Armstrong Auditorium - News
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EDMOND— The most celebrated choral institution of Europe, the 513 year-old Vienna Boys Choir, took the stage before a sellout crowd February 22 at Armstrong Auditorium.

The twenty-four young boys, ranging in age from 10-14, delighted the audience with voices of incredible beauty and the distinctive clarion tone that has won the choir legions of fans for centuries. The Haydn touring choir is one of four of the Wiener Sängerknaben in residence at the Augartenpalais in Vienna. The choir was founded by Emperor Maximilian I in 1498.

Two weeks into their six-week American tour, the boys were all business as they rapidly changed formation for each number, giving each the opportunity to stand on the front row. Paying homage to their centuries of musical roots in the first half, choirmaster Kerem Sezen, a noted musician of Turkish background, took the audience back to early 16th century a cappella pieces that demonstrated angelic tones of incomparable beauty.

In the second half the diverse, crowd pleasing repertoire encompassed Austrian folk songs and waltzes, classical masterpieces and beloved pop songs.

Throughout the evening no less than seven boys left the stage during the performance, leaving the audience curious as to the reason (the average number on any given night is three). According to Maestro Sezen, after touring the auditorium and seeing the palatial splendor of the building, the boys had put so much pressure on themselves to “up their game” that several succumbed to the self-inflicted pressure and had to leave the stage.

The day following the concert was a rest day. The boys returned to the Armstrong College campus where they enjoyed playing basketball and volleyball in the John Amos Field House gymnasium. Following lunch in the dining hall, they stopped once more at Armstrong Auditorium for a group photo in front of the Swans in Flight sculpture before heading off to downtown Oklahoma City for go-kart racing, a sport not available in Austria.

Read iON Oklahoma Magazine arts crtic Clif Warren's review of the concert here.

 

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