WAYNE – Wayne State College welcomes the world-famous Vienna Boys Choir to Ramsey Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 23. The 7:30 p.m. performance in the Peterson Fine Arts Building kicks off the 2025-26 Wayne State Black & Gold Performing Arts Series.
The Vienna Boys Choir delights listeners with their pristine sound and distinctive charm. These gifted musicians, with voices of unforgettable beauty, perform diverse repertoire including Strauss waltzes, classical masterpieces by Mozart and Haydn, and folk songs from around the world.
Tickets are required. To secure tickets, visit www.wsc.edu/performingarts and select “Purchase Event Tickets.” Tickets are $10 each. Wayne State students, faculty, and staff can attend free of charge, but must obtain a ticket using their NUID number on the ticketing website.
Currently, 90 active boy choristers, divided into four boys’choirs, perform as “Vienna Boys Choir.” The four choirs share concerts, tours, sound recordings, and filming equally. Each year, the choirs perform about 300 concerts with almost half a million people attending. Since 1924, the choirs have completed more than 1,000 tours in 100 different countries, totaling a staggering 29,000 concerts.
Boys began singing at Vienna’s Imperial Chapel in 1296. Two hundred years later the Holy Roman Emperor established a Court Chapel in Vienna with specific instructions to include boy singers, laying the foundation for the Vienna Boys Choir. Like their modern-day successors, the early choir spent much time on the road, singing at the empire’s parliamentary meetings, imperial coronations, weddings, state processions, and feasts.
The Choir’s rich history includes attracting musical geniuses like Heinrich Isaac, Johann Joseph Fux, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to the Viennese court. Composers Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn, and Franz Schubert sang as boys with the Choir. Austrian composer Anton Bruckner provided voice and piano lessons.
Today, the ensemble is a private, nonprofit organization with a primary and grammar school focusing on choral music and singing for 330 boys and girls, ages six to 19. The Vienna Boys Choir’s education, listed by UNESCO as cultural heritage, is open to all, regardless of origin, gender, nationality, or religion.
On Sundays, the choirs sing mass in Vienna’s Imperial Chapel with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the men’s chorus of the Vienna State Opera. They frequently participate in large-scale symphonic concerts, performing under conductors such as Joana Mallwitz, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Christian Thielemann, Simone Young, and Franz Welser-Möst.
In 2023, the Choir marked its 525th anniversary by releasing a live album of the anniversary concert in Vienna’s Musikverein, a box set of 21 CDs, and a book on the Choir’s history. In 2024, the Vienna Boys Choir and the Vienna Girls Choir jointly received the European Culture Award. The Choir partners with UNICEF and several other charities to provide outreach programs and free music education. Erasmus Baumgartner serves as Artistic Director and Campus Augarten. The Choir’s President is Erich Arthold.
For more information, contact the Wayne State Department of Music at 402-375-7359.
