Continuing the 2016-2017 Bank of Missouri Touring Series, this world-renowned choir group will leave audiences in awe of their vocal harmonies.
The amazing talent of these young performers is a special experience our local audiences will cherish, said Bob Cerchio, assistant director of Southeasts Earl and Margie Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts. They are one of the worlds greatest choral ensembles with an incredible musical legacy.
A foundation charter issued by Maximilian I in 1498 called the first dozen boys to the imperial court as members of the newly formed court music band. Thus he showed his great interest in contemporary musical developments in Burgundy and the Netherlands.
Since then the Vienna Boys’ Choir has been a fixed attraction in Austrian musical life. A number of famous musicians have emerged from its ranks. Its first-class training has produced numerous highly qualified vocalists, violinists and pianists.
Great composers and teachers have repeatedly improved the musical quality of the Vienna Boys’ Choir, for instance Isaac, Senfl, Caldara, Fux, Salieri, Joseph and Michael Haydn. Anton Bruckner, too, as court organist, rehearsed his own masses with the Vienna Boys’ Choir.
With the ending of the monarchy in 1918, the choir gave up its old name and the imperial uniform (to which a sword belonged). As early as 1924 the “Vienna Boys’ Choir, reformed by the rector Joseph Schnitt, gave guest performances in the world’s most famous concert halls.
Since those days the Vienna Boys’ Choir have given concerts under nearly all the great conductors of this century: Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert von Karajan, Carlos Kleiber, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti and Sir George Solti. Every Sunday, the Vienna Boys’ Choir sing solemn mass in the Hofburg chapel of Vienna, continuing a tradition unbroken since 1498.
Tickets
Tickets may be purchased by contacting the River Campus Box Office, located in the Cultural Arts Center, 518 S. Fountain St., weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., by calling (573) 651-2265, or online at RiverCampus.org/vienna-boys-choir.