Who knew? Boys Chorus leads to connections and success in many areas.

Who knew? Boys Chorus leads to connections and success in many areas.

Read how Ragazzi helped alumni succeed in two contrasting and surprising directions. Jesse Buddington was able to enter the music field of gaming thanks to his music theory background from Ragazzi. For another and very different story, read what Zander MacQuitty accomplished at Harvard due to his sight reading abilities learned here in Ragazzi.

From Jesse Buddington:

I recently returned from a week at MAGFest - a convention centered around video game music. The event lasted 4 days and drew over 9,000 people, including many video game musicians, composers, and other industry professionals. I was invited to represent the video game music label I co-founded, Joypad Records (joypadrecords.com), and to participate in a panel on cover songs and how to properly license and sell them.

While I was there, I ended up meeting many game composers and cover artists alike, many of whom were classically-trained musicians. I was able to talk to these talented people on a very high level of musical understanding thanks to my knowledge of music history and especially theory, which I gained through Ragazzi. Moreover, we were able to sign at least one major artist while at the convention because he had gotten his start in a boys' chorus and we were able to share common ground.

Additionally, and somewhat unexpectedly, I ended up having an impromptu jam session with many of the composers, which resulted in several of them expressing interest in my abilities as a vocalist. Had I not received training in harmony and sightsinging at camp, I don't think I would have been able to hold my own against these highly-skilled people, even in an informal context. Certainly not well enough to impress them!

Ever since I was little, I've wanted to participate in some way in video game music - I initially gave up on that dream due to the alien complexity of working with electronic synthesizers, but as game music has gradually shifted toward fully-realized orchestral and even choral soundtracks, I've come to realize that the Ragazzi-essential skills of taking and interpreting direction, producing a wide variety of vocal styles, and not being afraid to try new or unusual things can help achieve that goal.

Finally, had I not learned the discipline, drive, and ability to work with others that Ragazzi teaches, I doubt I would have been able to be effective at the conference in ANY capacity. Somehow, being on an unsupervised, largely-unscheduled trip to the East coast isn't quite as daunting when you've been touring internationally since you were 12 - nor is lecturing to a room of a thousand fans a particularly daunting task when you've had to sing a solo part in front of thousands of musicians. I have Ragazzi to thank for that preparation, as well.

I can rarely predict the direction in which life is going to pull me, but I know that I can always rely on what I learned (and continue to learn!) in my time with Ragazzi. It's immensely comforting to know that those skills really do translate to an unlimited number of real-life situations. Highly awesome real-life situations.

From Zander MacQuitty:

Ragazzi's musical legacy has stuck with me through college. The entire first tenor section of the Choral Fellows

of  Harvard University was composed of Ragazzi graduates. That is, James Williamson and I were the first tenors. This was a professional musical organization. We were all paid and we all received free weekly voice lessons.

We warmed up for Morning Prayers every day at 8:15 and performed at 8:45. Sight-reading was *essential* to being in this group. We learned entirely new music half an hour before we performed. Without my training in Ragazzi, I wouldn't have had a chance to be in this group and experience this level of professionalism. People always talk about the personal legacy of Ragazzi being purely disciplinary or intellectual. While Ragazzi undoubtably prepared me to appreciate "classical" music and to discipline myself to achieving long term goals, Ragazzi is a performance-oriented musical organization that can and does product professional

calibre musicians.

So continue to study music, sing with Ragazzi and prepare for the adventures that await you in your life!