Unique Christmas choir sounds: Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben) in Bad Ischl
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World stars in the imperial city
It is not a matter of course to get such a sought-after choir outside of Vienna or the German metropolises to Bad Ischl. Hundreds of inquiries in the management office of the Boys' Choir testify to this fact. And they like to come.
Since 1296
The Vienna Boys' Choir is one of the most famous choirs in the world, and one of the oldest: the first reference to the Vienna Boys' Choir in the Vienna Castle dates back to 1296. Two hundred years later, on 7 July 1498, the future Roman-German Emperor Maximilian I founded a chapel in Vienna in which boys were to sing alongside adult singers. This laid the foundation for the Vienna Boys' Choir. With their imperial employer, the boys were always "on the road", similar to their successors today, singing at imperial diets, coronations, weddings, and court festivals.
Over the centuries, the Viennese court attracted brilliant musicians such as Heinrich Isaac, Johann Josef Fux, Christoph Willibald Gluck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Joseph and Michael Haydn and Franz Schubert sang in the choir as boys; Anton Bruckner was her singing and piano teacher.
Unique voices
Today, the imperial ensemble has become an entire campus with four boys' choirs, a girls' choir (Wiener Chormädchen), a children's choir (Chorus Primus) and a youth choir (Chorus Juventus). The Vienna Boys' Choir is a private, non-profit association that is mainly financed by the income from concerts and tours and is also dependent on donations and sponsors. The association maintains a music elementary school and a grammar school with a focus on vocal music. 330 boys and girls between the ages of six and nineteen attend the campus in Vienna's Augarten. All of them have singing lessons, all of them sing in one of the choirs. The training, ennobled by UNESCO as a cultural heritage, is accessible to all, regardless of origin, gender, nationality or religion.
1000 tours in 100 countries
The 90 currently active Boys' Choirs are divided into four boys' choirs: the Bruckner Choir (Kapellmeister Manolo Cagnin), the Haydn Choir (Kapellmeister Jimmy Chiang), the Mozart Choir (Kapellmeister Manuel Huber) and the Schubertchor (Kapellmeister Oliver Stech). Together, they perform almost 300 performances every year in front of almost half a million spectators all over the world. Since 1924, they have sung around 29,000 concerts on more than 1000 tours in 100 countries.
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Your accommodation for this event
Hotels and accommodation providers in Hallstatt, Bad Goisern, Gosau and Obertraun offer the ideal room or apartment for your holidays, no matter what your tastes. Aside from establishments rated according to the international "star" scale, you will also find around Lake Hallstatt in Austria businesses that have been awarded two to four "edelweiss". The more flowers, the greater comforts you can expect. Whether you eventually find your cozy nest in an elegant 5-star luxury hotel, at comfortable guesthouse, a family-friendly apartment, or on a traditional farm, the choice is always entirely up to you.