Dear Ragazzi,
I have been listening to the latest Ragazzi CD. Always such a treat. I love the Laetatus Sum, the Biebl, Sound the Trumpet etc. etc. I continue to be amazed by the range and quality of the music and of the singing. I wonder though if it’s clear to the younger boys and their parents just how far into the future the impact of Ragazzi continues. Certainly long after Concert Choir, even YME. We recently returned to Boston to hear our son sing. He’s a senior and a Choral Scholar at Harvard. There are not many Scholars, interestingly 2 are from Ragazzi. Anyway in addition to hearing him sing in the University Choir, we heard him sing Albert Herring in Benjamin Britten’s opera of the same name. It’s a difficult piece and yet he was coping well with it and immensely enjoying the singing. And I think back to conversations with other parents over the years, eg Peter Sherman’s parents (Peter is a soloist on Ragazzi’s 1st and 2nd CD’s) and Conrad Frank (another Ragazzi soloist) and it strikes me that this focus on instilling a love of singing and of the discipline needed to excel at it pays such huge dividends for these boys later on in life wherever they end up. (Peter, I think is a Marine officer in the Far East last I heard, Conrad is a professional counter-tenor). So as current parents drive through the rain with fidgety young boys in the back seats and wonder is all this effort by them and their boys worthwhile in the longer term, I believe the answer is “Yes, Yes, Yes…”
Jonathan MacQuitty
Joyce Keil, Artistic Director
Ragazzi Boys Chorus
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