About Us
KorMalta, Malta’s National Choir, is an initiative of the Arts Council Malta within the Ministry for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government. Founded in 2018, KorMalta has undertaken intense work to make the national choir a qualified choral group, meeting even the most demanding and the widest range of choral repertoire.
The Choir has presented a number of highly acclaimed performances, namely Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under the baton of Brian Schembri and in collaboration with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Holst’s The Planets conducted by Michalis Economou, Mozart's Great Mass in C minor conducted by Peter Manning, Jenkin’s The Armed Man conducted by Michael Laus, Faure’s Requiem directed by Riccardo Bianchi and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms directed by Wayne Marshall. In February 2019, saw the participation of KorMalta together with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, in the live performance of the soundtrack of the Disney’s Film Beauty and the Beast.
In the operatic field, 2020 KorMalta performed in Rossini’s Otello and in 2022 it proudly participated in the staging of Le Maschere by Pietro Mascagni, together with the renown Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, under the baton of Jacopo Brusa within the prestigious Illica Festival.
In addition to collaborations with the national orchestra, the choir collaborates closely with the Valletta Baroque Ensemble, performing over the years critical acclaimed productions within the prestigious Valletta International Baroque Festival, including Biber’s Requiem conducted by Stefano Molardi, Handel’s Messiah directed by Christian Curnin and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri conducted by Riccardo Bianchi.
During the last two musical seasons the choir, consisting of 56 members and directed by its artistic director, worked on numerous a cappella projects spanning a wide range of repertoires from polyphony to the contemporary. Recent engagements included William Byrd and Italian Renaissance motets and medieval polyphony in a concert inspired by Dante’s La Divina Commedia, a cappella performances of Xenakis’ A Helena, together with music by Pizzetti and Castelnuovo Tedesco as part of the Malta International Spring Festival.
The most stylistic trait of KorMalta is the musical eclecticism and the propensity to collaborate with other art forms, creating innovative performances with the collaboration of visual artists, actors and dancers, as in the case of the iconic performance of The Sunrise Mass by Ola Gjeilo performed at dawn at the Megalithic Temples of Mnajdra in collaboration with the national dance company ZfinMalta, in collaboration with Heritage Malta.
KorMalta also provides continuous professional training for its choristers with masterclasses and workshops with local and international tutors. The artistic and musical direction of the choir is entrusted to Riccardo Bianchi assisted by voice leaders Marouska Attard and Albert Buttigieg.
Mro Bianchi is an Italian choir and orchestra conductor. After having carried out his choral conducting studies at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Turin, he was awarded with the “Diploma di Merito” in 2015 and 2016 from the Accademia musicale Chigiana di Siena with Roberto Gabbiani. He has been furthering his musical training at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena where he studies orchestra conducting with Gianluigi Gelmetti. He graduated in Choral Conducting with Dario Tabbia, Orchestra Conducting with Antonino Fogliani and he is graduated with honours in Philosophy.