01/24/11

Story by Peggy Graham

Vienna Boys Choir

Vienna Boys Choir performs at Yardley Hall

High resolution photo

High resolution photo

High resolution photo

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — No group of choristers has won more hearts than the Vienna Boys Choir. Dressed in sailor suits with angelic faces and voices to match, the two dozen boys prove themselves as superb artists from the very first note.

With distinctive charm and purity of tone, the Vienna Boys Choir will present an evening of timeless music with an appeal to the whole family at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center, Johnson County Community College.

Paul Laird, musicologist at the University of Kansas, will present Artist Insights at 7 p.m.

The Vienna Boys Choir’s diverse crowd-pleasing repertoire encompasses Austrian folk songs and waltzes, classical masterpieces, beloved pop songs and medieval chants.

Although 500 years old, the world’s most famous boys choir maintains its clear, soprano voices and remains perpetually young. The choir is divided into four touring groups, all of equal standing, ranging from ages 10 to 14. There are around 100 choristers in the four groups, each of which spends nine to 11 weeks of the school year on tour.  The choirs share in tours, concerts in Vienna, CD recordings and television appearances. Each choir has a choirmaster and two tutors who travel with the boys. A recent feature film, Silk Road: Songs along the Road and Time, illustrates the life of a chorister during a year on tour.   

Emperor Maximilian I established the boys choir to sing sacred music in the Imperial Chapel of Vienna, a city rich in the musical heritage of Mozart, Haydn and Schubert. The choir still performs much of their music.

During World War I, the choir had no money to maintain its institute and boarding school and so had to resort to public concerts for the first time, at first in Austria and later elsewhere. In 1924, following the breakdown of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire, the choir was rescued by the last imperial chaplain, rector Josef Schnitt who first called the court singers the Vienna Boys Choir.

Today the Vienna Boys Choir is a private organization divided into three distinct sections: the choir, school and boarding house. Almost 250 children study and rehearse at the school.

The school is proud of its alumni, many of whom go on to become professional musicians, conductors, singers or instrumentalists. Each season, a new choir of boys carries on the rich traditions of Vienna’s musical life and performs for nearly a half-million fans throughout the world.

The Vienna Boys Choir performed previously at Yardley Hall in November 1998, 2000 and 2005.

Tickets are $30 and $40, available by calling the PAS box office, 913-469-4445, or online at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries.

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