The Vienna Boys’ Choir consists of four individual choirs from Vienna, namely the actual Vienna Boys’ Choir, the Vienna Girls’ Choir, the male choir Chorus Viennensis with former boys’ singers and the mixed choir Chorus Juventus, in which all pupils of the Vienna Boys’ Choir’s higher classes of the school sing.

The choir looks back on a long tradition: on 30 June 1498, the German King and future Emperor Maximilian I moved his court from Innsbruck to Vienna. He took some singers from the Wiltener Sangerknaben (Wilten Boys’ Choir) with him and founded the Hofcapell-Singknaben, who originally sang at Mass, but later also at festivals and on state occasions. In 1920, the Wiener Hofmusikkapelle (Vienna Court Music Chapel), to which the singers also belonged, was dissolved, but the rector at the time, Josef Schnitt, campaigned for its continuation and so the Vienna Boys’ Choir was founded as an association in 1924.

Today, all four choirs combined perform around 300 concerts a year internationally. The repertoire ranges from music of the Middle Ages to contemporary works, but mainly motets and songs for upper choir are sung, as well as their own arrangements of folk songs and Viennese music. The choirboys also perform oratorios, passions and symphonic works every year, together with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the London and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras, the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. They have worked with renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano and Christian Thielemann, and have contributed to the creation of numerous recordings.