Few ensembles are as steeped in hoary tradition as the Vienna Boys Choir. This legendary ensemble, after all, dates back to the 15th century, when it performed in the Imperial Chapel of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. But today’s choir isn’t your great-great-great-great grandmother’s ensemble by any stretch of the imagination.
“We still sing a lot of traditional sacred repertory,” choir conductor Jimmy Chiang tells the Scene. “But we’ve changed enormously over the years. We’re no longer simply an Austrian choir, since many of our singers now come from around the world. And we now sing in a lot of different styles, from folk music to pop music.”
On Sunday evening, the Vienna Boys Choir will be in Nashville, performing one of its eclectic programs at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. (Tickets are available here.) The performance is part of the group’s 21-city, six-week winter tour of the United States.
The choir has gone through many incarnations since its official founding in 1498. Unlike most venerable choirs, which have traditionally been associated with various churches, the Vienna Boys Choir belonged to a royal court. That worked out just fine until 1918, when the Hapsburg Empire collapsed at the end of World War I. The group then became a private institution. Its imperial designation was dropped, and a new name, Wiener Sängerknaben (Vienna Boys Choir), was adopted.
The choir, consisting of 100 singers ages 10 to 14, still performs its traditional sacred service every Sunday. Its worldwide fame, however, stems from its many appearances and recordings with ensembles like the Vienna Philharmonic, with which it performs such repertory staples as Mahler’s Das klagende Lied and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.
Each year, the group gives about 300 concerts around the world. To facilitate this enormous demand, the group is divided into four touring choirs, each named for an important Austrian composer — Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Bruckner. Nashville will receive a visit from the 21 singers of the Haydn Choir.
The group’s wide-ranging Nashville program will include Gregorian chant and sacred motets along with works by Mozart and Schubert. As a tribute to the United States, the boys will also sing American songs, including (what else?) a few ditties from The Sound of Music.
“That’s our gift to America,” says Chiang.
