Vienna Choir Boys to perform Nov. 16;

3^rd of eight performances at Fowler Center

The Vienna Choir Boys will be at the Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Dr., on the campus of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro Sunday, Nov. 16, at 7:30 p.m.

The third of eight performances for the 2003-04 season at Fowler Center, the Vienna Choir Boys were originally founded in 1498, half a millennium ago. In 1918, they went public.

Today there are about 100 choristers between the ages of 10 and 14, divided into four touring choirs. During their tours, the Vienna Choir Boys sing in virtually all European countries, and are frequent guests in Asia, Australia, and the Americas, visiting the United States and Canada annually.

The repertoire of the Vienna Choir Boys spans five centuries of music, from Renaissance to contemporary music, including works by Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and the Canadian composer Raymond Murray Schafer. 

The Vienna Choir Boys have their own school where 250 children live, study and rehearse in the Augartenpalais, a baroque palace in Vienna. Beginning with kindergarten, boys and girls are provided with a complete musical and general education through the elementary grades. 

At age 10, the most talented boys are selected to join the choir and enter the choir’s grammar school. All boys are assigned to one of the touring choirs. Academic classes are taught in small groups of no more than 15 children. The school offers extracurricular activities ranging from sports to attending concerts, operas, plays, musicals and movies.

The school is proud of its alumni, many of whom go on to become professional musicians, conductors, singers or instrumentalists, in Vienna and throughout the world.

The four touring choirs give around 300 concerts and performances each year in front of almost half a million people.

Tickets for the performance are $25 and $20 for adults, and $18 and $14 for students and seniors. (Season ticket packages are available for Fowler Center performances).

For more information or to purchase tickets, call 870-972-2781 or visit http://tickets.astate.edu.

Other Fowler Center events include: The Duttons Christmas Show, Dec. 16; the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Feb. 13; Tony Kenny’s Ireland, March 2; the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, March 23; Rhythm and Brass, April 3 (all events begin at 7:30 p.m.).

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