The Banda Cittadina Madonna di Tirano has documented origins since 1814, when it was called to solemnize the arrival of the Bishop. A

ctive throughout the 19th century, in 1892 it was invited to participate “in uniform” at the ceremony for the passage of Prince Ranieri, Viceroy of the Lombardo Veneto Kingdom. 

It is the first band in the province to have a uniform. Tirano also had three musical associations in the early 1900s, but it will be from the Società Concordia – founded also thanks to the entrepreneur Adolfo Carish and very active until 1915 – that the current band will develop.

After a phase of interruption due to the First World War, activities resumed with various formations until the official birth of today’s Banda Cittadina Madonna di Tirano in 1922, a name confirmed definitively in 1971. 

Today, the Banda Cittadina Madonna di Tirano is composed of 35 musicians, directed from September 2025 by maestro Francesco Mozzanica, and has a youth band led by Maestro Ermanno Moltoni, made up of 15 students. 

Through the collaboration between the band, the Municipality, and the comprehensive school, the Musicalmente Project is realized each year within the primary school, to make the association known and to spread our cultural traditions. 

The group meets weekly for rehearsals at Palazzo San Michele and offers the city numerous concerts each year to animate ceremonies, religious processions, and civil manifestations. 

The band also offers a course in music theory, and at the beginning of 2026, the Prime Notes course will start, where children can engage with small-sized instruments to approach music and band traditions. 

This year, for the first time, the band will present the New Year’s Concert, which will be held at the Cinema Teatro Mignon on January 4, 2026, and which, like the famous Vienna Concert, will begin at 11:00 AM. 

On this occasion, the administration has decided to confer a recognition for a life of music in the service of the city to former musicians Zaverio Caglioni, Ferrari Carlo Lino, De Piaz Mario, and Manusardi Sergio, who was also a standard bearer and archivist, and who already appears in the photographs of the association from the post-war period.

“On January 4, we will experience the first New Year’s Concert of the Banda Cittadina Madonna di Tirano, an event strongly desired by our administration, which has always looked with admiration at the tradition of the famous Viennese concert. From this comes the desire to propose a musical moment in Tirano that can enhance our band, a true bridge between past and future, guardian of a story made of music, community, and tradition.

During the evening, we will pay tribute to some historic musicians, custodians of our sonic memory, recognizing their commitment and the deep bond that still unites them today to the association. It will be a tribute signed “Tirano, city of music,” because it is in our history that the new harmonies of tomorrow are born.”

Isabella Ciapponi Landi
Councilor for Culture and Education