Not Much Room for Change in Vienna Choir Boys : Music: Globe-trotting choristers, age 10 to 14, keep a centuries-old tradition going--at least until their voices crack. They’re in Cerritos tonight.

Six years after Columbus landed in America, some five centuries ago, by the Emperor’s decree, the choristers of the Imperial Chapel in Vienna began singing. One of the group’s more recent members, having served a five-year stint in the early 19th Century, was Franz Schubert.

Early this century, the collapse of the Hapsburg dynasty resulted in a brief hiatus for the choristers. Resurrected and re-christened the Vienna Choir Boys, the group donned sailor suits and--unlike Columbus, who figured two trips were enough--embarked on an endless world tour.

Tonight, the boys dock at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

“We are actually four (touring) choirs, 24 boys each, and each with its own choirmaster, nurse and prefect,” said Kurt Manninger, one of the prefects, reached by cellular phone with a busload of boys en route to Lancaster, where they performed earlier this week.

“I try to hold them together,” Manninger said, “see that nothing happens, help them with little problems. They lose something, there’s something to fix, I put on a Band-Aid.”

In addition to tours of Asia, Australia, South America and South Africa, the Vienna Choir Boys (a.k.a. die Wiener Sangerknaben) have visited the United States more than 50 times since 1932. At least one choir remains in Vienna for Sunday Hofkapelle services with the Vienna Philharmonic, a major tourist attraction, while the others tour.

The program for Cerritos is divided into three parts: sacred music including “Veni, Sancte Spiritus” by Mozart and “Laudi alla Vergine Maria” by Verdi; a one-act opera, compiled especially for the boys, called “Tales From the Vienna Woods,” based on music by Johann Strauss, and secular selections including “Zigeunerleben” by Schumann.

The program when the boys are not performing is also full.

“We went to the San Diego Zoo; we went to Mexico for a look, the Grand Canyon, bowling, and when we’re in Los Angeles we’re going to Disneyland,” Manninger recounted. “This is all good for the concentration when they perform.”

Between the two world wars, the choir counted among its conductors the great Bruno Walter. Its latest conductor, and also its accompanist, is Vincent Borrits of Paris.

The Augarten Palace in Vienna serves as the boys’ permanent home. Classrooms occupy the lower floors; dormitories overlook the gardens. Two women keep the boys in their customary sailor suits: “This outfit was the norm for the children not of the crown, but of the well-off, 100, 150 years ago,” Menninger explained.

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When voices inevitably break with the onset of adolescence, the “older” boys retire to studio apartments on the palace grounds, where they live rent-free while finishing their educations. For every six voices, on average, that break each year, 30 youngsters are waiting in the wings to audition.

The boys in Manninger’s group range in age from 10 to 14. Can they possibly be the angels they seem in countless films, recordings and television appearances?

“They’re normal boys. The only thing is that they can sing very well and behave on the stage and in public,” Manninger said. “They listen to Guns N’ Roses.”

* The Vienna Choir Boys sing tonight at 8 at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. The program includes “Tales From the Vienna Woods,” a one-act opera based on music by Johann Strauss, and other works, sacred and secular. $20-$30. (800) 300-4345 or (310) 916-8500.