Vienna Boys Choir Performs Christmas Concert in Omaha Tonight

Omaha Performing Arts presents a concert featuring one of the oldest boys choirs in the world singing classical masterpieces and holiday favorites: Vienna Boys Choir - Christmas in Vienna. The concert is tonight, November 19, at 7:30 PM in Kiewit Hall at the Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St. Bomi Kim will be the choir conductor for the concert. The performance is sponsored by Valmont Industries Inc.

Tickets start at $15 through Ticket Omaha* at 402.345.0606, TicketOmaha.com or the Ticket Omaha office inside the Holland Performing Arts Center at 13th and Douglas streets.

Boys have been singing at the court in Vienna since the 14th century - 1498 to be precise. Until 1918, the choir sang exclusively for the imperial court, at mass, concerts and private functions, and on state occasions. That year, the choir became a private institution: The Wiener Sa?ngerknaben (Vienna Boys Choir); the imperial uniform was replaced by the sailor suit, then the height of boys' fashion. The choir started to give concerts outside of the chapel in 1926, and the touring tradition was born. Today there are 100 choristers from 30 different nations between the ages of 10 and 14, divided into four touring choirs. Between them, the four choirs give around 300 concerts and performances each year in front of almost half a million people around the world. Each group spends nine to 11 weeks of the school year on tour. The choir still provides the music for the Sunday Mass in Vienna's Imperial Chapel, as they have done since 1498.

The 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 quintessentially Viennese music, waltzes and polkas by Lanner and Strauss. In recent years, they have performed with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, the Oslo Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Over the last decade, the choir has worked with, among others, Pierre Boulez,

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Christian Thielemann, Franz Welser-Mo?st, and Simone Young.

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*Ticket Omaha is the official retail ticket outlet for all performances at the Orpheum Theater and the Holland Performing Arts Center. Tickets purchased from other ticket retailers such as secondary ticket agencies or brokers may be more expensive and may not be valid. Due to the nature of live entertainment, all programs, performers, prices, dates and times are subject to change.

ABOUT OMAHA PERFORMING ARTS

Omaha Performing Arts is a non-profit arts organization dedicated to enriching the lives of the citizens of Omaha and surrounding communities. In its two venues, the Orpheum Theater and Holland Performing Arts Center, the organization presents the best of Broadway, jazz, blues, dance, comedy, family and popular entertainment. Omaha Performing Arts also offers a range of educational programs and free community engagement events that support, enhance and expand appreciation for the arts. In addition, the organization provides comprehensive ticketing services for cultural and performing arts within the region through Ticket Omaha, the official ticket retailer for the Orpheum and Holland.

Omaha Performing Arts' performances are supported in part by the Nebraska Arts Council, Nebraska Cultural Endowment, National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Omaha and the Douglas County Visitor Improvement Fund, as well as corporate sponsors, private donors and foundations. For more information, visit OmahaPerformingArts.org.

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