Ragazzi: How we choose our music

HOW DO RAGAZZI DIRECTORS CHOOSE MUSIC?   As educators, directors want to introduce our boys to the great works, much as an English literature teacher explores the great writers from our history.  So, we try to give them a little Mozart, a little Bach, and a little Schubert over the course of their years with us.  We also explore music of other cultures, often in the original languages, e.g. music from Africa, South America, the Middle East, Central Europe, Asia.   Added to this is the challenge of meeting educational goals at various age levels and to develop a healthy singing voice.   Are we programming music that develops beautiful tone, vowel purity, breath control?  What about the technical musical skills like rhythm, harmony?  Are we learning pieces in lots of keys so as to take advantage of the boys' theory education?  Are we providing appropriate challenges for their age levels?  Is the music too easy?  Too hard?   We also look at the variety of human emotions being expressed in the music. Are we singing music with great texts?  Are we learning about ourselves as we explore different poets and songs?    And last but not least, we think about the concert program.  Is there a range of tempos and moods so that our audiences will be engaged by the variety and enjoy hearing our concert?   As you can imagine, it is a juggling act to bring all these factors into play, but it is also a lot of fun as we explore music we love and get ready to introduce it - first to our boys and then to our audiences.

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Joyce Keil

Artistic Director

Ragazzi Boys Chorus

Singing helps Children achieve Academic Success

In a study funded by Chorus America, the following was found to be true:

The 2009 study included a new component that explicitly examined the effects choral singing has on childhood development. The results show children who sing in choirs display many of the enhanced social skills found in adult singers, substantiating earlier conclusions that singing in childhood is likely to have an enormous influence on the choices individuals make later in life. Additionally, both parents and educators attribute a significant proportion of a child's academic success to singing in a choir.

Children who sing in choruses have academic success and valuable life skills.

Several of the study's major findings (A study funded by the National Endowment for the Arts) for young singers include:

There are approximately 10.1 million American children singing in choruses today.
The majority of parents surveyed believe multiple skills increased after their child joined a chorus. Seventy-one percent say their child has become more self-confident, 70% say their child's self-discipline has improved, and 69% state their child's memory skills have improved.
More than 80% of educators surveyed—across multiple academic disciplines—agree with parent assessments that choir participation can enhance numerous aspects of a child's social development and academic success. Educators also observe that children who sing are better participants in group activities, have better emotional expression, and exhibit better emotional management.
Ninety percent of educators believe singing in a choir can keep some students engaged in school who might otherwise be lost—this is particularly true of educators (94%) who describe the ethnicity of their schools as diverse.
Children who participate in a chorus get significantly better grades than children who have never sung in a choir. Forty-five percent of parents whose children sing state their child receives “all or mostly A's” in mathematics (vs. 38% of non-choir parents) and 54% get “all or mostly A's” in English and other language arts classes (vs. 43%).

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Joyce Keil
Artistic Director
Ragazzi Boys Chorus