In 1498, Maximilian I of Habsburg decreed that a handful of boys were to provide vocal accompaniment to the church Mass held in the Imperial Chapel of Vienna’s Hofburg Palace. Since then, the Vienna Boys Choir has grown to include four touring subchoirs of 20 to 25 members each.
“The first step, of course, is to carefully audition the boys who are interested in joining a choir,” said Johannes Kobald, conductor of the Anton Bruckner subchoir that will perform a sold-out concert on Saturday at Augustana Lutheran Church. “I ask them to sing high and low notes, as well as scales and other techniques. And I have to get a sense for how well they take instruction.
“It is important that a child is able to listen, understand and respond well.”
Kobald — who, at 37, is the youngest among the current choirmasters — also said that there are two chances for a boy to audition, generally at age 9 and age 12, with the boys overall ages ranging from 9 to 14.
“Once selected, every child stays within a particular choir,” said Kobald. “We perform church music, Mozart and Schubert Masses and varied tour programs.”
Each year, the choirs spend about 11 weeks on the road, and each choirboy sings about 80 concerts. After visiting South Korea in January, the Bruckner choir is on tour in the United States and Canada.
“It’s important for the boys and their families to stay committed to the demands of our schedule,” said Kobald. “We try hard to keep a balance of music training, academic schooling and fun, and for the boys to have time with their families.
“On a typical day, the boys awake at 7 and have breakfast at 7:30. They have school from 8 to 11, then choir practice from 11 to 1. Afterward, they have lunch and one hour of free time. At 2:30, the soloists rehearse, and there are three more hours of school. Then there is free time, dinner and more free time.
“We basically fit five months of school into three months, because there’s no school when we’re on tour.”
While the boys’ home base is Palais Augarten — a boarding school in Vienna — they spend five weeks with their families in the summer. On tour, the boys stay in touch with their parents primarily via e-mail and fax.
“Each choir is like an extended family,” Kobald continued. “In many ways, I have the role of a parent. Sharing this responsibility with me on tour are two additional adults, a man and a woman, who are also available to tend to the boys’ private matters. We all look out for the boys together.”
Known for its high vocal standards, the storied choir of boy sopranos and altos is associated with such musical luminaries as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri, Heinrich Isaac, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Christoph Willibald Gluck. The boys have also performed under the batons of some of this century’s greatest conductors — from Claudio Abbado and Leonard Bernstein to Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel and Sir Georg Solti.
According to Karen Aarestad, executive director of Augustana Arts, the Vienna Boys Choir is already a season highlight. “To be sold out so quickly . . . is huge for us,” she wrote in an e-mail.
Augustana Arts presents a concert series in four Denver- area venues, as well as music instruction and various community outreach activities, including funding weekly violin, viola and cello lessons for children who qualify for free lunch programs.
Vienna Boys Choir
Classical choral music. Augustana Lutheran Church, 5000 E. Alameda Ave. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. $10-$30. Sold out. 303-388-4962 or .
