All-American Boys Chorus Logo 3
All-American Boys Chorus Alumni Newsletter Vol 1; No 5
July 2007
in this issue
:: Alumni Updates
:: We'll See You at the Fair
:: June & July Birthdays
:: You Should've Been There!
:: Camp! Still Great!
:: Alumni Bus Fund
:: Photo Memories
:: Keep in Touch
:: SAVE THE DATES!
 AABC Alumni Society LogoGreetings!
 

Greetings from The All-American Boys Chorus! 

 

Summer is here and we hope you're having "fun, fun, fun" like it says in the song by the Beach Boys!  

 

Here at the AABC we've stopped rehearsals, but that doesn't mean we're not busy!

We just finished up an awesome summer music camp and now we're prepping for shows at the Orange County Fair before we head out on our beautiful bus for a tour up through the Pacific Northwest and into Canada.  

 

Congratulations to Jason Werner ('86)!  He was the first alumnus to correctly guess the place and year of our May "photo memory."  The place was Great America in Santa Clara, California and the year was 1987 (summer).  Jason please let us know if you'd like two VIP tickets to our December 16th Christmas concert or a set of all five AABC CDs. 

 

Please send us your comments, suggestions and, most important of all, updates on what's going on with YOU so we can share it with fellow alums! 

 

Read on . . .

Alumni Updates

Michael Foster ('90) is getting married on August 25th to Shelly Lee Perkins. 

Scott Rogers ('86) is the western advertising sales manager for Editorial Televisa, which publishes 100+ Spanish-language magazines in the US, Mexico and Latin America.  Scott and his wife Anne were married in January 2006 and they live in Fountain Valley, CA.  And . . . they're expecting their first child in October 2007.
 

Andy Serrano

('95) announced his engagement to Loren Hoxie. 
Plans are still underway, but it's looking like an early '08 wedding. 
 

We want to know about the milestones and major events in your life.  Concerts, performances, new jobs, new kids . . . Visit the AABC website and update your info via the Email sign-up on the home page or the Alumni sign-up on the alumni pages. 

We'll See You at the Fair

 
Join us at one of the AABC's performances at the 2007 Orange County Fair! 
 
Do some of you recall the year we performed all 10 days at the Fair?  How many shows each day? Well, nowadays the schedule is a bit easier--only one show per day! 
 
FRI, July 13,   6 PM Plaza Stage
SUN, July 15,  6 PM Plaza Stage
TUE, July 17,  6 PM  Main Mall Stage
WED, July 18, 6 PM Plaza Stage
 
. . . and don't forget to stop by our booth in the Carnival of Products building.  We'll have AABC CDs, batteries, digital "one-time use" cameras, patriotic caps and "flashy-blinky" pins for sale!
AABC "on the road again" starting July 19th 
 
Are we coming to a place near you?
 
 
 

Forty boys and 9 staff members will begin our 2007 summer tour with a stop in Richmond, California; and  then quickly move on to Raymond, Washington for a concert on July 22.  From Raymond we head up to Vancouver, B.C. for a couple of sightseeing days and then on to Victoria on Vancouver Island, where the boys will perform on July 26, before heading back on the BC Ferry to the mainland and up to Whistler for concerts on July 28 and 29.  

 

We'll cruise across British Columbia to Alberta and the Canadian Rockies; with performances in Banff on July 31 and August 2, Jasper (white water rafting!) and a concert at the beautiful Jasper Park Lodge on August 4, back down the Icefields Parkway (with a stop at the Columbia Icefield) to Lake Louise and a performance there on August 6. 

 

August 9 will find us wending our way home via the beautiful Oregon Coast, with a concert in Newport, Oregon.  And then on August 11 and 12 we'll perform at two retirement centers (in Palo Alto and Hayward, California).  We arrive back home in Costa Mesa on August 13

 

If we're going to be near your "neck of the woods," please email or give us a call so we can arrange to meet up. It's always great to have alumni meet the boys, especially on tour! 

 
Peyto Lake

 Peyto Lake in the Canadian Rockies 

June Birthdays!   

Happy Birthday to . . . Colby Adams, Dusty Aldridge, Alex Anton, William Bates, James Baxter, Mike Bertoni, Mark Bodnar, Nick Bozentka, Weston Butera, Don Cadora, Jason Chua, Michael Coleman, David Costillo, Lucas Cottrell, James Deering, Bruce Dos Santos, McKenna Duley, Korey Erickson, Martin Estrada, Fred Flores, Chris Francis, Spencer Gil-Kist, Alan Gillett, Marty Glyer, Brian Griffith, Randy Griswold, Ryan Hart, Matt Hatch, Mark Hobson, Shamus Holton, Brandon Hui, Alan James, Joe Jean, Barry Johnson, Rustom Khavarian, J.P. Knapp, E.E. Lam, Ryan Lane, Jason Latty, Timmy Linden, Danny Livingston, Jeff Lowe, Ronnie Manuma, Andy Marton, Chris Maze, Alex McClure, Cameron McDougle, Adam Mekrut, Mike Melcher, Joseph Molina, Marty Montelongo, Raul Morales, Kevin Nguyen, Philip Nisco, Alec Nunez, Tom Osborn, Richard Penfil, Andrew Petracca, Tim Proctor, Danny Rasmussen, Lance Shoemaker,Jacob Stallings, Dan Stanford, Lawrence Striley
 
July Birthdays!   

Happy Birthday to . . . Tim Ahlering, William Baker, Jose Barrozo, Alan Bell, John Berkhausen, Scott Bovaird, Steve Brophy, Shawn Bryan, Greg Camacho, Marty Cardin, Mike Clancy, Ryan Cook, Jeff Harvey, Chris Herink, A.J. Hurley, Blake Johnson, Kuba Kabala, Scott Kasperik, David Keefe, David Lee, Phillip Lo Sasso, Tony Lopez, Jeremy Markin, Andy Meats, Joe Medeiros, Adam Miron, Graham Mueller, Serg Nardi, Paul Navidad, Joaquin Nunez, Ric Nunez, Jake O'Connor, Grant Owens, Lowell Palacpac, Jeff Parrott, David Pecarovich, Jan Pesigan, Rodel Rabara, Bret Sanders, Stephen Santillan, Phillip Shifflet, David Tennant, Peter Thompson, Alex Torrico, Matt Uyesugi, Thomas Waldron, David Walsh, Michael Young, Ryan Zalaskus

 

Did we miss your birthday? 
Let us know! 

You Should Have Been There!

Lots of Fun at the AABC Family Picnic!

 

Fun and camaraderies and exciting games were the order of the day at our June 9th Family Picnic.  Just ask Colin ('91) and Springer ('95) Browne -- pictured below with AABC Prefect Andy Serrano ('95). 

 
Also attending were:  Jason Werner ('86) and family, A.J. Hurley ('99), Dave Albulario ('89), Paul Kraus ('06), Spencer Gil-Kist ('05), Geoffrey Burns ('05), Albert Maldonado ('07), Sean Scott ('07), Weston Butera ('07), Joey Devin ('06), Zack Zumbek ('07)! 
 
Brochure Cover
 
Camp 2007 - Still the Best!
 

June 22 to 29 saw the entire AABC team (88 boys and 23 staff members, counselors and teachers) in Claremont at our 33rd summer music camp! 

 

Over the years, when we ask alumni what their favorite AABC activity is, the camp is mentioned most of all.  That feeling rings true for our current choristers too! 

 

Camp is still incredibly busy, with voice lessons, music reading and a rehearsal each morning; culminating in that tough, one-hour, "grand rehearsal" just before lunch.  Then it's model building, a short nap (that's kind of new) and an afternoon of hanging out in the dorms, going to the pool or working on your model.  After dinner there's the famous AABC theater and snack shop! 

 

Four years ago, thanks to suggestions from Aaron Cassaro ('95) and Chris Smith ('97), we began a new camp tradition, which involves a competition amongst each of the dorms. This year there were two dorms and so we put all of the altos in one dorm (1st Tenors and Basses) and all of the sopranos in the other dorm (2nd Tenors and Baritones).  The competition involved two "line" contests (quietest and straightest line and . . . most creative line).  In addition, each blue shirt earned points for his dorm for each song he checked off at camp.  There were also "daily questions" based on the AABC Code of Conduct, Tour Guidelines and the Vince Lombardi speech that are posted in each dorm room.  Points were also earned by the dorm that had the Blue Shirt or Red Shirt Camper of the Week, and runners-up, as well as for a banner each dorm had to create.  The Banner had to incorporate the camp theme, dorm name and mascot and the names of all of the boys in the dorm. 

 
Sopranos won the both line contests and the Banner award . . . but the 2007 winning dorm was the Altos!
 

Here are a few photos from Camp 2007!

Camp-Big Ball
The "giant ball" game was fun!
 
Camp-Models 2
Counselor Chris Maze ('04) helps out at models

Brochure Cover
It's all about those disciplined grand rehearsals!

AABC Alumni Bus Fund

$5 a month will help keep us "on the road"

Even though having our own AABC bus is cheaper than renting busses, it's still a big part of our budget.  We have to pay for fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs and drivers. 

 

We got to thinking about the bus costs, and came up with the idea that if each AABC alumnus donates $5 a month to our Bus Fund, it would be an enormous help with the increasing costs of the bus.  And yet $5 a month is really pretty affordable.  It's about the cost of a frappuccino at Starbucks, a Big Mac meal at McDonald's, or a few songs from I-tunes. 

 

Multiplied by all of our alumni, $5 a month would be a HUGE help to the Chorus. 

 

You can send your donation monthly, or give it all at once ($60 for the year). 

 

The easiest way is to go to the AABC website: www.taabc.org, click on the DONATE button at the top right of the home page and donate via PayPal.  OR email Tony Manrique at [email protected] and he'll send you a set of pledge envelopes. 

 

It'll be marvelous to tell our boys that it's the alumni of the Chorus, the guys that came before them and who shaped the AABC into the great organization it is today, who are still "riding along" with us on the bus to each concert!

 

Our thanks to the following allumni who have made donations or pledges to the Alumni Bus Fund: 

 

Gabe Ayala ('97), Juan Ayala ('92), Scott Bovaird ('88), Aaron Cassaro ('95), Kevin Gustafson ('97), Tony Manrique ('72), Andrew Multari '05), Gianni Multari ('07), Thomas Multari ('02), Fr. Bob Pipta ('82), Scott Rogers ('86), Greg Smet ('72), Matthew Uyesugi ('89), Mark Williams ('87)

PHOTO MEMORIES -- Where & when? Do you know? 

The first alumnus to email us with the correct place and year for this photo wins his choice of two VIP tickets to our Christmas concert or a set of all 5 AABC CDs.  Good luck!  
 
Tour Chorus in Steam
 
Remember . . . keep in touch, forward this newsletter to other AABC alumni and encourage them to send us their updated email addresses, snail-mail addresses and phone numbers.  Check the AABC website www.taabc.org frequently for updates about concerts, tours and events.  

 

The All-American Boys Chorus is the result of the hard work and effort and unselfish sacrifices made by you and by all of our alumni.  Your dedication helped form the AABC into a world-class institution.  Your continued interest and involvement will ensure our future. 

 

Gratefully, The All-American Boys Chorus

SAVE THE DATES!

 
July 13, 15, 17 and 18 at the Orange County Fair, Costa Mesa, CA.
Performances at 6 PM each day. 
 

Saturday, October 20.  4th annual fall gala at Joe's Garage, Tustin, CA.  Let's make this an alumni reunion!  We'll seat alumni by "eras" if we get enough to attend.  How cool would that be?!
 

Sunday, December 16 at 4 pm.  Christmas concert at Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts, Long Beach, CA.