Photos by Curtis Finger
Ragazzi Continuo, the Ragazzi Boys Chorus alumni, had their concert last week, and now it's the turn of the current Ragazzi to celebrate the organization's 25th anniversary. They'll be making their Bing Concert Hall debut on June 9, with "Sing It Forward: A Silver Celebration," which features a commissioned work by Cris Grases, and chorus favorites from the past 25 years' repertoire.
An important Peninsula center for music education and performance for boys and young men, ages 7–18, the chorus currently has 170 singers from 86 schools in 26 Bay Area communities.
Behind spectacular figures — thousands of boys, hundreds of concerts — there are moving individual stories about what it means to belong to the group. One boy, who had recently suffered a loss in his family, told Ragazzi advocate-publicist-fairy godmother Carla Befera: "Things happen in people's lives. I was completely destroyed a couple of months ago, but going into rehearsal the next day, I cracked a smile and felt a lot better."
Of course, boys will be boys, and when you ask about their experience with the group and their reasons for participating, you get equal measures of sincerity, whimsy, and youthful wisdom:
* "I get a lot of girlfriends by singing them love songs." Ben Vogel, 13, Palo Alto (saying what many famous tenors would never admit).
* "What I like about Ragazzi is if you start singing something slow and mellow you start feeling the same way. Music makes you feel different like that. I also like it because once you learn to do it, you become obsessed with it and when other people hear how good you are, they say, 'wow!' That makes me proud." Jack Pine, 9, Burlingame
* "I learn something new every time I sing." Michael Sacco, 10, Redwood City.
* "Ragazzi is a great experience for those who want to sing, be a gentleman, and have fun." Ryan Brouchoud, 10, Redwood City.
* "I like the sound of music — it's cool, calm, awesome, and Ragazzi is a super cool choir that sounds great." Finn Platkin, 10, Burlingame.
* "Ragazzi is a place that is another safe haven that protects you from the calamities of the outside world." Benjamin Goya, 14, San Mateo.
* "Ragazzi is a place where you can come together to be greater than any one person." Henry Phipps, 13, Woodside.
* "Ragazzi is the perfect environment to learn and sing music, make lifelong friends, be yourself, and let your passion for music run wild." Jamie Holmstrom, 14, Woodside.
The extent of Ragazzi's work is impressive. Over a relatively short span of 25 years, the chorus has offered approximately 3,000 "boy-years" of training — some boys stayed only a year or two, but many remained with the program for up to 10 seasons or more. Executive Director David Jones estimates about 2,000 boys have had Ragazzi training (ranging from 1 semester to 22 semesters).
Having put on about 10 basic public performances per year for the holidays, spring, and so on, the estimated total is over 250. Ragazzi have performed with San Francisco Symphony, Opera, San Jose Opera, and other organizations, with some 400 such joint appearances. Groups of Ragazzi have toured in the U.S. and abroad, including Canada (1990), Russia (1992), Eastern Europe (1995), Italy (1998), Japan (1999), the British Isles (2001), Spain and Portugal (2004), Australia and New Zealand (2007), British Colombia (2008), Quebec (2010), and Cuba (2011). This summer, the group will tour South Korea.
Says Ragazzi Artistic Director Joyce Keil, who founded the organization after working with the San Francisco Boys Chorus as an assistant:
I am moved by the stories I am hearing from our graduates as to how Ragazzi has impacted their lives. I have always loved music and specifically singing and I wanted to share this musical joy with boys because when I was teaching high school, I found it so hard to recruit male singers.I have learned that putting the boys together, alone, without girls makes it safe for them to explore their voices and their emotions. Beyond that, through Ragazzi, in addition to their musical achievements, they have created life-long friendships and developed other skills like discipline, focus. We just had to build it; they have come by the hundreds.