Erich Arthold, President
Erasmus Baumgartner, Artistic Director
Tina Breckwoldt, Dramaturge

For Opus 3 Artists
Robert Berretta, Managing Director
Benajmin Maimin, Chief Operating Officer
Leonard Stein, Consulting Producer
Peter Katz, Touring Coordinator
Sarah Vardigans, Company Manager
Chris Stager, Marketing Consultant

The Vienna Boys Choir is one of the most famous choirs in the world, and one of its oldest, boys have been singing at Vienna's Imperial Chapel at least since 1296. Two hundred years later, on July 7, 1498, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. established a Court Chapel in Vienna. He gave specific instructions that there were to be boys among the singers, thus laying the foundation for the Vienna Boys Choir. Like their modern successors, the Early modern boys spent much time on the road, following their imperial employer to sing at the Holy Roman Empire’s parliamentary meetings, imperial coronations, weddings, state processions, and feasts.

Over the centuries, the Viennese court attracted musical geniuses like Heinrich Isaac, Johann Joseph Fux, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Composers Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn, and Franz Schubert sang as boys with the choir; Anton Bruckner gave them singing and piano lessons.

Today, the former imperial ensemble has grown into an entire campus; the modern Vienna Boys Choir is a private, non-profit organization which funds itself chiefly through income generated from concerts and touring, as well as donations and sponsorship deals. The Vienna Boys Choir maintains a primary school and a grammar school whose syllabuses focus on choral music and singing. 330 boys and girls between the ages of six and nineteen attend the schools on campus. All students have individual voice lessons, and all sing in one of the choirs. In addition to the four famous boys’ choirs, there is a female counterpart—the Vienna Girls Choir (Wiener Chormädchen) for girls aged 10 to 14, as well as the Chorus Primus, a mixed children’s chorus comprised of all boys and girls enrolled in the 4th grade of the choir’s primary school, and the Chorus Juventus, the mixed youth choir of the Senior High School. The Vienna Boys Choir’s education, listed by UNESCO as cultural heritage, is open to all, regardless of origin, gender, nationality, or religion.

There are currently 90 active boy choristers, divided into four boys’ choirs, which all perform as “Vienna Boys Choir”—Brucknerchor (Choirmaster Manolo Cagnin), Haydnchor (Choirmaster Jimmy Chiang), Mozartchor (Choirmaster Manuel Huber), and Schubertchor (Choirmaster Niccolò Morello). The four choirs share concerts, tours, sound recordings and filming equally. Between them, they perform almost 300 concerts per year, with almost half a million people attending. Since 1924, the choirs have completed more than 1000 tours in 100 different countries, clocking up a staggering 29,000 concerts.

On Sundays, the choirs take turns singing mass in Vienna’s Imperial Chapel, joining forces with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the men’s chorus of the Vienna State Opera. They frequently participate in large-scale symphonic concerts, performing under conductors like Joana Mallwitz, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Christian Thielemann, Simone Young, Franz Welser-Möst. Other highlights in the choirs’ calendars are appearances at the Salzburg Festival and at the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic.

The Vienna Boys Choir cooperates with several other charities, such as UNICEF, “Licht ins Dunkel” (Light into Darkness, an Austrian charity), and die moewe Child protection agency. Together with Caritas and the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Choir founded “superar," an outreach program offering children access to free music education. In addition, the Vienna Boys Choir runs Chorus amabilis, a choir for adult singing enthusiasts, aimed particularly at pensioners.

In 2023, the Choir celebrated its 525th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Deutsche Grammophon released a live album of the anniversary concert in Vienna’s Musikverein, Decca Classics released a box set of 21 CDs featuring the Choir’s landmark recordings, and academic publishing house Böhlau released a book on the Choir’s rich history. In 2024, the Vienna Boys Choir and the Vienna Girls Choir jointly received the European Culture Award.

Erasmus Baumgartner was appointed Artistic Director of the Vienna Boys Choir in the fall of 2023.

Hong Kong–born conductor Jimmy Chiang began his musical career at age 13 with his first public appearance as a concert pianist. Raised in a musical family, he started piano lessons at four and later studied cello, conducting, and composition. He received the Fellows Diploma from Trinity College of Music in London at age 16, earned his Bachelor of Music at Baylor University, and completed his studies with the Magister Artiumat the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Chiang’s conducting career was launched in 2007 when he won the prestigious Lovro von Matacic International Competition for Young Conductors in Zagreb. A versatile and well-rounded musician, he is equally at home in the orchestra pit and on the concert stage, known for his wide-ranging repertoire spanning opera, symphonic, choral, chamber, and solo piano works. He has served as Principal Conductor of the Hong Kong Pan Asia Symphony, Kapellmeister at Theater Freiburg (Germany), and Assistant Music Director of Wagner’s Ring cycle at Theater Lübeck. Guest conducting highlights include appearances with the Komische Oper Berlin, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Zagreb Philharmonic, and Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as performances at the Eutin Opera Festival (Germany), FACYL (Spain), Macau International Music Festival, and Rohm Music Festival (Japan), where he worked with Maestro Seiji Ozawa in 2004.Since 2013, Chiang has been Choirmaster of the Vienna Boys Choir, leading the ensemble on extensive tours across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He has conducted in renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, and Opera City in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center, Lotte Concert Hall, and the Vienna Musikverein. His collaborations include work with the Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, and conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Philippe Jordan, Joana Mallwitz, Cornelius Meister, Riccardo Muti, and Franz Welser-Möst.