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About

Ragazzi [ra’gat’tzee]:
1. An Italian term for “guys” or “friends”
2. The opera term for children’s voices

Ragazzi provides outstanding musical education and performance opportunities for boys and young men, ages 5 to 18. We have more than 200 singers in our internationally recognized program. They come from over 100 schools in over 30 communities, and over the course of our program they advance through six tiered levels. We hold auditions in May, summer, and January.

We’ve been named on of the Best Choirs on the Peninsula by CBS news, and have been hailed by critics as “one of the Peninsula’s finest treasures.”

Under the leadership of Artistic and Executive Director Kent Jue, Ragazzi Boys Chorus performs a wide range of traditional and contemporary works for both the treble and changed voice.  The chorus performs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Belmont, Berkeley, Redwood City, Pacifica, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, San Carlos, San Francisco, San Mateo, Saratoga, and Stanford.

The chorus appears regularly with other outstanding Bay Area performing arts organizations. Ragazzi collaborates with the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Opera San Jose, West Bay Opera, Lawrence Pech Dance Company, Peninsula Symphony, Masterworks Chorale, and the Stanford University Symphonic Chorus.

Ragazzi participated in the San Francisco Symphony’s recording of Stravinsky’s Perséphone, which was included in the Symphony’s Grammy Award for best classical album and best orchestral performance. Listen to recent recordings.

Ragazzi Boys Chorus made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2014 and regularly tours in the United States and internationally to widen chorus members’ musical and cultural horizons, and deepen Ragazzi’s reputation for performance excellence.

Based in Redwood City, California, Ragazzi was founded in 1987 by Joyce Keil.

"Amazing staging...Your singing was just superb, from the opening spaciousness to the Byrd, which brought tears. So well sung...the voices so clean and shimmering with meaning."

Vance George, DIRECTOR EMERITUS, SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY CHORUS