The St Florian Boys’ Choir, which has existed since 1071 and of which Anton Bruckner was a member, has shaped church music in St Florian for centuries, and today gives concerts throughout the world.
The choir has performed at prestigious music festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Carinthian Summer Festival. It works regularly with leading conductors and orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. Franz Welser-Möst, the chief conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, is the honorary president of the association ‘Friends of the St Florian Boys’ Choir’. Soloists from the St Florian Boys’ Choir regularly sing roles intended for boys in opera productions.
The Boys’ Choir performs either as a pure upper-voice choir, or together with its male choir, founded in 1989 by Franz Farnberger to expand the repertory of the Boys’ Choir.
The St Florian Boys’ Choir’s wide-ranging discography includes traditional Austrian music, folk and Christmas songs, and also recordings of early music in collaboration with well-known period-instrument ensembles.
Since 1983 the artistic director of the St Florian Boys’ Choir has been Franz Farnberger who following his studies in Vienna spent eight years as the chorus master of the Vienna Boys’ Choir, and who also taught at the Anton Bruckner Private University until 2017.
Since 2018 the former member of the St Florian Boys’ Choir Markus Stumpner, who has been in charge of the Choir’s vocal training since 2013, has been acting as chorus master.
