Concerts earlier this Season
Santa Clara Chorale
Choir Invitational
Friday, October 24, 2008 — 8 p.m.
Mission Santa Clara
Please join us for the heartwarming
and angelic voices of two of the Bay Area’s best children’s
choruses, Ragazzi Boys Chorus and the Crystal Children’s Choir.
Delight in music especially suited to these fresh, pure voices, and
enjoy the rare treat of hearing the Chorale join forces with these
talented young artists.
Choral Evensong sung with the
St. Paul’s Chancel Choir and Choristers
Saturday November 15th, 2008 — 5 pm
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
400 El Camino Real, Burlingame
Free Will Offering
Splendors Of The Italian Baroque
Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008 — 5 pm
First Congregational Church, 1985 Louis Road, Palo Alto
Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008 — 4 pm
Old First Church, 1751 Sacramento St., San Francisco
TICKETS FOR THIS CONCERT
Call Old First Church at 415.474.1608
Visit
www.oldfirstconcerts.org
Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008 — 5 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 1 El Camino Real, San Mateo
Featuring works by Monteverdi and Allegri,
Ragazzi’s choir of young
men and boys join Orchestra Baroque to recreate the Splendors of the
Italian Baroque.
Audiences will be transformed by the ethereal sounds
of double choir music and the lively rhythms of music composed for
the Sistine Chapel in Rome and St. Mark’s in Venice.
All will join in
the finale sing-along of familiar Christmas carols accompanied by the
chorus and the organ.
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Saturday, April 4, 2009 — 5 pm
First Congregational Church, 1985 Louis Road, Palo Alto
Showcasing a successful collaboration with the famous Phoenix and Tucson
Boys Choruses, Ragazzi men and boys will share music from their Arizona
tour.
Music includes the famous folk song “I Know an Old Lady Who
Swallowed a Fly,” the spirited “Adiemus” by Jenkins and a fable based on
“The Blind Men and the Elephant.” The program will close with
choreographed songs “You Can’t Stop the Beat” and “Crazy Little Thing
Called Love.”
Songs Of Peace
Sunday, June 14, 2009 — 5 pm
Burlingame United Methodist Church, 1443 Howard Ave.
The Ragazzi Boys Chorus concert,
Songs of Peace, will feature
illustrated selections from I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Charles
Davidson along with traditional Jewish classical and folk music
accompanied by a Klezmer band.
Charles Davidson’s I Never Saw Another Butterfly, is based on poems
by children imprisoned in the Terezin Concentration Camp during the
Holocaust of WWII. “The ghetto of Terezin (Theresienstadt), located in
the hills outside Prague, was an unusual concentration camp in that it
was created to cover up the Nazi genocide of the Jews. Billed as the
‘Fuhrer’s gift to the Jews,’ this ‘model ghetto’ was the site of a Red
Cross inspection visit in 1944. With its high proportion of artists and
intellectuals, culture flourished in the ghetto – alongside starvation,
disease, and constant dread of transports to the death camps of the
east. Every one of its inhabitants was condemned in advance to die. Of
the 15,000 children deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, 100
survived – none under the age of fourteen.” (Quoted from the book, “I
Never Saw Another Butterfly,” by Hana Volavkova)
Considering the circumstances, listeners will be amazed at the
variety of moods, from wistfulness to playful celebration of the small
pleasures of the moment. Audiences will be inspired by the triumph of
these children’s life force even in the face of tragedy.
In addition to the illustrated selections from
I Never Saw Another
Butterfly, Ragazzi will also sing both folk and composed songs by Jewish
composers and music celebrating peace and reconciliation.
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