The Vienna Boys Choir, in its second North American tour of the 2016-2017 season, will make appearances from 31 January to 19 March 2017, first throughout the South and Midwest of the U.S., then followed by performances in four Canadian provinces. The concert program for this 32-city tour is called simply "Smile", and brings a life-affirming message of praise and joy in a collection of works both sacred and secular, from diverse musical genres.

About the program: Smiling is not a learned behavior, humans across the world use it to establish contact: a baby knows how to smile. The uplifting experience of smiling, in which oxytocin is released throughout the body, is very similar to the exhilaration of singing. “For us, smiling and singing are related,”says the Artistic Director of the Vienna Boys Choir, Gerald Wirth “...so it felt natural to create a program about smiling.”

For the upcoming tour of North America, Choirmaster Oliver Stech has assembled a program of 22 sacred and secular songs designed to make the listener dream, laugh, and smile. From classical fare by well-known composers like Purcell, Vivaldi, Mozart, Schubert, and Mendelssohn to contemporary works; from Austrian folk songs to quintessentially Viennese feel-good music; from world music lullabies to Broadway show tunes, with this program the Choir invites the audience to take a break from their harried lives for two hours. Five of the pieces on the program have never before been performed by the Vienna Boys Choir: Ola Gjeilo’s Ubi caritas, William Boyce’s Alleluia, two Indian bhajans, a Sesotho prayer, and the enchanting Duerme negrito, made popular by Mercedes Sosa. In a first for the Choir, Austrian stage director Susanne Sommer has been engaged to choreograph some of the selections on the program. She has strewn in a few nods to Gene Kelly and Whoopi Goldberg, while letting the boys make the pieces their own. “Everyone has a special gift, something he does really well, and we will be showcasing some of these talents of our exceptional young singers as well on this tour,” says Ms. Sommer.

The enormously popular Vienna Boys Choir is actually comprised of four separate ensembles of 23 - 26 boys each, totaling 100 choristers at the Choir’s school at any given time - all of them between the ages of 10 and 14. The four choirs are of equal standing, and the Vienna Boys Choir's tours, concerts in Vienna and audio and video recording projects are shared among them. Each choir has a choirmaster and two tutors who travel with the boys.

The Vienna Boys Choir can trace its history as far back as the 13th century but it was formally established at Vienna's Imperial Chapel in 1498, by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The many incarnations of the group have been performing continuously ever since. The modern Vienna Boys Choir represents quite a departure from the composition of the original medieval choir of six boys. Today's Vienna Boys Choir is comprised of talented young singers from all over the world who are admitted by audition. During the school year, all choristers reside in the choir’s boarding house in Vienna, where they receive not only traditional schooling but also their musical training – both academic and musical lessons are tailored to the boys’ individual needs.

Approximately eleven weeks of the school year are devoted to touring; each choir member sings about 80 concerts a year. Once they reach ninth grade, the choristers graduate to the next phase of their education. Choir members have gone on to careers in all walks of life, with about 25% turning to professional careers in music. Many of the boys have siblings, fathers, uncles and even grandfathers who have also been members of the Choir.

As noted, the conductor of the Vienna Boys Choir on this tour is Oliver Stech. A native of Austria, he is himself a singer and spent his early years in a variety of choirs, eventually assuming the role of conductor after years of study and performance at the University of Music in Vienna. He was named kapellmeister of the Vienna Boys Choir in 2011, in which capacity he has collaborated with such conductors as Christian Aming, Vladimir Fedoseyev, and Mariss Jansons. He also leads the boys in appearances on radio, television, sound recordings and film shoots, including the Curt Faudon films "Songs for Mary" and "Good Shepherds".

Since their first audio recording in 1907, the Vienna Boys Choir has recorded over 300 singles, LPs, and CDs, the most recent of which is a successful holiday album: Merry Christmas from Vienna (Deutsche Grammophon).

The next appearances of the Vienna Boys Choir in North America will take place in the Fall of 2017.

Winter 2017 Concert Program: Music of Boyce, Purcell, Hassler, Vivaldi, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Johann Strauss II, + folk songs of Africa, India, Bulgaria, Venezuela, Mexico, Austria and South Africa + songs from popular films.

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