Mr. Vicente Moncho, is a leading Argentine composer who currently specializes in writing music for wind band, but still writes some, and has written in the past, several pieces for other media. His compositions are created in a modal type language, showing a marked influence of the Argentine Urban Tango as well as compositional patterns used in Western Europe. His orchestrations are characterized by their full and rich sounds, whether they're arranged for large or small ensembles.
In 1962, Mr. Moncho majored in violin pedagogy from the School of Music at the National University of Cuyo, in Mendoza, Argentina. During his major, he also took violin lessons with Professor Humberto Carfi, a graduate from the Santa Cecilia Academy of Rome, Italy. Mr. Moncho played for several chamber orchestras in the Buenos Aires Area, as well as for the La Plata Symphony Orchestra in Buenos Aires until 1965 That year, Mr Moncho moved to the city of Cordoba, Argentina, and for the next several years he took private Music Theory and Composition lessons with renowned professors in such city. In 1971, Mr. Moncho was motivated to continue his musical education at a higher level. In December of 1972 he started his "Licenciatura in Composición" (Composition Major) at the National University of Cordoba School of Arts. Under the guidance of great professors such as Mr. Teodoro Fuchs in Harmony and Mr. Miguel Corrado in Counterpoint an Fugue, Mr Moncho managed to complete this five years major in only two years, and was awarded the Best Graduate University Price. His Final thesis for such major, a composition which Mr. Moncho called "Transmutations", was performed by the Rosario Symphony Orchestra of Argentina in 1975 as well as by the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra at the Colon Theatre.
Mr. Moncho is presently a member of the National University of Cordoba School of Arts Composition Department; serving as an Instrumentation and Orchestration teacher. Mr. Moncho involvement in music has earned him honors. He won the National Board of Composers Musical Competition in 1994, which was held by the "Consejo Argentino de la Música" (Argentine Music Council), he was awarded the "1999 SADAIC Great Price - Chamber and Symphonic Music Category" by the Argentine Performing Rights Association as an acknowledgement of his contribution to Argentine Music, and he was distinguished for his musical trajectory by Musical Critics of Argentina in 2001.
Toward the late eighties and early nineties, Moncho's career begun to expand beyond the borders of his home country of Argentina. He started to frequent the "Latin-American Composers Meeting" in Buenos Aires (1980, 1983, 1985 and 1996) in Brazil (1986 and 1995), in Chile (1987 and 1989) and " Iº y 2º Conferencias Regionales Sud-Americanas de Compositores, Arregladores y Directores de Banda Sinfónica" (Tatui-Brazil 2002-2004). In 1993 he traveled to Canada commissioned by the Canadian Government to do a research work on wind ensemble themes. During that same year, he attended the WASBE (World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles) VI Conference in Valence, Spain. Two years later in 1995, Mr Moncho was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of such Organisation until 2001. He has attended the WASBE Conferences in Schladming, Austria (1997) and in San Luis Obispo, USA (1999) and continued to keep up with WASBE as National Representative and Chairman of Network Composers. Also in 1993, he started to attend the Mid-West Intentional Band and Orchestra Clinic, which is held in Chicago, Illinois -USA every December until 2000. he is advisory member at the Mid-Europe, Musical Annual Conference of Schladming-Austria.
As mentioned earlier on, Mr. Vicente Moncho has composed music for different types of media. His titles include: To Be Fair (opera); Three Symphonic Structures, Transmutations, Growing up and Introspection (orchestra); The Return of Anaconda (ballet); Transmutations II and Meetings (strings); Two songs to Federico (choir); Nazuna (clarinet quartet with vocal quartet); Six Bagatelles (flute, clarinet and guitar); and solos for violin, flute, cello, and soprano voice. Moncho's works for band/wind orchestra include, Happening (for violin and instrumental group), The Gift of the Eagle, Vibs (for soprano and wind orchestra), I heard you solemn-sweet pipes of the organ... and ...de Tango, (in three versions: for eight players, 1994 for wind ensemble and percussion, and version 1996 for orchestra).
Mr. Moncho compositions have been performed by virtually every Argentina Orchestras, including the National Symphony Orchestra and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra. Outside of Argentina his music have been performed by the Symphony Orchestra of the National Theatre of Brasilia, the Minas Gerais Symphony Orchestra, Sao Paulo Symphony Band (Brazil), Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra (Colombia), Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra (Ukraine), Philharmonic Band of Caracas. National Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Colombia National Symphony Band, SMU/Meadows Wind Ensemble-Dallas, Emory Wind Ensemble-Atlanta, Jordan Winds-Boston (USA), Wegelius Wind Ensemble-Helsinki (Finland), Leo Wiener High School of Music-Budapest (Hungary), Central Band of the Royal Air Force-London (UK) , Florida State Univerity Wind Orchestra (USA), Capital University Wind Ensemble (USA), Orchestra di fiati della Valtellina (Italy), Orquestra de Sopros Brasileira (Brazil), etc. Mr. Moncho's chamber music have been performed in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Spain, Austria, Holland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, UK, Ukrania, USA. His music have been radio-broadcasted in Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, Denmark, Ireland and several other countries.
Mr. Vicente Moncho's scores are also to be found at the Music Division of the Library of Congress of the United States of America.