History & Mission
Founded in 1965, the Cincinnati Boychoir seeks to enhance the social, emotional, and musical development of boys by instilling in them a sense of dedication, self-discipline, and respect. By striving for artistic excellence and learning a diverse repertory of choral literature, the boys are prepared for a lifelong love of music and ensemble singing.
The All City Boychoir at a Bengals game in 1976
Each year, the Cincinnati Boychoir presents a six-concert subscription series and gives approximately 35 outreach performances for community organizations, churches, nursing homes, weddings, clubs, and retirement homes, in addition to numerous appearances with local orchestras and opera companies. Throughout the choir’s history, more than 3,000 choir members have presented more than 1,000 concerts in the greater Cincinnati area and throughout 21 states and four foreign countries. Six Boychoir alumni have gone on to serve as members of the Vienna Boys Choir in Austria.
Professional performances of the Cincinnati Boychoir have included Tosca with the Cincinnati Opera; Benjamin Britten’s cantata St. Nicholas with the Metropolitan Festival Choir and Orchestra of Detroit; Carmina Burana with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra in Hawaii; a joint appearance with the Vienna Boys Choir; Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Britten’s War Requiem, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, and Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus; an appearance at the Crystal Cathedral, aired internationally on the Hour of Power; an appearance in Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of the Field Studies International Honors Children’s Choir; concert sessions for the American Choral Directors Association National Conventions in Chicago and Los Angeles, and the opening ceremonies of the Music Educators National Conference national convention.
Television appearances have included “The Hour of Power,” WKRC-TV, Channel 12, aired internationally; coverage of the choir’s partnership with the Vienna Boys Choir on all local channels, CBS This Morning, and CNN worldwide; European tour coverage for WCPO Channel 9, holiday spots for WXIX Channel 19, WCET-TV’s Christmas Special; “CBS This Morning;” “Myron Floren Presents Stars of the Lawrence Welk Show,” produced by WCET-TV and aired on PBS stations nationwide; Thanksgiving and Christmas specials on WLWT-TV, channel 5; “The Ira Joe Fisher Show,” on Channel 12; Cincinnati’s Bicentennial “Saengerfest” on channel 48; and numerous productions for cable and public television. The choir has been featured recently on many local radio stations, including WGUC, Cincinnati’s classical music station.
Boychoir soloists and ensembles have performed with the Dayton Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Opera, the Lebanon Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Blue Ash Symphony Orchestra, the Wright State University Orchestra, the Middletown Symphony Orchestra, the Dayton Opera, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Miami University Symphony Orchestra and Choruses, the Sorg Opera, WCET-TV, the American Youth Choir in China and Europe, the Moscow Radio Symphony, the Leningrad Philharmonic, the CCM Concert Orchestra, the Miami University Men’s Chorus, and the orchestras of Oslo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen.
2009-2010 appearances include La Bohème with the Cincinnati Opera, St. Matthew Passion with the Cincinnati May Festival, and a special event, entitled Art | Song, in collaboration with the Taft Museum.
