Well that's a first: my first time to record a Grammy-award winning artist. It was just the evening of our MdCC concert and I threw the recording gear in my car and in the end I got the gig. The group was a touring boys' choir out of Silicon Valley called Ragazzi Boys Chorus. They tour regularly; they total ~250 students in SF and toured with ~100: the pizza boxes on the way in just confirmed numbers. They had just played St Patrick's, the huge Catholic Cathedral in Melbourne and they are due to perform in the Opera House in a few days. So our diminutive Wesley Church seems a throwaway but they performed with verve and pleasure. They sang in three combinations, the whole, the trebles, another, then a few songs from our own marvelous Oriana Chorale and an all-in. Ragazzi had sung a range from de Victoria to Bridge over troubled water under Kent Jue with a notable number of Australian compositions. Impressive. One group had a series of soloists; another was presumably TTBB or maybe higher; an Ave Maria had a section in the organ loft behind; introductions were by the students. There was a piano accompanist for most pieces and once a student conductor and djembe. And some seriously effective singing. (BTW, their Grammy was for a recording by the SF Symph and Chorus with Ragazzi and SF Girls' Chorus of Persephone, Best classical album 2000: impressive). But equally impressive was our own Oriana, singing the best I've heard them, singing three quintessentially Aussie songs a capella (truly in Wesley Church) with Olivia Swift directing for this outing. Then an all-in with boys arrayed against walls and on the altar with Oriana, singing Pemulwuy, How Ausie can you get? A great pleasure.
Ragazzi Boys Chorus performed under Kent Jue (MD) with Oriana Chorale under Olivia Swift (conductor) at Wesley Church.
