Ragazzi Continuo Presents "An English Christmas"

REDWOOD CITY, CA (13 November 2018) — This holiday season Ragazzi Continuo, the adult a cappella choir composed of graduates of the acclaimed Ragazzi Boys Chorus, brings Bay Area audiences An English Christmas. Inspired by tunes from the King’s College Cambridge Lessons and Carols service, this holiday series takes listeners on a tour through familiar sacred and secular texts. Audience members will explore the Anglican canon, from the 15th century folk song to the sweeping polyphony of the English Renaissance, World War I era carols, and more. An English Christmas will be performed 7:30pm, Saturday, December 1 in Redwood City; 2:00pm, Sunday, December 2 in Palo Alto and 2:00pm, Sunday, December 9 in San Francisco (venues/addresses listed below). For tickets ($25 General Admission, $20 Early Bird - Online, $15 Seniors/Students) and information, visit www.ragazzicontinuo.org or email info@ragazzicontinuo.org.

An English Christmas features a diverse holiday program for audiences of all ages, from the classic Away in a Manger to traditional Vesper hymns dating as far back as the sixth century, such as O Beata Trinitas and Christe Redemptor. Ragazzi Continuo will kick off their journey through the Anglican canon with the traditional Once in a Royal David’s City. Originally written by Cecil Frances Alexander in 1848, this poem was later set to music when it was discovered by H.J. Gauntlet. Since 1919, the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the King’s College Chapel Cambridge has begun its Christmas Eve service with Dr. Arthur Henry Mann’s arrangement of this carol. Following the inspiration of tunes from the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, An English Christmas explores an extensive collection of carols, including Davis Gilbert’s widely-distributed A Virgin Most Pure and Stephen Foster’s American parlor/folk song Hard Times Come Again No More.

Truth Sent from Above will signal the program’s transition into its English carols set, which includes Coventry Carol, Edmund Sears’ It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, Christe Redemptor, and one of Britain’s most popular Christmas carols, Away in a Manger. Ragazzi Continuo will also perform Christina Rossetti’s exquisitely melancholy yet evocative carol In the Bleak Midwater, named the best Christmas carol in a 2008 poll.

Following a brief intermission, the program concludes with a fusion of sounds from different cultures. Through the combination of Ecce Virgo Concipiet, Quelle est cette odeur agréable, and English folk song Agincourt Carol, Ragazzi Continuo finds harmony while blending music from both the English Renaissance and traditional French Christmas carols.

Ragazzi Continuo was formed in September 2010 and now consists of fifteen choristers, all of whom sang in Ragazzi Boys Chorus during their formative years. All of the members participated in their college choirs, but finding a post-college men’s chorus that allowed them to thrive musically, as they had as Ragazzi boys, proved challenging. Thus Ragazzi Continuo was born, and is currently comprised of members whose work finds them practicing law, teaching voice, working in tech, and more. Their love of music, years of training and finely-honed ensemble are evident in their stirring performances.