Vienna Boys Choir
The Wiener Sängerknaben or Vienna Boys' Choir is the world's foremost children's choral group. It is also among the oldest of all musical organizations, having been founded pursuant to an Imperial decree of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian the first in July of 1498; the Emperor requesting that boys' voices to be added to the choir of the Imperial Chapel. This established a tradition of having the boys sing in weekly Sunday masses in the Chapel of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, a tradition that continues today. The modern Vienna Boys' Choir consists of 100 boys between the ages of ten and fourteen, from dozens of nations, and divided into four touring groups. Each group spends nine to eleven weeks of the school year on tour and between them, the four choirs give 300 concerts and performances each year before almost half a million people. Making a much anticipated return to the US this past Fall visiting 39 cities across the US from Maine to Washington state, the Vienna Boys Choir with conductor Oliver Stech appeared in concert at Armstrong Auditorium on Tuesday, November 20th, making their only visit to Oklahoma during the tour here and offering a program featuring a broad range of repertoire from Gregorian chant to popular standards, folk, sacred, and secular pieces, with a focus on Viennese musical traditions, titled “Vienna waits for you.”
Performance Oklahoma is heard each Wednesday evening at 8pm and Saturday morning at 8am on Classical KUCO and Saturday evening at 8pm on Classical 88.7 KWTU.