Biography

Sheen Park
(Wiener Sängerknabe)

Current as of June 2019

The earliest record of a boys’ choir singing at Vienna’s Imperial Chapel dates back to 1296. In 1498, more than five hundred years ago, Maximilian I transferred his court from Innsbruck to Vienna, in the process laying the foundations for the Vienna Boys Choir. Over the centuries the Viennese court attracted musicians of the stature of Gluck, Salieri, Mozart and Bruckner. Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn and Schubert were themselves choristers. Until 1918 the boys sang exclusively for the court. Since 1924 2,528 boys have undertaken more than one thousand tours of 98 different countries.

Today the Vienna Boys Choir is a private charitable organization. One hundred or so boys between the ages of 9 and 14 sing in four concert choirs. Together they give around 300 concerts a year, appearing before an audience of half a million. As a part of the Imperial Chapel they continue to cultivate a tradition with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Chorus that dates back to 1498, performing Masses in the Hofburg Chapel.

Every year the Vienna Boys Choir performs in major orchestral concerts under conductors of the eminence of Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti and Franz Welser-Möst. High points include their appearances at the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert, most recently under Mariss Jansons in 2016. The choir first appeared at the Salzburg Festival in 1929.

Its first recording dates from 1907 and since then it has produced 377 shellac discs, LPs and CDs. The first recording of a Mass by Joseph Mayseder (1789–1863) will be released on CD by Gramola in 2019. Numerous films and documentaries likewise attest to the choir’s popularity. The director Curt Faudon has made four films with the Vienna Boys Choir. For his film Good Shepherds they sang with Sami shepherds and Maasai warriors and were taught by Jane Goodall to mimic the calls of chimpanzees.

Around 300 children and young people from 30 nations attend the schools associated with the Vienna Boys Choir. The choir’s training and its choral tradition are recognized by UNESCO as part of Austria’s intangible cultural heritage. The choir’s president and artistic director is Professor Gerald Wirth.

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