by Nicholas Stevens
Let it never be said that the Vienna Boys Choir, which visited Akron for a concert at E.J. Thomas Hall last week, puts on a dull show. The singers themselves tend to stand stock still, yet this default mode of immobility makes the group’s occasional choreography — and director Manolo Cagnin’s energetic movements as both conductor and pianist — all the more exciting to watch. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
With Medieval roots and impressive singers age ten to fourteen, the Vienna Boys Choir didn’t begin giving concerts outside Vienna’s Imperial Chapel (Hofmusikkapelle) until 1926, but these days they’re globetrotters. The choir of boys from all over the world spends up to eleven weeks of every school year traveling.
The Choir’s latest tour, a 48-concert canvassing of the U.S., will bring them to E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron next Wednesday, November 29 at 7:30 pm. Led by conductor Manolo Cagnin, they’ll perform holiday tunes, classical selections, and Austrian folk songs for “Christmas in Vienna,” part of Tuesday Musical’s Fuze Series.
“What can I say? Christmas for me is good feelings, peace and quiet,” Cagnin said from the Choir’s stop in Ames, Iowa. “The program starts with ‘Walking in the Air’ from the the 1982 film The Snowman, then we try to ‘walk and fly’ all over and see the Christmases in different parts of the world. Ukraine, France, England, America, Sweden — in every country there’s a different color. The last song is Feliz Navidad, and that’s Christmas in South America.”