There’s no more gratifying sound that that of children singing. And there’s no more polished ensemble of children’s voices than the Vienna Boys Choir, who are set to perform Friday (March 2) at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Mississippi.
The 7 p.m. show is part of the acclaimed Artist Series. Tickets are $29 for orchestra/parterre seating and $21 for mezzanine/balcony.
“The Vienna Boys Choir continues its long history of excellence in programming,” said Norm Easterbrook, Ford Center director. “The repertory is mostly a capella, steeped in tradition and, at the same time, includes fresh arrangements of popular music commissioned especially for the ensemble.”
Dubbed as “admirable, if not extraordinary,” by C.J. Gianakaris for the Kalamazoo Gazette, the Vienna Boys Choir formed in 1498, when Emperor Maximilian I instructed 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 – in consequence – the Vienna Boys’ Choir. Until 1918, the choir sang exclusively for the court, at mass, at private concerts and functions and on state occasions.
Musicians such as 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. Composers Jacobus Gallus, Franz Schubert, and conductors Hans Richter, Felix Mottl and Clemens Krauss were themselves choristers. Brothers Joseph and Michael Haydn were members of the choir of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and sang frequently with the imperial boys’ choir.
About 100 choristers between the ages of 10 and 14 are divided into four touring choirs. The four choirs give some 300 concerts and performances each year in front of almost half-a-million people. Each group spends nine to 11 weeks of the school year on tour. They visit virtually all European countries, and they are frequent guests in Asia, Australia and the Americas.