V I E N N A B O Y S ` C H O I R
B I O G R A P H Y
History
In 1498, half a millenium ago, Emperor Maximilian I of Austria moved
his court and his court musicians from Innsbruck to Vienna. He gave
specific instructions that there were to be six boys among his musicians.
For want of a foundation charter, historians have settled on 1498 as
the official foundation date of 
the
Vienna Hofmusikkapelle and the Vienna Choir Boys. The choir sang exclusively
for the court, at mass, at private concerts and on state occasions.
Musicians like Heinrich Isaac, Paul Hofhaimer, Heinrich Ignaz Franz
Biber, Johann Joseph Fux, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Salieri and Anton Bruckner worked with
the choir. Some were choristers themselves, such as composers Jacobus
Gallus, Franz Schubert, and – as substitutes- the brothers Franz
Joseph and Michael Haydn, and the conductors Hans Richter, Felix Mottl
and Clemens Krauss.
In 1918, after the breakdown of the Habsburg empire, the Austrian government
took over the court opera (i.e. the orchestra and the adult singers),
but not the choir boys. The Wiener Sängerknaben owe their survival
to the initiative of Josef Schnitt, who became dean of the imperial
chapel in 1921. Schnitt, a shrewd businessman, established the boys'
choir as a private institution: the former court choir boys became the
Wiener Sängerknaben, the imperial uniform was replaced by the sailor
suit, then the height of boys' fashion. Funding was not enough to pay
for the boys' upkeep, and in 1926 the choir started to give concerts
outside of the chapel, performing motets, secular works, and - at the
boys' request - children's operas. The impact was amazing: Within a
year, the Wiener Sängerknaben were performing in Berlin (where
Erich Kleiber conducted them), Prague and Zurich. Athens and Riga (1928)
followed, then Spain, France, Denmark, Norway and Sweden (1929), the
United States (1932), Australia (1934) and South America (1936).
Present
Today there are around 100 choristers between the ages of ten and fourteen,
divided into four touring choirs. The four choirs give between 300 and
330 concerts and performances each year. Each group spends nine to eleven
weeks of the year on tour. They visit virtually all European countries,
and they are frequent guests in Asia, Australia and the Americas.
Together with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State
Opera Chorus, the Wiener Sängerknaben maintain the tradition of
the imperial musicians: as Hofmusikkapelle they provide the music for
the Sunday Mass in Vienna's Imperial Chapel, as they have done since
1498. Gerald Wirth succeeded Norbert Balatsch as the choir's artistic
director in 2001.
Repertoire
The choir's repertoire includes everything from Gregorian Chant to contemporary
and experimental music. Motets and lieder for boys' choir form the core
of the touring repertoire, as do the choir's own arrangements of waltzes
and polkas by Strauss. Benjamin Britten wrote the vaudeville The Golden
Vanity for them, and even conducted its premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival
in 1967.
Austrian composers Heinz Kratochwil, Ernst Krenek, Anton Heiller have
written works specifically for the choir. The Hofmusikkapelle continues
to commission sacred works.
The Wiener Sängerknaben collaborate with a number of men's choirs
and orchestras to perform major choral works. The choir is regularly
asked to supply soloists for large choral and orchestral works, such
as Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, Mahler's Das klagende Lied . Recent
guest conductors include Pierre Boulez, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Neville
Marriner, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti (honorary member of the Hofmusikkapelle)
and Kent Nagano.
School
The Wiener Sängerknaben have their own school. Almost 250 children
study and rehearse in the Augartenpalais, a baroque palace in Vienna.
Beginning with kindergarten, boys and girls are provided with a complete
musical and general education through the elementary grades. At age
ten, the most talented boys are selected to join the choir and enter
the choir’s grammar school. All boys are assigned to one of the
touring choirs. Academic lessons are taught in small groups. The school
has a band, and offers extracurricular activities ranging from sports
(baseball, judo, soccer, rollerblading, swimming) to attending (pop)
concerts, operas, plays, musicals and movies. The choristers are also
encouraged to create their own projects; a number of them write, act
and direct short sketches about life at the school.
The school is proud of its alumni, many of whom go on to become professional
musicians, conductors, singers or instrumentalists, in Vienna and throughout
the world. Many others continue to sing; there are two male voice ensembles
made up entirely of former Wiener Sängerknaben, the Chorus Viennensis
and the Imperial Chapel’s Schola Cantorum. All former students
retain a lifelong commitment to the arts.
The Wiener Sängerknaben are a private, not-for-profit organization, which finances itself chiefly through concerts and recordings. To ensure the choir’s future, extra sources of income need to be found, and the choir is looking for sponsors and donations, in particular for the renovation and adaptation of the Augartenpalais
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