Popular images of the holidays often portray quaint little towns where neighbors stroll down perfectly snow-capped streets dressed up in their festive attire, caroling merrily to holiday tunes we’ve all grown to know and love. Somehow, the reality of the hustle-and-bustle of today’s holiday rush doesn’t ever seem to live up to the fantasy of that picturesque neighborly town.
But at the Esek Hopkins Middle School, two determined teachers have helped bring that sense of holiday peace and cheer to Providence neighborhoods for the past three decades. The Hopkins Middle School Choir is the brainchild of Mr. Angelo Neri, an Italian language teacher (shown right), and Mr. John Rainone, a retired music teacher (shown left, joined by Esek Hopkins Principal Gloria Jackson, center.) Together 36 years ago, Neri and Rainone formed an all-volunteer student ensemble that would tour the City during the holidays, singing Christmas carols in Italian.
The student choir made a stop at City Hall this past Tuesday to the delight of an audience of city employees, some who are alumni of the Hopkins choir. City News caught up with Maestros Neri and Rainone to discover how they manage to keep this lyrical tradition alive and on tour.
How long have you been teaching Italian language at Esek Hopkins?
Mr. Neri: This is my 37th year at Hopkins Middle School. When they closed the school we went to Windmill and then we came back here. But, it’s been 37 -years all together in the neighborhood.
Mr. Rainone: I did 30 years. I retired in 2001. I taught general music in the classroom first. Then I jumped into instrumental music and stayed with that.
When and how did the tradition of singing Christmas carols in Italian begin for your classes?
Mr. Neri: Thirty-six years ago we decided to do something. We had meetings with other teachers who were each doing different things on the holidays. Well, of course, we thought our kids were better! And we wanted to do something different so we thought of doing Christmas carols in Italian. That’s how we started, by taking students throughout the city and teaching them the music.
After the first year, everyone was definitely surprised! We used to go the Administration Building. We’ve always gone to City Hall, the State House, and Federal Hill. We’ve been asked to do concerts for St. Joseph’s Day. It just took off after the first year.
Mr. Rainone: I mean, we started doing Columbus Day, too.
Name some of the songs you teach them.
Mr. Neri: We’ve had students who’ve sung the Italian national anthem on Columbus Day at Federal Hill. On St. Joseph’s, the students sing songs by Andrea Boccelli, for example. They’ve learned Delilah in Italian, La Nostra Fabula, Santa Lucia … it just kinda’ mushroomed.
One of the sings we do for Christmas, Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle, is an old Italian Christmas carol written in 1754. When I tell my students that it’s that old, they just marvel at that fact and they love it. From year to year, the students always ask whether we’re doing this because they look forward to it so much.
How long does it take for your students to practice and memorize these lyrics in Italian?
Mr. Neri: It’s a part of my language class. On the second week of October I start the last part of my classes teaching them the pronunciations, the words, and sometimes I don’t even translate it for them because the translations are totally different from one language to another. It takes about a good two months to prepare and then we rehearse in class. Mr. Rainone comes in for a final rehearsal in the auditorium.
Mr. Rainone: I made him a tape on piano for him. So he can rehearse the kids and they can actually hear the music. So when I come in, we do it live.
Mr. Neri: Yeah, when they finally hear the music on the boom box, sometimes you’ll find the kids singing the carols along the hallways!
What’s the makeup of the choir?
Mr. Neri: It’s made up of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders – all volunteers. No one is forced to join. In the past I’ve had students who were Jewish, Muslim, Jehovah’s Witnesses – and I’ve never had a problem. I ask my students if there’s any objection to the music and maybe in the last 37 years, I’ve had a student or two say their religious beliefs forbid them from performing. And it’s no problem.
How big is the choir now?
Mr. Neri: It varies – usually between 40 to 50. This year it’s 50. Another year, I tried to include the boys too. But usually at this age, the girls are excellent. The boys’ voices are a little too low. It just doesn’t work. We tried it one year with 90 students, 2 busses, and it just got too chaotic. Boys are not excluded from the choir. But again, once you mix them with 50 female voices, they kind of stick out.
Mr. Rainone: We added strings for one or two years, I think. I was teaching strings at that time and so we had some kids come along playing violin with the choir. So it’s been a mix.
Sadly, the tradition of Christmas caroling has petered out over the last maybe decade or so and it’s rare to see adults let alone kids going out on the holidays caroling just for fun. Essentially what you’re doing is bringing the spirit of that tradition back. So why do you think it’s important to expose your students exposed to this?
Mr. Neri: If you look at the group, it’s multi-ethnic. This program gets us to pause for a second, as human beings together as one, regardless of one’s beliefs or background or ethnicity. We’re simply human beings enjoying this time of the year where the world can pause for a second to be at peace.
Like I said, when we take the students to Federal Hill and other places, I have the school banner held up by the choir and you got people asking, ‘where’s that school from? Providence?’ And they get a little bit shocked.
Mr. Rainone: I had some friends who showed up at Venda’s today and one of them asked me, ‘how many of the kids are Italian?’ I say, none of them! They all speak and sing in Italian, though. This choir is a melting pot!
Mr. Neri: Yeah, people don’t realize how the world has changed. For example, in the 90s we had mostly African-Americans and Hispanic students. But now, I got a student who’s African-American and her grandmother lives in Rome. I have another student who’s Asian-American, part Italian. I have Hispanics students who are part-Italian too. So it’s a good mixture of cultures. Italians, we’re so rich in culture – we got it from all over the world!
Somehow, you can see that in the students really enjoying what they’re doing. We can only do so much and do it with good quality and taste. But the joy of it, I don’t care what language it is, when you see the students enjoying themselves, that’s the commonality.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Mr. Neri: It’s the act of being involved with the students. I’m an immigrant. I came from Italy to America as a child in 71the 1950s not speaking a word of English. For me, it’s seeing them make scholastic and academic progress.
It’s not just a job for us old-timers! We have a passion for this. I teach what I love to teach. I think it’s the same for Mr. Rainone. I love seeing my students succeed, especially because I can relate to the ones who come to this country not speaking English.
Mr. Rainone: I used to love listening to the kids playing the instruments and hearing the music. You start off teaching them just the basics – how to make sound, then they start playing music, and then they start playing the really good music. And we’d write our own music sometimes. It’s one of the ways that the kids who played strings got into playing with the choir is because they used to sing it in Italian! They’d ask me to write the music for them so they could play it at home. That’s where you get fulfillment, watching the kids enjoying it, seeing the old people talking to them and stuff. To see them outside of the school setting, interacting with the rest of the world – it’s part of being a teacher. You enjoy those moments.
What do you hope audiences who get the pleasure to listen to your student choir will get out of the experience?
Mr. Neri: The fact that when you look at what the students are able to accomplish, the comments that we receive …
Mr. Rainone: … We’ve been asked to come back so many times – like at the State House – where the kids got to tour the building. The kids are just amazed and it’s just as good of a learning experience for them all-around.
Mr. Neri: We’ve performed for every Mayor and every Governor.
Mr. Rainone: Yeah, in fact, we were invited by Mayor Cicilline to sing at the lighting of the tree at City Hall one year.
Mr. Neri: And I’m very grateful too that our principal, Ms. Jackson, is very supportive, as well as every other administrator I’ve had. There have been years I remember, our 18th year, we were at Windmill at the time and I was just feeling like we’d been doing it for so long and it felt like it was the same thing every year. Well, our administrator back then said to me something that’s always stuck in my mind, ‘Angelo, you’ve been doing this for years and years but you have to remember, for the students, it’s their first time.’ And so 36 years later, he we are teaching it with the same enthusiasm as though it’s our first time, too!
The City of Providence’s Department of Art, Culture & Tourism is gearing up for another fun summer of theater, dance, music and other live performances in Providence’s neighborhoods. 
Organizations interested in participating must be located in Providence to be eligible 
