The Atlanta Boy Choir, which has performed in front of royalty and audiences worldwide, is returning Saturday to the Sautee Nacoochee Center for its second concert.

The performance is set to start at 8 p.m. in the center’s 1940s-era gymnasium. The center is on Ga. 255 North, about one-fourth of a mile off Ga. 17 near Helen.

"We had them here last winter and people loved them," said Terri Edgar, arts program co-director at the center. "If it’s fun once, do it again is my personal motto. I hope others feel that way, too."

The center has updated the heating system in the gym, which has theater seating. "The acoustics are great," Edgar said.

She added that she believed "the boys were fascinated by our community, and I think their performance was fueled, in part, by the gym’s special energy."

David R. White, artistic director and conductor of the choir, said the group appreciated the invite.

"They’re working on broadening their offerings to that community," he said. "There’s a core group of folks who have an appreciation of the arts and are working hard to share that with others."

The choir began in 1957 under the direction of Fletcher Wolfe, who remained at the helm for 43 years.

Members range in age from 4 to 18, working their way through five different levels of instruction, White said.

The performance season goes from September to May and "then usually in June each year we embark on a concert tour," he said.

The total organization comprises about 140 boys.

"For this performance at Sautee, our top group of unchanged voices, as well as our young men’s ensemble, will be combined, and we should have roughly 48 boys," White said.

The concert will feature primarily sacred music.

"We are working toward a new CD of American (hymns)," he said. "That CD won’t be out for nearly a year, but we are starting to learn and perform that repertoire now, before we record it in late spring."

The group also has released four CDs since 2004.

Its musical selections generally range from early liturgical composers, such as Palestrina and Monteverdi, to contemporary masterworks by Britten and Penderecki.

The Atlanta Boy Choir won a Grammy Award in 1989 for its performance of Britten’s War Requiem with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the late Robert Shaw.

Edgar vows that the event will be a "really good and special family night out."