Since the 1920s, the choir has collected music from around the world. One of the choirís goals is to introduce the boys to as many different styles of music as possible. The choir has commissioned a number of world music projects. As Gerald Wirth explains, "We do not claim to play "authentic" world music; we create something from the original sources that is our own. We want to be faithful to the source in the sense that we treat it with respect". Silk Road is the choirís third world music project. The colourful journey along the old trade route was staged by Rebecca Scheiner, a stage director at the Vienna State Opera, and features songs from Uzbekistan and China, a qawwali from Pakistan, a ghazal from Iran and field hollers from Tajikistan, all sung in the original languages. Pirates tells the story of 18th-century pirates, using music from Yemen, Madagaskar, the Caribbean and Latin America.

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