Ragazzi Boys Chorus to Celebrate 25th Anniversary with SING IT FORWARD, 3/10

Ragazzi Boys Chorus, one of the largest boys choruses in the San Francisco Bay Area, celebrates 25 years of remarkable music with SING IT FORWARD, a fundraising gala evening, Sunday, March 10 at the Fremont Hills Country Club in Los Altos. SING IT FORWARD features a cocktail hour with appetizers, silent and live auctions, and a gourmet buffet dinner with wine. Entertainment will be provided by soloists from the award-winning Ragazzi Boys Chorus and will feature the alumni group Ragazzi Continuo. For tickets ($125) or more information, the public may call (650) 342-8785 or visit www.Ragazzi.org.

The evening kicks off at 5pm with a cocktail hour featuring enticing custom cocktails and a silent auction at the beautiful Fremont Hills Country Club. An assortment of fun and festive items will be up for auction, including trips, wine, theatre tickets, and special entertainment packages. Guests can socialize with past and present Ragazzi luminaries, or take a stroll down memory lane while browsing the Ragazzi memorabilia gallery. Following the silent auction, guests can enjoy a gourmet dinner buffet with live auction and entertainment provided by Ragazzi boys, past and present. Among the musical offerings will be a rendition of Gounod's beautiful Ave Maria, in which a treble chorister will begin and then pass this challenging piece to a professional singer (a former chorister) illustrating the growth of Ragazzi boys over the years.

Ragazzi's programs are funded through a combination of tuition, grants, individual donations, fundraising events, and performance ticket sales. However, since tuition covers only about 65% of the organization's cost, fundraising is an integral part of fulfilling its mission.

Founded in 1987, 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 150 singers from 86 schools in 26 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, Lawrence Pech Dance Company, Peninsula Symphony, Masterworks Chorale, and the Stanford University Symphonic Chorus. The group has toured throughout the United States and internationally. In 2000, Ragazzi was honored for its contribution to the San Francisco Symphony's Grammy Award-winning recording of Stravinsky's Perséphone, and has produced five CDs: Good News! 10 Years of Ragazzi Singing; A Holiday Collection; Canciones de Alabanza; Magnificat, My Spirit Rejoices; and the recent Splendors of the Italian Baroque. For more information on Ragazzi Boys Chorus, visit www.ragazzi.org.

The gala begins at 5pm, Saturday, March 10, 2013, in the Fremont Hills Country Club, 12889 Viscaino Place, Los Altos Hills, Calif. Tickets ($125) can be purchased at www.Ragazzi.org or by calling (650) 342-8785.

Photo Credit: Curtis Finger