I never imagined the Vienna Boys’ Choir would ever perform in Fresno, even if the Fresno Philharmonic was to sponsor their visit. Our city, being mostly rural and not generally into the arts, did not seem like the place to showcase the world-famous choir.

Despite my disbelief, I attended the Fresno concert with the community choir in which I participate, the Bach Youth Chorale, and we took in the sounds of Austria together.

The boys’ vocal quality is trained well by conductor Andy Icochea Icochea that the possibility of singing extremely high notes was not out of the question. Each piece was sung with such brilliance that several of us from the Chorale stared in amazement while we watched.

Though I did enjoy the concert, the boys’ voices tended to get a bit shrill in the higher range, depending on whether it was a solo or the whole choir. The choir had times when blending the voices was an issue.

The choir performed songs from all around the world including Austria, Uzbekistan, Korea and even a Psalm-based piece, composed by the director himself. With exotic names like “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana, “Eljen a Magyar” and “La Muerte del