This proposal deals with experiences and perceptions of a man who attended a school with a special focus on music, judging retrospectively the value of graduating from such a school, here – the school of the Vienna Boys’ Choir.

In recent years, the accountability movement and the associated achievement testing created pressures on specialised schools. Achievement tests are based on the premise that normative standards exist that have to be reached by the end of a school year or by a specific age. Under the cloak of efforts to increase equity and educational equality, efforts at homogenisation are made that do not value the creation of a specialised profile in early years – especially not school profiles focusing on arts or music education. This is a paradox, as these are skills seen to be important requirements to “survive” in the job market later on. The OECD “skills strategy” (OECD, 2017) and the OECD “innovation strategy” (OECD, 2010) are only two of many examples highlighting the importance of “soft skills”.

Following the argument that schools and their students have to perform well across a large range of skills, this study aims to explore the situation of specialized schools. In the Austrian context, there are many schools at primary and secondary level that have a music profile. However, there are some schools where students are under even more pressure as they not only have to deal with school content, but also have to rehearse and practice their music every day. The school of the Vienna Boys Choir serves as a perfect example for such schools.

Having the Vienna Boys’ Choir as one example for a specialist school, we want to ask: How did alumni experience their time at the Vienna Boys Choir? Retrospectively perceived – do they attribute experiences, achievements or options to their time at the Vienna Boys’ Choir and how would they rate the value of having been in such a specialist school?

It is assumed that the experiences such as touring with the choir internationally and being in the choir with boys from all over the world will create a substantial impact on the lives of the students, manifesting itself in areas such as job decisions, social networks, self-confidence and/or self-expression.

Research literature on boys’ choirs – apart from topics such as consequences of voice breaks (e.g. Ashley, 2013a, 2013b; Ashley & Mecke, 2013; Freer, 2015, 2016) – and their special situation seems to be quite rare. In the German context since only one systematic study could be found, conducted with the Windsbacher Boys’ Choir (Kotsch, Liedtke & Tusjak, 1996; Liedtke, 1996; Liedtke & Schulz, 2012; Schulz, 2002). They found that most of the students gained a certificate for university attendance and over 70 per cent of former students ended in a job requiring a high-school certification. There is a slight tendency for jobs in the area of music or arts with about 25 per cent of former students having music related jobs, but this also shows that former boys’ choir students end in jobs following the general distribution of society.

Very important for alumni: they gained a lot of experience by perceiving themselves as being part of an elite choir and made intensive friendships during the choir time. They developed a strong network and demonstrate attachment to the choir by attending concerts and joining meetings of alumni, and they feel that they enjoy a good reputation in society being an alumni of such a choir (Liedtke & Schulz, 2012)

This study on the Vienna Boys Choir serves as an example for schools with a very specific profile, working under challenging conditions. It serves as an example for how schools with a specific profile can position themselves and how much this can affect the education pathways of students attending such a school. The Vienna Boys Choir runs its own primary school, attended by boys and girls, and its own academic secondary school (10 to 14-year-olds), which is open to choir boys only. After primary school, boys get signed up to one of the four touring choirs (named after the famous Austrian composers Bruckner, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert). Since 2012, the Choir also runs an upper-secondary school (15 to 18-year-olds), which is open for boys and girls with a special interest in music. To answer the research question, we used an online survey of alumni of the Vienna Boys Choir. This survey will later be complemented by narrative interviews of alumni from each decade reaching back to the 1950s - due to the Covid-19-crisis this part has not yet been possible. The survey, which enquired about social aspects, relationships between boys and between boys and choirmasters, teachers and carers, as well as their experiences on tour, in the choir and the boarding school, and careers after leaving the Vienna Boys Choir, contained closed and many open questions, that were widely used by alumni to present their life stories. The survey was distributed to all alumni via mail of the institution of the Vienna Boys Choir. The survey took place between April and May 2020, during the first lockdown in Austria. In total, 237 alumni (about one tenth of all living alumni), participated in the survey. The mean age was 48, while the youngest was 14 and the oldest 89 years old. Most alumni were born in Austria and still live in Austria.

Almost half of the participants (47 percent) stated that they had completed university studies and over 30 percent had gained certification for university attendance. Many of them are or were very successful in their professional careers, such as being top managers of international organisations. When asked about their take away from their time at the Vienna Boys' Choir, many described that the discipline they acquired during that time also helped them in their professional lives. The group structure also represented a lasting, formative experience for many alumni. On the one hand, they learned how to fit into groups and, on the other hand, how to use them and possibly also steer them so that desirable group dynamics could arise. The responsibility that each individual in the choir had to take on for the sound of the choir also played a lasting role in the lives of many alumni. Independence and self-confidence are further aspects of personality development that many alumni explicitly mentioned. The stage experiences not only brought them immediate glamor and pride, but also meant that they were not afraid to speak in front of larger groups and to represent their points of view. Open-mindedness is also addressed as a value that has remained for the alumni after the Vienna Boys Choir. So the many trips also had the benefit of getting to know new cultures and creating a better understanding of otherness and equality. These are only a few highlights that show that schools focusing on specialized education can make a lasting difference in the lives of children, young people and adults, and that it should not only be standardised achievement and so-called academic subjects that represent success or failure, but what persons can gain from the arts (Thomson et al, 2018).

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