The Ragazzi Boys Chorus is a boy's and young men's chorus in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. The chorus was formed in 1987 with six boys, and it now includes more than 250 singers from 100 schools, including the counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz. The chorus participated in the San Francisco Symphony's recording of Perséphone, which was included in the Symphony's album that won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for

Best Classical Album The Grammy Award for Best Classical Album was awarded from 1962 to 2011. The award had several minor name changes: *From 1962 to 1963, 1965 to 1972 and 1974 to 1976 the award was known as Album of the Year – Classical *In 1964 and 1977 it wa ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

. Since its founding, Ragazzi Boys Chorus has performed regularly with the

San Francisco Opera San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 when h ...

, San Francisco Symphony,

Opera San Jose Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

, West Bay Opera,

Lawrence Pech Lawrence Pech (known as "Larry" to friends and co-workers) is a dancer, choreographer and teacher currently living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Early years Pech was born in 1959 in Denver, Colorado. He received his early classical mu ...

Dance Company, Peninsula Symphony, Masterworks Chorale and the Stanford University Symphonic Chorus, among others. ''citation_needed''.html" ;"title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">''citation needed''">Wikipedia:Citation needed">''citation needed''In June 2022, Ragazzi completed a workshop with the

Vienna Boys' Choir The Vienna Boys' Choir (german: Wiener Sängerknaben) is a choir of boy sopranos and altos based in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the best known boys' choirs in the world. The boys are selected mainly from Austria, but also from many other count ...

Tours

Ragazzi Boys Chorus regularly tours in the United States and abroad. Ragazzi has toured internationally in Canada (1990), Russia (1992), Eastern Europe (1995), Italy (1998), Japan (1999), the British Isles (2001), Spain and Portugal (2004), and Australia and New Zealand (2007). In the summer of 2008, Ragazzi Boys Chorus was chosen to participate in the Kathaumixw Festival in British Columbia. In the summer of 2010, the choir travelled to Canada, where they participated in the yearly jazz festival. They also went to Cuba in 2011 and Los Angeles, California, in the summer of 2012. They went to Seoul, South Korea, and participated in the World Vision 2013 International Children's Choir Festival. Domestically, Ragazzi Boys Chorus has toured Minnesota, where they attended AMERICAFEST (2003); Oregon, where they attended PICCFEST (2005) as a featured choir; Montana, where they attended the International Choral Festival (2006) and Arizona (2009). In July 2009 Ragazzi Boys Chorus' Young Men's Ensemble (YME) toured the San Francisco East Bay, attending the Golden Gate International Children's Choral Festival.

Discography

* ''Good News!'' (1996) ive Performance* ''A Holiday Collection'' (1998) * San Francisco Symphony /

Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of ...

- Igor Stravinsky: ''Perséphone'' (2000) * ''Canciones de Alabanza'' (2001) * ''Magnificat My Spirit Rejoices'' (2006) * ''Splendors of the Italian Baroque'' (2009) * ''I Dream a World'' (2016)

Levels

Boys first join Ragazzi Boys Chorus in one of the Primary groups. From there, they are promoted to Ragazzi Premiere. After spending one or more years in Premiere, the boys advance to Avanti, a training group for Concert Group. After the boys learn 5 Standard Repertoire pieces and have finished the Monarch Theory Program, they can be promoted to Concert Group, which is the highest level for unchanged voices. After the boys' voices have changed, they can move on to the Young Men's Ensemble. A select group of the Young Men's Ensemble are chosen every year to be part of the Choral Scholars, where they sing

SATB SATB is an initialism that describes the scoring of compositions for choirs, and also choirs (or consorts) of instruments. The initials are for the voice types: S for soprano, A for alto, T for tenor and B for bass. Choral music Four-part harm ...

music

References

External links

*
Gentry Gala Press Release: Ragazzi Boys Chorus
{{authority control Choirs of children Non-profit organizations based in California American choirs Choirs in the San Francisco Bay Area Organizations based in San Francisco Boys' and men's choirs Musical groups established in 1987