Bridge Builders:
Piccolo Coro
The Italian kids' choir beloved in China
Bridge Builders:
Piccolo Coro
The Italian kids' choir beloved in China
It's just before midnight on New Year's Eve in Shanghai, and the concert hall is sold out.
Hundreds of people are eagerly waiting for the return of the Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano, a children's choir from Italy.
As the young singers run out in matching outfits, they smile and wave to the crowd, before breaking into the song Little Bliss, singing in perfect Chinese.
Delighted, the audience hold up their lit phones, waving and singing along with the choir.
For more than a decade, the Piccolo Coro have been travelling from Italy to tour China, singing in both Italian and Mandarin.
What started from one song that went viral on Chinese social media has become a long-standing cultural connection, powered by music and a love of language, cultivated into shared friendship and joy.
A rich musical tradition
The cobbled streets, monumental buildings and exquisitely painted porticoes of the Italian city of Bologna teem with history.
The city has a storied musical tradition too, continuing in modern times. It was named a UNESCO City of Music in 2006.
Its music transcends borders – and perhaps its most remarkable harmonic connection is with China.
Just outside of the city center's ancient walls, hidden inside the compound of a church, is a large television studio. The studio was built by the Franciscan community who run the Antoniano Institute, and, along with rehearsal space and a recording studio, is the home of the Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano.
The choir was formed in 1963 to compete in Zecchino D'oro – a much-loved annual singing competition for Italian children under the age of 10, established in 1959 and still going strong.
The Piccolo Coro – or 'little choir' in English – became a commercial success. The money they made from record sales was invested into charity projects for the Institute, including food services for the homeless, and a physiotherapy center for children with disabilities.
"Everywhere in China, people fall in love with the choir, with the songs."
One of its songs, Forza Gesu, became popular in China, and a new friendship was born.
Giampaolo Cavalli, Director of the Antoniano Institute, recalls how they were all amazed when they saw the reaction to the song.
"It was a dream because we couldn't imagine we could do that 10 years ago," he says.
It led to an invitation to tour China with the choir. The choir were keen to go, and also to learn some songs in Chinese to sing.
"We find people very, very enthusiastic, very close to the kids, the choir," Cavalli says of their visits.
"We went to Shanghai, to Beijing, to Nanjing, and we find everywhere people fall in love with the choir, with the songs."
A family passion
"The first time I went to China I was four years old."
For the Piccolo Coro, singing in Chinese is more than just a passing fancy. The children and their teachers go to great lengths to get their pronunciation and tones right.
Luca, now 12, has studied Chinese for four years. He travelled to China with his older siblings, who were choristers before he joined the Piccolo Coro himself.
"The first time I went to China I was four years old," he says. "I was very interested in the culture and the language. My passion for China grows up going with the choir."
And fans in China appreciate his efforts.
"It surprised me a lot when we sung Gu Yong Zhe [A Lonely Brave Man] that when I started to sing the audience also started to sing with me," Luca says.
"This was a new experience. It never was like that before."
Luca's journey into the choir was guided by his elder brothers and his mother, Sonia, who also sang with the choir when she was young.
"He is very happy to be part of the choir and he was also pulled in by his brothers, but he ended up liking it, and so he stayed and he really likes it," Sonia recalls.
She remembers Luca having a natural gift with the Chinese language.
"When they first sang a Chinese song where he was participating, a friend of ours who is Chinese heard him sing and said he had a wonderful pronunciation and presented him to the teacher, and he started studying and liked it a lot and he kept studying," she says.
Being recognized on the street in Shanghai is now part of Luca's experience in China.
"Maybe you meet someone who tells you 'Oh, you're (Luca)'," he smiles. "Then you take some photos, and then they greet you and they are very happy, and you also appreciate that."
Harmony in every note
"It's a big challenge to sing in Chinese, a language so different from ours in grammar and sound."
Margherita Gamberini, the choir's new conductor, says when she started working with the children she was amazed by their enthusiasm to perfect Chinese songs.
"I was speechless the first time I heard them sing in Chinese – they were amazing!" she says, smiling.
"Sometimes, during rehearsal, a Chinese song starts playing, like Moli Hua [Jasmine Flower] – and without any prompting, the children immediately start singing along, you can see how happy it makes them."
Gamberini thinks that knowing they will be performing for their fans motivates them to work through difficulties.
"I think for them it's also a big challenge to sing in Chinese, a language so different from ours in grammar and sound," she says.
The choir uses multiple techniques to perfect their skills, and one of the current choir members plays a key role.
Vittoria was born in Bologna and has Chinese parents. She coaches her friends on how to pronounce words properly.
She explains some of the fun mistakes she has helped to correct.
"Like the Chinese word 'jia' [home]—they would pronounce it as 'shia' [shrimp]," she says, intoning the differences.
"When Chinese fans say our kids sound like native speakers, that is the most amazing compliment."
Linda, another young chorister, reflects on her experience learning the language.
"For me, I found it difficult (at first), because I had never learned Chinese, let alone spoken it," she says. "So it was really difficult, but it's beautiful to learn a new language and sing new songs."
Music production manager Francesco Armellin explains how much it means for the youngsters when they are praised for their pronunciation.
"When Chinese fans say our kids sound like native speakers, that is the most amazing compliment," he says.
"When we go to these very big theaters with two thousand people that sing together the same songs, then you really feel the connection."
One voice, many hearts
"It's amazing how the kids feel loved and cherished by the Chinese people."
Armellin has traveled with the children on multiple tours of China.
"The warmth of the Chinese fans is always unexpected," he says.
"The lines that the fans form outside of the theater to get a picture with them, or also sometimes they meet the fans on the street and stop for a selfie or a little greeting.
"It's really amazing how the kids feel loved and cherished by the Chinese people."
The connection persisted even during the pandemic, when international travel became impossible. So that they could perform as they usually would to an audience in Shanghai, the choir found a way to stay in touch – thanks to some clever use of technology.
"We built up a huge green screen and we shot the kids separately and projected them as holograms," Armellin explains.
"The Chinese fans were amazed by that new way of getting in touch."
The panda with wings
On their latest visit, the children sung a new song in Italian which resonated strongly with the Chinese audience. Il Panda con le Ali [The Panda with Wings] is about embracing the beauty of diversity and difference.
The Piccolo Coro produced a stuffed animal panda with one black and one white wing to sell to their fans. The toy was an absolute hit, with fans queuing to have the animals signed by the kids.
"It went really, really wild, all of the fans bought it and it went out of stock in a matter of days, and after the concert we also signed them for the fans," Armellin remembers.
"It was an amazing and emotional moment."
Armellin still has one of the bears in the rehearsal room.
"This is him – this is the panda, he has the wings, he has Piccolo Coro, he has a white wing and a black wing, as in the song."
Looking to the future
"If we dream together, we build the future."
The connection with China continues to grow. The choir now records greetings for Lunar New Year and China's National Day.
"It is very important to make the Chinese fans feel that we love them, that we cherish them and that we share their same festivities," says Armellin.
He says they hope to deepen collaborations between the children in each country through summer camps and exchanges.
"We've hosted some Chinese kids here during the summer time to teach them to sing Zecchino d'Oro songs," he says.
The children stay with a local family in Bologna for a week.
"They share what we are here, they go through our spaces and they live our life for a week," says institute director Cavalli. "This is very nice, I feel it is amazing and exciting."
Whether singing Xiao Mei Man [Little Bliss] in a rehearsal room in Bologna or leading a chorus of thousands in a Shanghai concert hall, the Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano is building something beyond music.
It's building bridges of understanding, friendship, and joy.
"I think that there are many connections, more that we can imagine from outside," says Cavalli. "And the most important connection is because we can go through the future together.
"I think that the future needs bridges between different nations, between different people… we have to bring humanity together.
"If we dream together, we build the future."
"If we dream together, we build the future."
The connection with China continues to grow. The choir now records greetings for Lunar New Year and China's National Day.
"It is very important to make the Chinese fans feel that we love them, that we cherish them and that we share their same festivities," says Armellin.
He says they hope to deepen collaborations between the children in each country through summer camps and exchanges.
"We've hosted some Chinese kids here during the summer time to teach them to sing Zecchino d'Oro songs," he says.
The children stay with a local family in Bologna for a week.
"They share what we are here, they go through our spaces and they live our life for a week," says institute director Cavalli. "This is very nice, I feel it is amazing and exciting."
Whether singing Xiao Mei Man [Little Bliss] in a rehearsal room in Bologna or leading a chorus of thousands in a Shanghai concert hall, the Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano is building something beyond music.
It's building bridges of understanding, friendship, and joy.
"I think that there are many connections, more that we can imagine from outside," says Cavalli. "And the most important connection is because we can go through the future together.
"I think that the future needs bridges between different nations, between different people… we have to bring humanity together.
"If we dream together, we build the future."
Reporter Jen Copestake
Producer Jiang Shaoyi
Camera Gabriel Rodriguez
Video Editors James Meurer, Edoardo Trowse
Graphic Design Ilze Juhnevica
Copy Editor & Shorthand Gary Parkinson
Executive Producer Guo Chun
Supervising Producer Mei Yan
