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Vienna has been recognized as the home and center of musical activity throughout the world for centuries. The long list of composers who worked there includes Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, the "waltzing" Strauss family and Mahler. Vienna is also home to one of the world finest opera houses and one of the great orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic. Yet the city's most venerated and oldest musical institution is the internationally renowned Vienna Boys' Choir.

The story of the Vienna Boys' Choir dates back to 1498 when Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I created the Hof-Musikkapelle (Court Music Chapel) of which the choir formed a vital part. Since then, the Vienna Boys' Choir has been a fixed attraction in Austrian musical life, with more than 500 years of active service. Through time, countless distinguished Viennese musicians received their musical training with the choir, including — most famously of all — Franz Schubert, who became a member in 1808. Great composers and teachers have repeatedly improved the musical quality of the Vienna Boys' Choir, including Johann Fux, Antonio Salieri, Franz Joseph Haydn and his brother, Michael Haydn. The 19th century composer Anton Bruckner, as court organist, rehearsed his own masses with the choir. If a performance went particularly well, it was his custom to reward the boys with a feast of cake and sweets.

The members, 100 strong and dressed in their traditional "sailor's" costumes (a sword was also part of the "uniform" but was eliminated following the dissolution of the Imperial court), create an air of carefree innocence, enhanced by the supreme purity of their...more details