Ragazzi Boys Chorus presents an exploration of word and song in "The Poetry of Music"

PALO ALTO, CA (February 17, 2012) -- Internationally acclaimed Ragazzi Boys Chorus, one of the largest boys choruses in the San Francisco Bay Area, explores the deepest elements of song, poetry, and wordless music in collaboration with renowned Bay Area pianist Louise Costigan-Kerns in its spring program THE POETRY OF MUSIC.  This innovative concert will be presented 5pm Saturday, March 24 at First Congregational Church, Palo Alto and 4pm Sunday March 25 at the Cunningham Chapel at Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont.  Tickets ($10-$25) are available at www.Ragazzi.org or calling (650) 342-8785.

THE POETRY OF MUSIC delves into the mysteries of artistic interpretation, searching for the ties between words and music using the work of artistic pioneers throughout history.  The concert will include composer Vincent Persichetti’s interpretation of e.e. cummings’s poems “sam was a man,” “dominic has a doll,” and “hist whist”; Yeats’s poem “An Irish Airman Foresees his Death” set to music by composer Mark Adams; and the epic finale of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Mendelssohn, inspired by Shakespeare’s text.  Also on the bill is the richly layered "Long Day Closes," written by Arthur Sullivan before his famous partnership with W.S. Gilbert, as well as translations of poetry into music by German Romantic composers Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms.  Pianist Costigan-Kerns will perform a selection of works, including “Annees de Pelerinage,” the musical settings of Petrarch sonnets by Franz Liszt; “Preludes” by French composer Charles Debussy; and excerpts from “Sonata” by Alberto Evaristo Ginastera, considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.

Louise Costigan-Kerns has performed internationally as a concert pianist, accompanist, and conductor.  Born in Blairmore, Alberta, Ms. Costigan-Kerns earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. where she studied piano with Irma Wolpe and Victor Rosenbaum, opera with John Moriarty and Boris Goldovsky, and vocal repertoire with Allen Rogers.  While teaching at New England Conservatory, Ms. Costigan-Kerns maintained an active performing career as a solo pianist and as an accompanist.  She is also the Founding Director of the New England Conservatory Extension Division Opera Studio.  Over the years she was a member of the Opera Department faculty at Boston University, piano faculty at Phillips Exeter Academy and Artist in Residence at Brandeis University.  In 1994 she moved with her family to the San Francisco Bay Area and has since worked for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the San Francisco Symphony, and Opera San Jose, and is currently on the music faculty of Notre Dame de Namur University.  Ms. Costigan-Kern has released three solo albums, “My Favorite Performances” in 2004, “Piano With Passion” in 2007, and “Into the Light” in 2011.  Both “Piano With Passion” and “Into the Light” are available on iTunes and cdbaby.com.

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.