Colin Attard

Meet the Protagonists

LA TRAVIATA | OPERA - 17 OCTOBER 2026

Colin Attard, “is a familiar figure on the local music scene. His energy is as boundless and dynamic as his hair, and I know few local musicians who are as energetic as he is” (Albert Storace, The Sunday Times of Malta, 03/03/2014).

Born in 1962 in a highly musical family from Victoria, Gozo, inevitably, Attard grew up in a rather musical environment. He advanced musical studies under the tuition of his late uncle, Prof. Joseph Vella. Indeed, his artistic development and creative impulse were very much moulded within the parameters of his native Gozo – with a necessary corollary being versatility and pragmatism. In turn, he has been a key player in the development and promotion of Gozitan culture, crucially contributing to the revitalisation of its concert activity ever since becoming musically very active in the early 1980’s.

In 1990 he officially founded the Gaulitanus Choir, Gozo’s first unaffiliated choir. Contemporarily, he also first became associated with the Teatru tal-Opra Aurora and its parent organisation, the Leone Philharmonic Society, being appointed resident conductor in 1991. Aware of the constant need to keep up with change, he has been at the front in drifting away from the ubiquitous, tried-and-tested music, thus presenting contemporary, challenging and rather ‘unfamiliar’ classics as well as more trendy, popular music.

Yet, Attard is perhaps more widely known as a pivotal personality in Gozitan operatic productions in which he is not just the man behind the baton but also extensively involved in their organisation, besides doubling as choir master. Colin Attard remains a very proud Gozitan in heart, giving his all to further develop Gozo’s high-quality cultural programme and to enhance Gozo’s image as “an island of culture”.