DOWAGIAC — Monday evening, the community of Dowagiac was presented with a special experience, uncommon for both the town and its visitors. The Vienna Boys Choir, a centuries-old entity turned popular touring act, graced the Dowagiac Performing Arts Center stage to perform sacred and pop music alike.

From Strauss and Mozart to “Sister Act” and Billy Joel, Monday’s concert was a high privilege both for the audience and the choir, organizers said.

“It was remarkable. It was everything we could have ever imagined,” said Jim Benedix, director of Dogwood Fine Arts. “Their selection of music covers a wide range of things.”

The Vienna Boys Choir is based in Vienna, Austria. Boys that sing in the renowned group are between the ages of 10 and 14.

On any tour, the VBC shares music from the Imperial Chapel, as well as other bodies of sacred music. On this tour, the boys have a section dedicated for Johann Strauss II. Whatever they are singing, choir director Jimmy Chiang said that the art is pure, not only because of the clarity and tone of the boys’ voices, but because the experience draws out and focuses the audience’s attention.

“It is simple and pure music that you just sit back and enjoy the purity of the voices. We need that sometimes when there’s so much stimulation everywhere else,” Chiang said.

Dowagiac was one of six Michigan stops on the VBC’s six-week U.S. tour. Chiang noted that the boys are getting the full range of U.S. geography and climate on the tour. Since they began about three weeks ago, the boys have been as far south as Florida and as far north as Bay Harbor, Michigan, getting into play on both warm beaches and lake effect snow.

The climate does little to phase the choir, according to Chiang. What impressed him most about Dowagiac was the professional space and fine acoustics of DPAC, as well as the hospitality and appreciation of the Dowagiac community.

“To be honest, there is less pressure in some of these places,” Chiang said. “With this kind of pure art, you have to just sit back and receive that sound and let it touch your heart. I think the people in these places understand that more.”

Chiang has been a choir director with the VBC for the last five years. While he has conducted orchestras and operas and traveled to many parts of the world, he noted that traveling with a boys choir is a one of a kind experience, one he thinks conductors of all kinds should know.

“Conducting boys with this repertoire I think is essential for any conductor to know about,” he said. “For me, it’s great. It’s a great process in career and maturity of a person.”

For Chiang, the work of conducting a choir of adolescent boys is less about the challenge, but the simple honesty of the boys he works with. He enjoys knowing the boys and being close to them, which is necessary for the age group. So much of what he does comes back to the boys mirroring his own behavior.

“To do a concert with them, I have to be with them,” he said. “The boys, they rely on you. If I’m not concentrating, they’re not concentrating. There’s a really special connection there.”

It’s the purity of the music and connection to the boys, as well as the Midwest hospitality, that makes sharing the Vienna Boys Choir experience with communities like Dowagiac worthwhile for Chiang.

“The concert was great (Monday) night. We enjoyed it many times over,” he said.