LCM and the L(Mus)LCM diplomas in 2003 and 2009 respectively. In 2023 he obtained the fellowship (FLCM) in Composition from the University of West London with Melita Invicta, a suite for orchestra and choir (SATB), inspired by Ġużè Chetcuti’s patriotic poem bearing the same name.

Currently he forms part of the Cappella Diacono and the Mirabitur choirs as a bass singer, but dedicates most of his time to composition. His repertoire includes several festive, funeral and processional marches, concert pieces for wind band and orchestra, piano and chamber music, and sacred music for choirs many of which were performed in a variety of settings.

Being a teacher of Maltese language by profession, Tano Monseigneur manages to bring Maltese poetry and music together in several of his compositions such as in Dun Karm Psaila’s Presepju ta’ Tfuliti (2017) for wind band and female voice and his orchestral piece for baritone L-Għanja tal-Imnikket (2018) by Rużar Briffa. In 2019 he composed music for the poems L-Għajn fil-Misraħ by Joe Friggieri, Aqta’ Fjura u Ibni Kamra by Immanuel Mifsud and Ġejja x-Xita by Mary Meilak for female choir and piano. Other works include a set of humoristic poems by Anselm Sciberras, composed in 2020 for pop singers, keyboards, woodwind and brass ensemble; and his song cycle Ħsus (2021) including nine poems of Professor Oliver Friggieri, composed for soprano, tenor and baritone voices, string quartet and piano.

In 2021 his processional march Sultana tal-Ħolqien Kollu placed third in a competition organised by the Soċjetà Mużikali Marija Mtellgħa s-Sema of Mġarr, Malta.

In 2022, Tano Monseigneur’s work for wind band, Under Siege, was one of the award-winning compositions in a competition organised by the Cottonera Foundation in collaboration with the National Band Clubs Organisation, judged by international composers. This work was recorded by the Malta Armed Forces band in January 2023.

His piano piece Game of Fourths, was chosen by an international jury to be performed during the International Piano Festival held in Malta in August 2023, in a competition organised by the Malta Piano Academy.

Tano Monseigneur is a teacher-librarian at Saint Nicholas College, Dingli Secondary School, Malta.