Vienna Boys' Choir

维也纳少年合唱团是由一群身穿蓝色水手服的男孩所组成的，这项特殊的打扮也成为了他们的标记。
 
合唱团招收学员并进行培养，不收任何费用。但要被录取，需有相当过人的聪敏与天赋。维也纳童声合唱团团员全体住校，以校为家，平常的课程采取小班制，每班不超过10人。小小的团体，却拥有30多位优秀的教师。孩子们每天除了一般的必修课程、音乐课程外，还有艺术修养方面的学习及训练，比如舞台上的动作、台步、鞠躬、谈吐等。
 
维也纳童声合唱团位于富丽堂皇的奥加敦皇宫，团员们平时在这里生活、学习，在这鸟语花香的环境中，孩子们的艺术天才才得到尽情发展。他们平时每天早晨6点起床，6时30分开始做发声练习及体育运动，晚上9时就寝。在每天8个小时的课程中，有4个小时的普通学科，2个小时的声乐训练与合唱练习，2个小时的器乐练习，另外还有4个小时的康乐与休闲活动。
 
拥有500年历史的维也纳童声合唱团是世界上最著名的音乐团体之一,它是培养过莫扎特、海顿、舒伯特以及近代指挥大师汉斯·索斯特，克莱门特·克劳斯等音乐奇才的摇篮。当今许多著名的指挥家都和维也纳童声合唱团合作过，卡拉扬、伯恩斯坦、索尔弟、阿巴多等都曾指挥过该团并给予过高度的艺术评价。每到星期日或宗教节日，维也纳童声合唱团都会出现在霍夫堡皇宫内的城堡小教堂唱诗，前来一饱耳福的人络绎不绝。如今他们的足迹遍布全球。
 
该团同样结合了现代元素，流行的、古典的、音乐剧、rock-rall、金属乐，经过维也纳童声合唱团的重新演绎，给人不一样的感觉。2003年，该团被电影《放牛班的春天》(Les Choristes)的导演发掘，在影片中担当堪称此部电影灵魂的合唱音乐演唱。
 
The Vienna Boys' Choir is one of the oldest boys' choirs existing in the world. For nearly five hundred years they have been a symbol of Austria. A founding document of Maximilian I in 1498 called the first dozen boys to the imperial court as members of the newly formed court music band. Thus he showed his great interest in contemporary musical developments in Burgundy and the Netherlands. Since then the Vienna Boys' Choir has been a fixed attraction in Austrian musical life.
 
A number of famous musicians have emerged from its ranks. Its first-class training has produced numerous highly qualified vocalists, violinists and pianists. Joseph Haydn, who actually belonged to the Cathedral Choir of St Stephan, sang together with the court choir boys in the chapel of the Hofburg and in the newly built palace of Sch–nbrunn. Franz Schubert's first compositions were written when he was with the court choir boys, always in conflict with his teachers, since he was more interested in music than in getting good marks for his school work. Mozart's erstwhile rival, Salieri, noted Schubert's talent in his entry examination, and took him under his wing. The vocal training he received formed the foundation of Schubert's sensitive Lieder. Georg Boyer, Benedikt Randhartinger, Hans Richter, who created the reputation of the philharmonic concerts in Vienna, the operetta composer Karl Zeller (&Der Vogelh”ndler&) or the famous Wagner conductor Josef Sucher, Felix Mottl, Clemens Krauss and Lovro von Matacic are former members of the Vienna Boys' Choir, and helped to write the musical history of the 19th and 20th centuries.
 
Great composers and teachers have repeatedly improved the musical quality of the Vienna Boys' Choir, for instance Isaac, Senfl, Caldara, Fux, Salieri, Joseph and Michael Haydn. Anton Bruckner, too, as court organist, rehearsed his own masses with the Vienna Boys' Choir. If a performance went particularly well, it was his custom to reward the boys with cake.With the ending of the monarchy in 1918, the choir gave up its old name and the imperial uniform (to which a sword belonged). As early as 1924 the &Vienna Boys' Choir& - reformed by the rector Joseph Schnitt, with great personal zeal - gave guest performances in the world's most famous concert halls. Even in the days of the First Republic they were regarded as Austria's &singing ambassadors&.
 
Since those days the Vienna Boys' Choir have given concerts under nearly all the great conductors of this century: Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert von Karajan, Carlos Kleiber, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti and Sir George Solti. And, as ever, every Sunday the Vienna Boys' Choir sing solemn mass in Vienna's Hofburg chapel, continuing a tradition unbroken since 1498.