The Piccolo Coro "Mariele Ventre" dell'Antoniano, until 1995 simply Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano ( en, "Little Choir of Antoniano"), is an Italian children's choir from

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

History

The choir was created by

Mariele Ventre Maria Rachele “Mariele” Ventre (16 July 1939 – 16 December 1995) was an Italian musician and singer, the founder and director of Italian children's choir Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano. Biography Mariele Ventre was born in Bologna, Emil ...

in 1963 at the Antoniano Institute for children to sing together at the

Zecchino d'Oro Zecchino d'Oro (; meaning "Golden Sequin") is an annual international children's song competition established in 1959 by Niny Comolli. It is broadcast by Rai 1. The first two contests were held in Milan. In 1961, the contest was taken up by th ...

festival, started only five years earlier. In the very beginning there were few kids in the choir but it changed very fast and the choir became much larger (up to about 80 children at some time). In 1995, after Ventre's death the choir was taken by

Sabrina Simoni Sabrina Simoni (born 16 October 1969) has been interested in classical music since her childhood. Biography She graduated from Music Conservatory in Ferrara. She joined the Institute of Antoniano di Bologna around 1991. At first she was worki ...

and changed its name to ''Piccolo Coro "Mariele Ventre" dell' Antoniano'' in the founder's honor. Since 22 November 2003 the children of the choir have been Italian Good Will Ambassadors.

External links

Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano Official HomepageUnofficial HomepageOfficial canal - Antoniano di Bologna (YouTube)
Choirs of children Musical groups established in 1963 {{Italy-band-stub