VIENNA, Austria - Imagine living in a palace built in 1692, overlooking lush grounds on the outskirts of Vienna, Austria. Benjamin Kleykamp got up early Saturday morning to give a tour of his school in the Augartenpalais - from the elegant, gilded salons dripping with crystal chandeliers to his dorm room in a modern wing, with neat bunk beds overlooking formal grounds.

Benjamin is modest, multi-talented and a bit shy. He's sung before presidents and emperors, but he takes it all in stride. "Once you're going onstage with your white uniform, you have a feeling that just tickles," says Benjamin, a high soprano, as his parents, Alexandra and Steve Kleykamp, look proudly on. "I like everything about it."

Benjamin, 12, and fellow Cincinnati-area native Andrew Markowich, 14, are successors to Donald Smith and Ryan Slone, the first from this area (and just the second and third Americans ever) to join the world's finest and oldest boys choir, the Wiener Sangerknaben. All are former members of Cincinnati Boychoir.

(Andrew is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the moment, starring in a play called Pirates on a Far East tour with the Bruckner Choir.)

As we ascend a stairway, the sound of high-pitched, heavenly voices floats down. The door opens, and the boys stand up to welcome their colleague. The Vienna Boys Choir is all about tradition, formality and excellence.

On this Saturday morning, Benjamin's group, the Schubert Choir, is hard at work with choir leader Robert Rieder, preparing to sing Sunday Mass in the Hofburg Chapel. The choir has sung Mass there for more than 500 years.

A distinguished-looking maestro, Helmut Froschauer, enters to conduct the rehearsal for the Mass, which will be accompanied by members of the Vienna Philharmonic. The boys' pure tone is extraordinary and clear.

Besides Schubert, they run through Adeste fidelis, already tuning up for a Christmas concert in Vienna's Konzerthaus, "Christmas in Vienna." There's a chance they'll also be singing in December with superstar tenor Jose Carreras in London, still being negotiated.

It's a world of touring and limelight, of press conferences, recordings and appearances with renowned artists and an intense schedule of rehearsals and classes. But it's a very Harry Potter experience, living with prefects and other boys, and there's plenty of time for fun.

"Benjamin likes it a lot, and that's important to us," says Alexandra Kleykamp. "We enjoy his singing, and he is still the same, I must say. He's just a normal child."

Benjamin was born in Luxembourg, where the family lived before moving to Cincinnati in 1996. Steve Kleykamp, a writer of children's books, grew up in Centerville, and met his wife in Luxembourg while attending Miami University's overseas campus.

The Kleykamps left their Mason home in September 2003, and found an apartment overlooking the Augartenpalais to be near their son. (Their other son, Gregory, 16, a student at Mason High School, is staying with grandparents Don and Joan Kleykamp.)

"We got hooked on the Cincinnati Boychoir," says Steve Kleykamp, whose three sons, Benjamin, Gregory, and Jeffrey, 14, were all members.

"We wanted to be able to attend the concerts and see Benjamin on the weekends, and take the boys out. We wanted to be part of the whole experience, instead of just getting an e-mail or a phone call once in a while."

Their daughter Victoria, 10, is also musical. She sings in the European Choral Academy, managed by Vienna Boys Choir director Gerald Wirth. Victoria has been invited to audition for The Sound of Music, to be conducted at the Volksoper by Cincinnati's Erich Kunzel.

The family wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

"We think it's great that Benjamin can learn this," Steve Kleykamp says. "We don't know what's coming. He thinks he might like to be an architect. But we attended a reunion of former choirboys last year. These people have all kinds of professions, but they all sang and music just stays in their lives."

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com