Today, there are 100 choristers between the ages of nine and fourteen, divided into four touring choirs. Each choir spends nine to eleven weeks of the academic year on tour. Together, the choirs give around 300 concerts each year, attended by almost half a million spectators around the world. The choir regularly tours Europe, Asia and Australia, and the Americas.
The Choir has a long history and tradition. We have been educating children for more than 500 years. We are part of society, to which we contribute. Outreach and philanthropic endeavours are important to us.
Boys have been singing at Vienna's Imperial Chapel since 1296. In 1498, Maximilian I (HRR) moved his court to Vienna, lock, stock, and choir, thus founding the “Hofmusikkapelle” (Chapel Imperial), and the Vienna Boys Choir. Over the centuries, the Viennese Court attracted great musicians like Isaac, de Monte, Fux, Caldara, Gluck, Salieri, Mozart, and Bruckner; Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn, and Franz Schubert were themselves choir boys. Until 1918, the boys sang exclusively for the court. In the 1920s, the choir was reestablished as a private organisation. Since 1926, 2482 Vienna Boys Choir has sung 1000 tours in 97 different countries. Gerald Wirth is its Artistic Director and its president.
Conductor: Luiz de Godoy
Program
1. Josef Ziegler: Rejoice
2. Henry Purcell: Sound the Trumpet, from Come Ye Sons of Art
3. Henry Purcell: Ode for the Birthday of Queen Mary II (1694) Z 323
4. Claudio Monteverdi: To behold you, from L’incoronazione Di Poppea
5. Mozart: Pater Peter Pomp
6. Jacobus Gallus: Psalm 68(67):29
7. Jacobus Gallus: Confirm This, Oh God, for Four Voices Acapella
8. Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman: Chim Chim Cher-ee, from the Motion Picture Mary Poppins
9. George Gershwin: I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’, from Porgy and Bess
10. Zheng Qiufeng: I Love You, China
11. Rudolf Sieczynski: Vienna, City of My Dreams
12. Johann Strauss Jr.: Tales from the Vienna Woods Waltz, Op. 325
13. Johann Strauss Jr.: Pleasure Train, Polka, Op. 281
- Intermission -
1. Arr. Marcos Leal Leite: Three Songs of the Krahó Tribe
2. Johann Ritter von Herbeck: Boys, Begin to Sing, for Soprano Solo and Four-Part Choir
3. Leonard Bernstein: Somewhere, from Westside Story
4. Georges Bizet: Lyrics: With the Guard on Duty, from the Opera Carmen
5. Arr. Gerald Wirth: Gao Shan Chin
6. Arr. Gerald Wirth: And when It Starts to Thaw Again
7. Cattle Driving Song with Yodelling from the Town of Eisenerz
8. Arr: Luiz de Godoy: Let’s Swing the Paddle
9. Arr. Gerald Wirth: When You Walk through the Valley
10. Josef Strauss: Forever! Fast Polka, Op. 193
11. Johann Strauss Jr.: Emperor Waltz, Op. 437
12. Josef Strauss: Sailor's Polka, Op. 52