Ragazzi Boys Chorus Presents "For the Beauty of the Earth"

REDWOOD CITY, CA (7 November 2018) — This holiday season, the Ragazzi Boys Chorus invites Bay Area audiences to celebrate the earth’s beauty through the prism of music in For the Beauty of the Earth. From a fun and syncopated Deck the Halls to Wendell Whalum’s joyful West Indian De Mornin’ Come, these works honor composers through the ages who have contemplated natural surroundings, giving thanks through music for nature’s gifts. The concert will conclude with traditional holiday carols and an invitation for the audience to join the boys in song. For the Beauty of the Earth will be performed 3:00pm, Sunday, December 2 in Redwood City. For tickets (Advance: $29 Reserved, $20 General, $12 Students / Door: $32 Reserved, $23 General, $15 Students) and information, visit www.ragazzi.org or call 650-342-8785.

Among the pieces to be performed in this festive holiday concert will be two versions of For the Beauty of the Earth; the Jan Sandström/Michael Praetorius setting of the traditional Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming; and Maria Walks Amid the Thorn by Andrew Carter. Moses Hogan’s arrangement of the spiritual Glory, Glory, Glory to the Newborn King and Wendell Whalum’s West Indian De Mornin’ Come will also be performed, followed by an audience sing along with the fun and syncopated Deck the Halls.

Hymnodist and poet Folliott Sandford Pierpoint drew inspiration from the beauty of the countryside that surrounded him to compose his most famous piece, For the Beauty of the Earth. Ragazzi Boys Chorus will perform versions by English composer John Rutter and award-winning composer, conductor, tenor vocalist, and arts entrepreneur Paul Rudoi. On the more traditional side is the Jan Sandström/Michael Praetorius setting of Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming. Sandström composed the work in 1990, using the four-part setting of the Christmas carol Es ist ein Ros entsprungen by Praetorius.

The chorus will also perform the incandescent carol Maria Walks Amid the Thorn by English composer, conductor, and arranger Andrew Carter. Well known to English audiences, several of his carols have been included on the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast on the BBC. Other notable moments in Carter’s musical career include the commission to write a mass (Missa Sancti Pauli) for the tercentenary celebration of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

The U.S. will be represented by Glory, Glory, Glory to the Newborn King by Moses Hogan. An American composer and arranger of choral music, Hogan is best known for his settings of African-American spirituals. A pianist, conductor, and arranger of international renown, his most famous work was perhaps The Oxford Book of Spirituals created in 2002.

Ragazzi will also represent the West Indies with De Mornin’ Come, by Wendell Whalum. Internationally recognized as a teacher, organist, conductor, musicologist, arranger, composer, author, and lecturer, Whalum has conducted at major music centers, including Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. His works include an immense variety of musical arrangements, and numerous articles and chapters in publications.

Peninsula-based Ragazzi Boys Chorus is one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s premiere music and performance organizations for boys. Currently, there are more than 200 singers from over 100 schools in 30+ Bay Area communities participating in the program. Ragazzi means “boys” in Italian and is the term used in opera to refer to children’s voices. Ragazzi has performed with the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Opera San Jose, West Bay Opera, Symphony Silicon Valley, Masterworks Chorale, and the Stanford University Symphonic Chorus among others. The group has toured throughout the United States and internationally. In 1999, Ragazzi was honored for its contribution to the San Francisco Symphony’s triple Grammy Award-winning recording of Stravinsky’s Perséphone, and has five CDs available: A Holiday Collection, Canciones de Alabanza, Magnificat: My Spirit Rejoices, Splendors of the Italian Baroque, and I Dream A World.