Ragazzi boys are in demand! This spring has turned into one of our busier with boys from Premiere, Avanti, Concert Group, and Young Men’s Ensemble involved in four different collaborations.

YME, our high school group, is working with the Harker School Dance Team (their director is our choreographer, Karl Kuehn) in a merger of the two art forms we’re calling Song & Dance, on Saturday, March 21, in San Mateo.  You’ll hear the songs, see the moves and grove to the blend.

At the same time, intermediate level Premiere, along with three upper-level Concert Group soloists, have been working with Fremont Opera, the Young Women’s Choral Project of San Francisco, and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra to put on Benjamin Britten’s recreation of a medieval pageant, Noye’s Fludde (that’s the Middle English spelling of Noah’s Flood). They open in San Francisco on March 21, and also perform in Fremont on March 28.

Meanwhile, upper-level treble singers in Avanti and Concert Group have been working on their Elvish.  They’ll sing with Symphony Silicon Valley to present two showings of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, with live accompaniment on April 16 and 18 in San Jose. This is the same sort of collaboration YME had with the San Francisco Symphony in December when they sang for the film Home Alone.

Last, Bodhi Tree Concerts North has asked Avanti, Concert Group and YME to perform a concert benefitting Music for Minors, a local nonprofit bringing music education to 20,000 public school children up and down the Peninsula. That performance will take place on Saturday, May 2. Later that week and out of the public eye, Concert Group boys will bring their special brand of magic to student assemblies in four Redwood City elementary schools, in cooperation with Music for Minors.

It all comes back to our great boys

There are three ingredients to this collaboration brew. The first is Ragazzi staff and faculty keeping their eyes and ears open for possibilities. The second and more important is Ragazzi’s reputation for musical excellence – each of our musical partners this season approached us with proposals. The third ingredient, and by for the most important, is our Ragazzi boys. It’s their hard work and impressive discipline that sustains Ragazzi’s reputation. Ragazzi boys arrive knowing their music and prepared to work hard to put on the best show they possibly can. Other arts groups know this and seek us out.