Ragazzi's attendance policy, why we need YOU

On Singing Saturday the parents took part in a mini-choir where we learned a song and then had some people drop out as we tried to sing it. We learned how much we rely on each other, and therefore how crucial regular attendance is to group success. Below, I have made some changes to how Ragazzi’s rehearsal attendance policies are phrased, hoping to make them clearer. You can find the originals in the Handbook under the heading: Weekly Rehearsals (section 5.4).

We recognize the need to be flexible and to that end we do allow boys to miss up to three (3) planned absences. These are absences for athletic events, family trips and other activities that conflict with rehearsals.

When boys are ill, of course they are excused, but we do want you to know that excessive absences for any reason can make it nearly impossible for your son to be ready to perform. This is not to be punitive but it’s because rehearsals are crucial to the group’s preparation.  Please help us set up for success at performances—regular attendance makes your boy a reliable and valuable colleague in the eyes of his fellow singers.

Unexcused absences are any that the director has not been told about in advance.

The last two weeks before major concerts are where we make last minute musical and logistical decisions and they are crucial. This is why we do not excuse absences during this time.

Attendance at major concerts is mandatory.

Keep in mind that rehearsal attendance is always part of the mix when directors consider a boy’s readiness for promotion.

Here is the Handbook rehearsal attendance policy as revised:

• Absences for sudden illness may only be excused by phoning the appropriate Music Director, at least one hour prior to rehearsal.
• No more than three (3) planned absences are permitted per semester and may not be scheduled within two (2) weeks prior to a concert or performance.  A boy who is absent from rehearsal within two (2) weeks of a concert or performance may be deemed ineligible to sing some or all pieces at that event.   Some examples of planned absences include family trips, school trips, school plays and musicals and sports events.
• Ragazzi will send a note home after a chorister has missed two (2) rehearsals, so that he and his parents may plan accordingly and avoid any problems.
• Conflicts must be cleared with Music Directors at the beginning of the season or as soon as the conflict is discovered.
• When a director is not notified in advance of a chorister’s planned absence, this will count as an unexcused absence. More than two unexcused absences may be grounds for suspension.
• Excessive absences for any reason will negatively impact a boy’s status in the chorus and eligibility to perform.  A boy who has missed more than 3 rehearsals, even if he “knows the music,” may be ineligible to perform in all or part of the next concert, based on director’s assessment of his focus, behavior and memorization of music and words.  Singing in a chorus is a team effort and is more than simply “knowing the music.”
• Regardless of the reason for an absence, it is the chorister’s responsibility to contact his Director (or Mentor in CGA & CG or section leader in YME) to find out what he missed.  Less important at the Primary level, it is more important for Premiere, and is vitally important for members of CGA, CG and YME.

While extra rehearsals are scheduled at the beginning of the year and appear in the calendar, additional rehearsals may be scheduled by the Music Director, as necessary.  Notice of extra rehearsals will appear in Ragazzi Times, our email newsletter. Singing Saturdays (once-per-semester, full chorus rehearsals and parent meetings) are required for all boys and parents.

25 years of touching lives

Here is a letter from a recent Ragazzi graduate. He is currently a student at Yale and is hoping to bring his a cappella group to Ragazzi this January.
Dear Joyce

Watching my little brother's mini choir concert and seeing you there reminded me of my long, enriching experience at Ragazzi. I didn't really begin to comprehend the true benefits of Ragazzi until more recently. I realize now that while I was in the choir, I took for granted the tremendous music and camaraderie we all experienced under your leadership.

            I grew up in Ragazzi. When I joined in first grade, I immediately began to learn the music theory, musicianship, and focus that so defines the choir. By the time I began taking piano lessons in second grade and then learning trombone in fourth grade, Ragazzi had provided me with a solid foundation of music theory and many other essential skills a musician must have. This gave  me a huge jump-start in learning how to play my instruments. Today, as my high schools musician friends still sometimes struggle with theory, I think back to Ms. Panofsky and the whole Ragazzi staff and how thankful I am to you for getting me started on it early!

             From participating in Ragazzi, I soon learned that I genuinely loved singing in a group; no matter what problems I had when I walked into rehearsal, eventually they would fizzle out of my conscience and I could immerse myself in the challenge and beauty of the music we were making together. This is the beautiful thing about Ragazzi. When everyone is locked in to each other and to the music, there are no limits to what can be created.  Ragazzi is an intense team. Everyone has to put in individual work, bring it to rehearsal, and then work and compromise with others to make the final product. I am lucky to have been in this rich environment at an early age; the leadership skills and focus I acquired  have helped me more and more as I interact with my peers today.  

            When it was time to apply to college this fall, I wrote a lot about my musical pursuits and experiences. The more I wrote about my more recent high school experiences playing trombone and piano, the more I realized just how much of a presence Ragazzi has in my musical life. Even though I left after my freshman year, I didn't know that Ragazzi would stay with me so firmly. I take for granted all the skills you taught me, ranging from how to breath properly to shaping a musical phrase to how to conduct. Many of them come more naturally to me now, because I used them so consistently from the age of seven to fifteen. Thanks to Ragazzi, I learned how to express myself and get closer to my friends through music, but also to find solace in it. Even the general level of discipline that I maintain in any endeavour developed completely during my stay at Ragazzi and I thank you for that!

            But beyond the music and the focus, I also formed profound friendships in Ragazzi and had the opportunity to travel to several new places and open my mind. I always look forward to attending Ragazzi concerts and seeing how my friends have grown musically; for me, Ragazzi was as much about my friends as it was about the music. Singing together in a choir creates an incredible bond that is hard to come by in other activities.

            As I look forward to attending college, I know Ragazzi has had a significant role in defining who I am today, and I am grateful for that! I hope you have a great time in Cuba (wow!), and I wish you all the luck in the future!

                                                                                    Sincerely,

                                                                                    Mark Fedronic

Music in community, human connections and transcendence

Choral music, or music created in community, gives us a unique means for personal discovery, and provides empathetic connection across groups and through time.  I’d like to share some everyday examples and some published explorations of music’s varied effects on human emotions and interactions.

Ragazzi boys are interested in more than their own personal experiences.  They often talk of their joy in being able to move audience members with their music.  They seek meaning through (and for) the work they do.  Like all of us, the boys look to connect experiences with emotional truth, thus transcending the everyday.  I hear so often how even rehearsals provide an escape from the worries of the world.  There is power in music - in community - to change lives.

In the August 27, 2012 New Yorker, biologist and neurologist Oliver Sacks recalls experiences from his youth.  Known for his brilliant work on the brain and most recently for his book Musicophilia, Sacks describes how he became interested in this subject.  In his early experimental years, he indulged in some questionable drug use as he searched to transcend the everyday. But then, drug free, he attended a concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where he was transported by music.  He heard…”a glorious river of music, hundreds of years long, flowing from Monteverdi’s mind into my own.”  He achieved this transcendence through music.

As Sacks continued to explore the brain, he was fascinated by how there can be a disconnect between perceptions and feelings.  When this occurs one can correctly identify an event or situation, yet fail to connect it with the appropriate feelings.  As Sacks himself continued to search for a combination of intellectual excitement and emotional engagement, he discovered joy in his life’s work, much of which explores the effects of music on human neurology. Sacks realized he had a talent to share, discovered personal meaning, and was able to transcend the mundane world.

Sacks’ experiences show how we long to find beauty and meaning in the world.  David Byrne, of the Talking Heads, writes in Smithsonian about the mirror neurons that have been discovered in our brains. Mirror neurons can be seen to fire in response to other people’s emotions and so when someone feels an emotion, people around them experience the same feelings in parallel. Empathy is built into our neurophysiology.

When music is created in community, there is a combined intellectual and emotional shared experience among the musicians that then projects into the audience. As we hear from Oliver Sacks, listening to great music can lead one to sense a power and a freedom, totally beyond the ordinary.

Since we have the capacity to influence each other with our feelings, we want to create beauty and to give our audiences a transcendent experience. To do that requires that we keep working to explore our own perceptions, discovering the layers of emotional truth that reside in our work.  There’s a story circulating around the internet that tells of a woman who complained about her neighbor’s dirty wash hanging on the line outside her window.  She continued to complain but one day said to her husband, “Something’s happened. The wash is properly clean today.” The husband said, “I washed our windows.”  Ragazzi works together to create meaning and transcendence in all our lives and to share it with others.  We seek to be clean windows and allow others to see the beauty in the world that we see when we perform.  

Keep singing with boys during the voice change!

From The Republic, Columbus Indiana, September 30, 2012  http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/3fb396cd79e6403dad81cdc93ff17cb3/OH--Cracking-Choir-Voices

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Adolescence can be nerve-jarring for any youngster, and maybe more so for the middle school boy singing in the choir and having his voice crack.

"The middle school male changing voice is tricky," said Jeff Rone, director of choirs at Westland High School, who works with Norton Middle School boys twice a week.

"You have to show that the tough-guy macho voice is one you don't necessarily use in choir."

One singer, Davionn Johnson, turned down invitations for weeks from friends and Norton's music teacher to join choir.

He sang to his friends in the cafeteria or at track meets, but doing it for school wasn't for him. Then he was called to the auditorium where the entire 60-member choir gathered for one last push.

"They all said, 'Davionn, please join choir next year'," teacher Coventry Pompili told The Columbus Dispatch (bit.ly/SpjhJa). "And I wouldn't let him go back to study hall until he said yes."

Choir directors often have to make the hard sell to attract middle-school boys, recruiting, creating boys-only choirs and bringing in male teachers to work with them.

It's a big challenge, said Scott Dorsey, spokesman for the American Choral Directors Association in Oklahoma City.

"At that point in a young person's life, who are the major idols?" he said. "They are going to be sports figures. That's seen as a manly, masculine activity. Singing is not."

Educators say boys worry about belting tunes in front of peers and looking awkward in front of girls, particularly when their voices crack.

But studies have found that boys who sing before and during voice changes tend to have stronger vocal muscles and a greater voice range than those who don't.

Some schools have divided middle-school choir programs by gender to provide a comfortable setting where boys can sing without fear.

Heather Chute, choir director at the suburban Hamilton Local district's middle and high schools, found that, by dividing the middle-school choir by gender, girls developed their voices quicker and boys picked up lessons faster.

Chute said fellowship boosted the boys' confidence levels, and as a result, they were more willing to try songs outside of their comfort level.

"It's a safe place for them," said Mark Yoder, director of the choir programs at Lakeview Junior High School in Pickerington.

Davionn was touched by the choir's invitation and discovered that the class wasn't what he expected. He's enjoyed singing and isn't worried anyone will laugh if his voice cracks.

Does he feel nervous singing in front of girls? "They're nervous singing in front of us," he said

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