We have all had our fair share of singing nuns and priests lately. What with the Ekklesia Sisters for the Malta Song Festival, the second concert of The Priests and the success of Suor Cristina in Italy’s The Voice, we were spoilt for choice. Frate Alessandro will join this list when he comes over to Malta for a concert.

Singing nuns and priests tend to be a very divisive issue for the public. The religiously inclined tend to view them as shining examples of good, clean entertainment, whereas the more sceptical see them as a poor imitation of a secular pop culture.

More importantly, the role of music and the genres considered acceptable are often divisive issues within religious deno­minations themselves.

I tend to belong to the more sceptical lot. Very often these things end up in religious sentimentalism or sensationalism of the lowest standards.

Beautiful lush orchestrations and carefully chosen melodies

However, speaking to Frate Alessandro I do realise that the issue is a bit more complex than that. When we are dealing with a religious community one must realise that any undertaking is done with the consent and for the benefit of the community.

One must also appreciate that the reason so many diverse religious communities exist is that they practise different forms of spirituality.

“I view the opportunity given to me to sing to a wide audience as a call from God to spread the Gospel in the way that St Francis taught his friars,” says Frate Alessandro.

“Francis was a singer, a musician, a composer – he composed the Canticle of the Creatures and taught his friars to sing it.”

Singing is thus an integral part of the Franciscan mission and, when Francis composed hymns of praise he did so in the popular styles of the day, predating Luther’s ideas on popular sing-ing and spirituality by some 300 years.

Frate Alessandro is a continuation of that tradition. His path to this musical mission was not an easy one.

Frate Alessandro was not born into a musical family, nor did he have a natural singing talent.

He did, however, have an innate love of music and joined the Conservatorio of Perugia where he worked on a musical career. He did not even have a vocational calling until he was a late teen.

“In my early teenage years I had abandoned my childhood beliefs in favour of philosophy.

“One day, when I was 16 I was in a wood and decided to challenge God to show His presence. I lay down on the grass and asked for a sign.

“It was at that moment that I felt a great love for all of creation… I no longer doubted God and it was only a few months later that I saw a film on the life of St Francis to which my immediate reaction was, I want to live like that man!”

Even then, the path to ordination was not an easy one and Frate Alessandro was told that he should finish his studies before joining the Franciscan Order.

Unfortunately, his music tutors did not think he had the sufficient level to finish those studies.

“I felt that my entrance into the order was in jeopardy and began to study frenetically,” says Frate Alessandro.

“It seems still miraculous to me that after a period of only three weeks, out popped a previously unheard tenor voice.

“I flew through the exam and then happily joined as a friar.”

Frate Alessandro resisted public performances for a long time, preferring to concentrate instead on his vocation.

However, he was heard by a singing tutor who spotted his talent and after many attempts managed to get him to audition for her and Mark Pinder from Decca Records. By 2012 he had signed for Decca and started work on his debut album.

Frate Alessandro has already released two albums and is working on a third. His style might not be everybody’s cup of tea but I must admit he does bring classical music closer to a very specific audience.

Being Italian, things do have a classier edge than most other stuff in the genre.

There are no ‘Casio-beats’ or folk guitars, but beautiful lush orchestrations and carefully chosen melodies.

And to be fair to him, unlike most pop-classic crossover artists, he firmly believes in what he sings and that, for me, is a fundamental quality for any artist.

Frate Alessandro will perform on Saturday at 7.45pm at the parish church of St Publius, Floriana. Tickets are available from the Floriana council.