Mission: The All-American Boys Chorus empowers and gives voice to boys from diverse backgrounds to build self-confidence, self-discipline, leadership skills, and realize achievement through the transformative power of music.
Programs: The All-American Boys Chorus (AABC) began as a small church choir in Anaheim, California in 1970 and has grown to become an Emmy-winning, internationally-touring non-denominational chorus that fosters the creative and leadership development of over one hundred boys each year. While the choir was initially comprised of only 20-30 boys affiliated with a local church, in 1973 broader community interest in the choir lead to the expansion of enrollment to include boys from all over Southern California as well as separation from the church to become a non-denominational organization. Since that time we have continued to grow, both in size and scope, in order to provide more boys with the unique creative and leadership development opportunities AABC offers. We have expanded our programming to include summer camp as well as programs for younger boys and high school students who are outside of the 8-15 age range for our Chorus Program. We began touring in the United States and Canada in the 1970s, and in 1988 booked our first overseas international tour to Romania, Austria and Russia, giving our choir international recognition. Since then we have continued to tour each year, increasing our international acclaim and providing hundreds of boys with the opportunity to travel and perform to a range of audiences throughout the world. In addition to our growth in size and reputation, we have also continually worked to improve our performances and professionalize our organization through board expansion, strategic planning and hiring a trained musical conductor and artistic director to design one-of-a-kind performances. This commitment to excellence led to the AABC being named an Outstanding Arts Organization by Arts Orange County for 2011, and receiving an Emmy award in 2016 for its participation in "It's Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown". Today, we remain committed to our vision to make a positive difference in our community. We achieve this through offering a variety of programs designed to equip young men with musical knowledge and skills and transform them into confident, seasoned performers. We currently serve 110 boys annually (ages six to 18) from throughout Southern California. We have over 1,300 alumni who have performed over 3,600 concerts and participated in 63 concert tours across 18 countries. As we celebrate our 50th Anniversary in 2020, our new CEO is excited to work alongside our Board and Artistic Director to build recruitment, programming, and resources to carry us on to continued success over the next 50 years.
I am an original alumni of the all American boys chorus from the early 1970s. I learned so much from the original creator Father Coughlin. Father was so loving and caring with his boys. I am truly sorry to hear about some of the things I have read , that supposedly happened to some of the boys, but I can tell you this that father loved the chorus , and I’m sure it destroyed his heart to have to give up a love he adored so much.
I will be forever grateful to the staff and father for the opportunity I had to be apart of this great organization. Again my apologies to the unfortunate few that didn’t receive the same experience ‘ I will forever cherish. It was the best time of my life and the friends I made over the years were even more magical. If ‘ you ever get the chance to join this awesome group ‘ do so as you will have the Time of your life. God bless to all! Lieutenant R. Bedwell USCGA- Nevada.
