Angelic voices kick off Christmas

As the city of Bloomington kicked off its pre-Christmas traditions, the Buskirk-Chumley Theater jumped into the mix with a performance by the Vienna Boys Choir on Saturday evening. Their angelic voices seemed to lift the audience off their seats.\nThe greater choir consists of a group of boys ranging from 10 to 14 years of age divided four touring choirs. Each of the four choirs gives about 300 concerts each year both nationally and internationally, visiting almost every continent. They spend nine of the 11 weeks they are in session in Austria on tour. Their repertoire for their tours ranges from medieval to contemporary music and the core of their touring repertoire includes motets, lieder and different arrangements of waltzes and polkas. \nThe audience at the event included young children up to elderly couples, many coming as a result of the Vienna Boys Choir's reputation. Together all the boys are amazingly talented and gifted with beautiful voices, and with every word they sang, it seemed to lift up your heart and soul. There were 25 boys in the choir and throughout the program they were in complete unison, and very attentive to the conductor throughout. \n"They seem like really behaved boys and are each very talented," said Fred Luhring, a Bloomington resident.\nMarilyn Hall, resident of Indianapolis, said she drove down to see the concert because of what she had heard about the choir. She said that each of the boys was extremely talented and that the music and voices were beautiful.\n"The choice of music is well thoughout and the conductor is a great leader," Hall said. \nThe program on that evening consisted songs from the Renaissance period, folk songs of Vienna, folk songs from the United States, and Christmas carols from Austria and the United States.\nDenise and Corina Defenderfer, a mother and daughter from Danville, Ind., drove down to see the show with the rest of their family because of what they heard about the choir.\n"The song about the cat and the Christmas songs were my favorite part, and they are very good," Corina Defenderfer said. \nAt the end of each song, the audience applauded, recognizing the astounding talent of the choir. Each boy is extremely talented in various aspects of the musical arts, as, for some of the songs, one boy played the trombone while another played the piano. The audience seemed to especially enjoy the second half of the program in which they sang Christmas songs, putting everyone in the Christmas spirit. In the end, the audience gave them a standing ovation, expressing their delight with the concert and the performance of the boys\nHall said she was very impressed with the choir and that it was worth the drive from Indianapolis. \n"It was very enjoyable to see them in such a great venue after hearing so much about them, and the music is extremely pleasing to the ear," Hall said.\nMany of the boys in all of these choirs become professional musicians, conductors, singers or instrumentalists. After hearing their angelic voices, you can really see a bright future for each and every one of them.