After graduating in piano, Lanfranco Menga completed his musical training at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, where he attended the courses of Gregorian Chant, Musicology, Harmony and Counterpoint with Dom Raffaele Baratta OSB, Giacomo Baroffio, and Vieri Tosatti. He thereafter attended a specialization course in piano with Sofia Bakman at the Conservatory “Rimsky-Korsakov” in St. Petersburg. He also attended academic classical studies, and graduated in Law with a dissertation thesis on Middle Ages.
His meeting with Andrea von Ramm, with whom he studied the medieval vocal repertoire in Munich proved essential for his artistic growth. In 1995 he founded the Ensemble Oktoechos, and in 2001 the Schola Gregoriana of Venice, two vocal groups that immediately arose the appreciation of public, critics, and scholars.
He has recorded for Pentaphon and Tactus, and carried out intense concert activities, collaborating and directing singers and instrumentalists, and has performed in Italy, Russia, France, and Denmark. He has also recorded for Italian TV channels RAI-2 and RAI-3.
He has collaborated with major cultural institutions including the Universities of Rome and Padua, the Foundation “Guido d’Arezzo” and the Foundation “Donne in musica” (Women in Music), the Foundation “Ugo and Olga Levi” of Venice, and he is regularly invited as member of the jury in national and international competitions.
Contemporary composers appreciated his work, and he collaborated, among others, with Pozzi Escot, Joanna Bruzdowicz, Giampaolo Chiti, Francesco de Masi, and Emanuele Pappalardo, who dedicated him several compositions. He is a member of the Study Group “Cantus planus” of the International Musicological Society, and carries out an intense musicological and educational activity.
He taught Prepoliphony and Medieval Music at the Conservatories “Santa Cecilia” in Rome and “Benedetto Marcello” in Venice.
