Korea 2015

The Vienna Boys Choir in Korea

From 13 to 26 January, the Haydnchor boys will tour Korea, conducted by Jimmy Chiang. The choir will perform in Jeonju, Busan, Yeosu, Namdong, Nowon, and Seoul.

The programme includes motets from the choir's 500-year history, contemporary pieces by Hugo Distler and Nurit Hirsh, two famous opera choruses, and works by Schubert, Brahms, and Strauss.

A particuar favourite of the boys is the classic pirate shanty "15 Men on a Dead Man's Chest". "It should be 23", muses Florian, "that is how many we are; but 23 has too many syllables." The chorus is well-known from Stevenson's Treasure Island; the boys first performed it as part of their seafaring project on Benjamin Britten, The Boy and the Sea.


Two other highlights of the programme are Gerald Wirth's composition Leave This Chanting and Singing, on a text by Rabindranath Tagore, and the upbeat “Singin' in the Rain”.


> Tour dates