Founder of La Stella Band Club, Gozo
Pietru was born in Victoria, Gozo, the son of Notary Feliċ Attard and Amadea Rapa, of Greek extraction.
Pietru Attard was orphaned because his mother died when he was three years old and his father re-married Carmela Sultana and had four children: Feliċ, Marianna, Sylvia, and Carmela.
Pietru Attard was brought up by his aunts at Senglea. He matriculated at the UM in 1858 and studied under Professors Giorgio Schinas and Emmanuele Galizia of the UM and graduated as a perito agrimensore in 1865 after submitting his thesis. In 1865 he married a Maltese girl, Carmela Calderone, the daughter of Antonio and Marianna nèe Guzman, and went to live at no. 3, it-Tokk, Rabat, Gozo.
Pietru Attard’s wife, Carmela died on 17 July 1869 at the age of 29, and he returned to his family's abode where his father died on 16 October 1874. Attard went to live at Strada Gran Fontana, Fontana together with his siblings.
Pietru Attard followed in the footsteps of his father and family tradition and in 1871 he was member of the Società Gozitano d’Incoraggiamento.
He was first of all keen on promoting drama in 1870. He set up a theatre under the name of Calypso at the end of Għajn Qatet Street, Rabat, which was the first of its kind, and formed an amateur group to perform in it to an audience which could total 160 persons in capacity within the premises, later the property of the family ‘Tal-Gatt’. He directed a number of philodramatic actors in staging the Italian farce L'Ipocrita, and the play in the Maltese idiom Il Kuġin.
Pietru Attard was also one of the deputies of the Società Gozitana d'Incoraggiamento and member of the Industrial Committee in the following year 1871.
Attard was the founder of the ‘La Stella Band’ of Victoria. He made available his father's residence at no 15 St John Street, Rabat, Victoria, for the necessary talks to found the musical society and the initial concerts in 1880. Attard was also the first president on its official formation by virtue of a public deed enrolled in the records of Notary Onorato Giovanni Refalo on 11 January 1881. He was aided by Maestro Anton Buhagiar who was the first Musical Director and directed a musical programme a year before and he was a contracting party with twenty musicians to the registered act of foundation. However, Attard was soon abandoned by Maestro Buhagiar and was set in the same year to utilise the same orchestra of Theatre Calypso namely the twelve bandsmen and Salvu Grima as Musical Director. Attard served for four years as president and afterwards acted as secretary and treasurer of the La Stella Band in the course of which he tried his utmost to promote the feast of St George. Attard also gathered a large number of musical scores of Maestro Gian Antonio Cinà which ranged from a gran marcia, ouvertures, military compositions as well as lively and funeral marches. Between 1884 and 1893 the premises of the band club were transferred to no. 17 Strada Gran Fontana, property of Sir Adrian Dingli.
Attard was a well-known numismatic and archeologist. He was well known for his collection of all the coins issued by the Order of St John in its local mint in Valletta. He recovered from various archaeological sites a good collection of pottery and inscriptions. He published a catalogue of 69 pages entitled Descrizione delle Monete dell'Ordine di S. Giovanni formante la Collezione di Pietro Attard. Unfortunately, his collection went missing and its whereabouts were lost. He passed the collection of coins to the Museums Department once it was set up and organised in 1905.
Attard was a genealogist and owned an archive of family trees and events from 1554 down to 1934 known as the 'Giuliana Masini' which survived in the Masini family until its descendant Franco*. Apart from being a court expert on firearms, he was also a well-known designer and caricaturist.
He sketched the facade of the building where later stood the Citadel Theatre in Independence Square, Rabat, Victoria. He drew political caricatures for the press under the pseudonym 'Vampa' and some of them were reproduced in the satirical newspaper Don Basilio. His vignette "Id-Daħla Trijonfali ta' ‘Fefu’ f'Għawdex" which depicted in a burlesque fashion the visit of Dr Stefano Micallef Eynaud from Floriana to Gozo on the feast of St George in 1872 following his election of councillor for the district of Gozo. He had his professional office at no. 5, St James Street, Gozo.
Indeed, he was full of energy and was a first-rate hunter like many of the professions of the time. He was a member of the confraternity of Our Lady of Addolorata erected within the church of St James.
Pietru Attard was commemorated by a fitting tribute by the Soċjetà Filarmonika La Stella of Victoria, Gozo as its founder and first president with a musical programme at the Astra Theatre on 20 November 1999, with Attard's bronze monument by sculptor Joseph Chetcuti inaugurated by Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono.
He died aged 81 years at his residence in Victoria, and was buried in the church of St Augustine in the same capital city of Gozo.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.