Vienna Choir Boys to perform in Gallup Thursday evening

Independent Staff

The Vienna Choir Boys will perform in concert at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 15 at the Gallup High School Auditorium. Members of the Gallup Community Concert Association will be admitted with their season ticket, or non-members can purchase tickets at the door for $15. [Courtesy Photo]

GALLUP — One of the oldest musical institutions in Europe will be performing in concert on Thursday evening in Gallup.

The Vienna Choir Boys sometimes referred to as the Vienna Boys Choir will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Gallup High School Auditorium. The concert is the last performance in the Gallup Community Concert Association's 2006-2007 Concert Season.

Non-members of the GCCA are invited to purchase tickets at the door. The admission price of $15 is substantially lower than ticket prices for the choir's performance in Albuquerque. Members of GCCA will use their season tickets for admission.</sub>500 years oldIn 1498, more than half a millennium ago, Emperor Maximilian I of Austria moved his court and his court musicians from Innsbruck to Vienna. He gave specific instructions that there were to be six boys among his musicians. For want of a foundation charter, historians have settled on 1498 as the official foundation date of the Vienna Choir Boys. Until 1918, the choir sang exclusively for the court: at Mass, at private concerts and functions, and on state occasions.

Musicians like Heinrich Isaac, Paul Hofhaimer, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Joseph Fux, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Salieri, and Anton Bruckner worked with the choir. Some were choristers themselves, such as composers Jacobus Gallus, Franz Schubert, and later the conductors Hans Richter, Felix Mottl, and Clemens Krauss. Brothers Franz Joseph and Michael Haydn were members of the choir of St. Stephen's Cathedral and sang frequently with the imperial choir.

Today, there are about 100 choristers between the ages of 10 and 14, divided into four touring choirs. The four choirs give about 300 concerts and performances each year before almost half a million people. Each group spends nine to 11 weeks of the school year on tour. Together with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Chorus, the Vienna Choir Boys maintain the tradition of the imperial musicians by providing the music for the Sunday Mass in Vienna's Imperial Chapel.Contemporary choirThe choir's repertoire includes everything from medieval to contemporary and experimental music. Motets and lieder for boys choir form the core of the touring repertoire, as do the choir's own arrangements of waltzes and polkas by Strauss. The choir has a long tradition of commissioning new works. Since the 1920s, the choir has collected music on its travels. One of the educational goals is to introduce the boys to as many different styles of music as possible. In the 1970s, the choir started to perform a cappella arrangements of songs by the Beatles. In 2002, the boys recorded their first ever pop CD, with songs by Celine Dion, Madonna, and Robbie Williams. The choir has also contributed to a number of film soundtracks.

Kerem Sezen is the conductor for this touring choir. Sezen was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1978. He played the piano and flute as a child and went on to study choral conducting, voice, piano, and flute at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna. Sezen is an experienced choral singer, and he is in much demand as a soloist in operas and oratorios. In 2003, Sezen became a conductor for the Vienna Choir Boys.

During Thursday's concert, the GCCA will be selling tickets for the 2007-2008 Concert Series at this year's membership prices. In the fall, the membership prices will increase. For more information about the Vienna Choir Boys concert or next year's concerts, call (505) 863-3075 or 722-5413.