Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) promised him this at a meeting on Saturday in the Federal Chancellery, reported Boys’ Choir President Erich Arthold on Saturday followingnoon. He had previously raised the alarm via the media regarding financial problems.
“Sustainable solution in the works”
“We are saving the Vienna Boys’ Choir together,” emphasized Nehammer himself in a broadcast following the meeting: “The federal government is providing 800,000 euros from funds from the Ministry of Education and Culture so that the boys’ choir can go into the coming year without any existential worries.” In the next few months, a “sustainable solution” will be worked out “that will ensure the long-term financing of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and the Vienna Choir Girls,” according to the broadcast.
Arthold expressed his gratitude for the acute subsidy. “That’s a cushion that will get us through until the end of the season (end of August, note).” In media reports, he had previously mentioned exactly the 800,000 euros that the world-famous boys’ choir would be missing in order to be able to maintain operations.
Price increases are affecting choir boys
As far as a sustainable solution is concerned, the President wanted a commitment to regular subsidies. Although the international concert business, which was affected by countless cancellations due to the corona pandemic and through which the choir earns around two thirds of its income, is running at full speed once more, the rising prices are causing the choir boys a lot of trouble, as he emphasized: “Halls, hotels, flights, personnel costs will be more expensive, but you can’t pass that on to the audience, otherwise it won’t come anymore,” said Arthold.
Vienna’s ÖVP leader Karl Mahrer had already hinted at a short-term solution in the morning and referred to a telephone conversation with Nehammer. The FPÖ had called on the federal government to “take care of our country’s cultural heritage”.
