Vienna Boys Choir takes Moorhead stage Saturday
Program includes folk songs, polkas, classics, hymns and more
More than 500 years ago, an Austrian emperor formed an elite choir to provide accompaniment to the church mass. The members of the choir were talented boys between the ages of 10 and 14 whose voices had not yet broken, and who would leave their families to devote their young lives to rigorous musical training.
Today, the Vienna Boys Choir consists of about 100 choristers divided into four touring choirs. The four choirs give around 300 concerts and performances each year in front of almost half a million people. They visit virtually all European countries, and are frequent guests in Asia, Australia and the Americas. The music performed on tour varies from folk songs, polkas and children’s operas to Bach and works by contemporary composers. But at home, they still provide the music for the Sunday Mass in Vienna’s Imperial Chapel, as they have done since 1498.
On Saturday, Oct. 23, the famed choir comes to Fargo-Moorhead. The boys will sing selections from Carl Orff’s monumental work, Carmina Burana, as well as a variety of music from several time periods and styles, ranging from polkas to hymns and Schubert songs.
The performance is second in the season line-up of the MSUM Cheryl Nelson Lossett Performing Arts Series, which opened with a sold-out performance Oct. 18 by cellist Zuill Bailey. The Vienna Boys Choir takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. in Hansen Theatre in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.mnstate.edu/perform or by calling the MSUM Box Office at (218) 477-2271 Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are also available at the door.