In 1947, Emperor Maximilian I moved the Imperial Court and the Innsbruck musicians to Vienna. He gave specific instructions that there should be six boys amongst his musicians. As there is no document in existence to prove when the choir was founded, historians cite 1498 as the year in which the Vienna Boys’ Choir officially began.

Important musicians that have worked with the choir include: Heinrich Isaac, Paul Hofhaimer, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Salieri and Anton Bruckner. Some important composers were also members of the choir, such as Jacobus Gallus and Franz Schubert, or their substitutes, the brothers Franz Joseph and Michael Haydn as well as the directors Hans Richter, Felix Mottl and Clemens Krauss.

Following the collapse of the Hapsburg Empire in 1918, the Austrian government took responsibility for the Court Opera (the orchestra and adult choir) but not the junior choir. That it survived is due to the initiative and vision of Josef Schnitt, who was named Imperial Chapel Dean in 1921. From this time onwards, the choir has featured in concerts with all great directors of the century, such as: Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert von Karajan, Carlos Kleiber, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti and Sir Georg Solti.

Today there are ninety-five singers in the choir, aged between ten and fourteen and divided into four choirs. The choir goes on tour in Europe and is frequently invited to tour in Asia, Australia, and Latin America, as well as the United States and Canada, almost every year.

The choir’s repertoire spans five centuries of music, and includes renaissance as well as contemporary works. Benjamin Britten and other Austrian composers such as Heinz Kratochwil, Ernst Krenek and Anton Heiller have all written works for the Vienna Boys’ Choir. Britten composed The Golden Vanity for the choir and directed its premiere at the Festival Aldeburgh in 1967. The choir travelled to China, Japan and Germany Gerald Wirth’s junior opera, based on The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry.

In addition to their own tours and projects, each season the boys take part in adult choirs as well as orchestral concerts. The choir participated in the Coronation Mass by Mozart at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, under the direction of Riccardo Muti. It also regularly provides soloists for great orchestral or choir works such as the Chichester Psalms by Britten, Das Klagende Lied by Mahle, and The Magic Flute by Mozart.

Every Sunday, except during the summer holidays, the choir sings at Mass in the Imperial Chapel, a tradition that dates from 1498.