Estonian National Opera Boys’ Choir was founded in 1971 as the boys’ choir of the State Academic Men’s Choir. In 1997 the choir was adopted by the Estonian National Opera. For thirty years the choir was directed by its founder, Professor Venno Laul, until the appointment in 2001 of Hirvo Surva as Artistic Director.

The Boys’ Choir functions as a choral studio with four different levels, the main choir, youth choir and two study choirs – Jukus and Juhans. The main choir operates on the mixed choir principle – the boys who have passed the voice breaking period will continue as tenors or bassos. In addition, there is also a youth quintet and boys sextet.

The main aim of the choir is to promote and introduce the traditions of boys’ singing, the development of vocal and musical abilities of the boys and shaping their spiritual values.
For the more talented boys there are exceptional opportunities to sing in the productions of the Estonian National Opera, such as Puccini’s “Tosca” and “La bohème”, Bizet’s “Carmen”, Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana”, “The Nutcracker” by Tchaikovsky, “The Colours of Clouds” by Puur, “Parsifal” and “Tannhäuser” by Wagner, “The Man of La Mancha” by Leigh and others. Together with stage director Uku Uusberg the Boys’ Choir received their own music production “Chestnuts Out of the Fire” by Andres Lemba and Jaanus Vaiksoo in 2017 and in 2019 the choir was an important part of a drama and chorus production “Men, Let’s Get Going” about the life of Gustav Ernesaks.

The choir has been received with acclaim not only in many European countries but also further afield like Israel, Canada, USA, Australia, China, Japan, etc. Estonian Choral Association awarded the choir with the title “Choir of the Year” in 2015 and 2018. In 2016, they participated in MustonenFest (Tel Aviv) where they gave nine concerts within ten days. The same summer they went on tour to Canada and USA giving concerts mainly in Toronto to celebrate the 100th anniversary of composer and choir conductor Roman Toi. They also performed with success in Vancouver, Seattle, Eugene, Portland and San Francisco. In 2018, the boys gave a concert in Berlin Konzerthaus with a program of “Estonian Boys’ Songs” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Baltic States. In August they toured China, giving concerts in 17 cities. In 2019, they participated in international festivals in Yaroslavl and Minsk. At the 2nd International Sacred Music Festival in Petrozavodsk they were awarded the Grand Prix and a Special Prize for the best performance of sacred music.