St Monica Choir

Founded in 1964 by Sr Beniamina Portelli, the St Monica Choir is one of Malta's leading polyphonic choirs. The choir’s repertoire varies from sacred to popular, early to contemporary.

For over 20 years, it has been collaborating with other entities and exchanging visits with foreign choirs and travelling to European countries. The choir has, amongst others, presented concerts at the Liverpool Philharmonic Theatre, the Vatican City, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Esztergom Cathedral in Hungary and St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, as well as televised and radio recordings for renowned media stations such as the BBC and the German ARD 1. Amongst the choir’s participation with foreign choirs, one cannot but mention the Knox Academy Choir from Scotland and the Beethoven Society of Australia. With the latter, the St Monica Choir presented a memorable production of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Orkestra Nazzjonali under the baton of Dr Steve Watson at the Teatru Manoel in May 1999. The St Monica Choir has been commissioned to premiere local compositions, such as Stabat Mater by prolific Maltese composer Carmelo Pace together with Orkestra Nazzjonali (the national orchestra) and Mro Michael Laus. Early 2007 saw yet another collaboration come to fruition, this time together with Vocalise, when, for the first time in Malta, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio Parts I, II & III were performed at St John's Co-Cathedral under the direction of international conductor and musicologist Hans Jürgen Nagel.

In November 1999, the St Monica Choir became the first and only Maltese choir to win the prestigious Malta International Choir Festival. Delegated to represent Malta during the first edition of the choral Olympics held in Linz, Austria, the following year, the choir was awarded bronze 1 from amongst over twenty participants in the mixed choirs’ category. September 2001 marked yet another milestone in the choir’s history when it launched its own compilation of varied musical compositions on CD entitled Expressions.

In 2002, the choir was invited to make a guest appearance during a choral festival at the Dorog House of Culture in Hungary. Two years later, the choir was once again invited to participate in the “XIII Festival de Musica en Navidad” organized by the Cultural Department of Madrid. The St Monica Choir, the only foreign choir invited to participate, held its concert at the Sagrada Familia church in Madrid.

In 2004, to commemorate its 40th Anniversary since its foundation, the choir launched a comprehensive website and a documentary on DVD encompassing forty years of existence and achievements. The choir’s own productions of its Easter and Christmas concerts, helped raise further funds for the missions. In 2006, the St Monica Choir performed a concert in Haddington, Scotland to help raise funds for the local church there.

The choir is an affiliated member of Förderverein Interkultur, organizers of the Choir Olympics and other Musica Mundi concerts worldwide.