Tickets for December 2014 concerts

Please visit the new website Ragazzi.org for ticket information. The blog will migrate to this site also. Thank you for your interest.

Thank you for the music.

Wow!  Look at this.  A whole choir full of young boys and men! (with apologies to Choralnet)

Who would think that a group of rowdy boys could be transformed into a disciplined team creating beautiful music

together.  Look at them now. Poised.  Confident. Well-dressed. Singing beautifully.  And it’s all YOUR FAULT!  Yes,

you the parents who believed in the power of music education and who made the commitment to drive and get them

to rehearsals through rain, traffic and around conflicting schedules with your other family members.

Look around at the boys in Ragazzi training levels. They could very well be singing like this in just a couple years.

Thank you for your herculean efforts and your faith. Thank you for believing in music to transform lives and create

powerful teams.

What it takes!

What it takes.

In order to accomplish something - to excel at something - one must persist with patience and fortitude.

My 9 year-old grand daughter, who loves gymnastics, has practices 3 hours on 3 days a week.  That’s 9 hours each week committed to gymnastic excellence.  She also has competitions every other weekend through the month of November.  Fitting in her other cherished activities has become a challenge.

Ragazzi is also committed to excellence.  We practice and repeat, celebrating what works and fixing what doesn’t.  We do this in one or two rehearsals a week (2, 3 or 4 hours per week).  We know and respect the time pressures boys and families deal with these days.  We don’t have regular extra rehearsals, and the few we do have (Singing Saturday, concert dress rehearsals) are scheduled well in advance.  We almost never schedule last minute extra rehearsals, and if a compelling new opportunity arises, we ask families if the boys are available for the extra time commitment.

Plato said that the best education involves music for the mind and gymnastics (read sports, generally) for the body.  This ideal requires balance in your commitment of time, energy and dedication.

Recently there have been some research studies showing the positive effects of arts and especially music education on students’ brain development and success in school.  Sadly, most of the arts training in California comes through private institutions like Ragazzi.  One of our goals is to allow you the opportunity to give this gift of increased capacity for success in school and in life to your sons.  For further reading, see the following websites:

 http://www.westerncity.com/Western-City/September-2014/Engaging-Your-Citys-Youth-Through-the-Arts/

http://www.today.com/health/music-lessons-may-boost-poor-kids-brainpower-study-suggests-1D80117501

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/09/10/343681493/this-is-your-brain-this-is-your-brain-on-music

To further this goal, Ragazzi will be initiating an outreach program to the children in our local Redwood City Schools this spring.  Look for more information about how we can make the gift of music education available to an even wider community.

Yes, we ask for your commitment, but we are respectful of your time and we are passionate about the importance of the relatively small amount that we have together.  Together, we achieve excellence and the bonus is we get to make other people happy with our achievements when we share our music with the public.

We look forward to our rehearsals this fall and even more to our concerts where we get show off excellent music and excellent boys!!!