Everybody’s All-American

Young Chang

They wear V-necked jerseys that look like soccer shirts from afar. But

closer up, a funky font reads “All-American Boys Chorus,” giving away

that this team’s goal involves a more musical sort of score.

A third of the jerseys are red, another third white, the last third

blue. The boys wearing them are between 10 and 14 years old. Some sound

angelically soprano because puberty hasn’t yet set in. Others sing lower,

having emerged as tenors from the cocoon of childhood.

Like a soccer team, the Costa Mesa-based chorus started in 1970 shares

the goal of victory. Lately, among listeners still shaken by how life

changed on Sept. 11, the victory has been defined as being an American.

Or continuing to be. The chorus will take part in the second annual Fall

Harvest Festival today in Costa Mesa.

With song under the baton of David Albulario, 40 young choristers

inspired audiences to keep singing and keep being proud during a recent

tour through five states of the South. There were more thank-yous than

usual, more tears and more cheers. The tour began Sept. 19, when life was

still being measured in Sept. 11 time -- as in eight days after Sept. 11.

The boys weren’t scared to get on planes, Executive Director Tony

Manrique said. Sure, the parents needed assuring, but everyone agreed

that songs needed to be sung and spirits lifted.

In Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma, the chorus

received standing ovations after such classics as “God Bless America” and

“America the Beautiful.”

Sean Cruz, a 13-year-old from Costa Mesa who’s sung with the chorus

for almost six years, remembers how people in wheelchairs stood.

“It almost made me cry,” Sean said. “I felt proud because this is the

most important time to show patriotism with our nation. Because after

Sept. 11, everybody has come together as a union and as a nation, and I

think singing out to them brings us a little more closer together.”

They sang impromptu too. In airplanes, airports, restaurants and

wherever crowds noticed their red, white and blue presence, they obliged

requests for American classics, including the country hit “God Bless the

USA” and the marches of John Philip Sousa.

Manrique remembers singing at the Houston airport while waiting for a

connecting flight. Flight attendants and passengers huddled around as the

boys’ voices drifted farther in a terminal that was, in mid-September,

still unusually quiet. By the time “America the Beautiful” had been sung,

the crowd had grown considerably in size. Everyone clapped, everyone

cheered, many cried.

“We’ve done things like that a lot,” Manrique said. “But this seemed

to be especially rousing. That’s what people needed to hear at that

moment. And the fact that it was children doing it and the fact that we

were all in it together -- here we were all traveling . . . it made them

feel really good.”

Sean recalls one woman who approached him after a concert in

Louisiana. She told him she had been to many musicals, many operas, many

beautiful concerts. And with tears streaming down her face, she added

that theirs was the most beautiful concert she had ever heard.

Ari Miller, a 13-year-old from Newport Beach who has been singing with

the group for almost five years, said people needed to smile.

“It was just like bringing happiness to them,” he said. “And everybody

needs cheering up right now.”

But as much as the group spread cheer, Sean remembers more sobering

experiences as well. As part of the tour, the choir visited historical

sites including the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which pays tribute

to the 168 lives lost during a bombing five years ago.

A big oak tree stood alone at the memorial, Sean remembers. It was

called the Survival Tree because it was the only one that survived the

bombing.

For everyone who visited, the tree offered a lesson standing tall.

“I learned a lot about terrorism and how it affects everyone in the

nation,” Sean said, “not only in the people that died and the families.”

FYI

* WHAT: All-American Boys Chorus at the Fall Harvest Festival

* WHERE: Davis Education Center, 1050 Arlington Drive, Costa Mesa

* WHEN: The festival is from 2 to 6 p.m. today. The chorus will

perform at 2 p.m.

* COST: $2 for adults, $1 for seniors and children between 6 and 12,

free for children 5 and younger

* CALL: (714) 708-1670