Looking Back on the December 13^th Chapter Meeting

First off, YeEd offers a few notes about the caroling sing on Saturday, Dec. 10^th in Old Town Alexandria.  The chorus gathered on a sunny but cold busy shopping day around Market Square.  We sang all the holiday songs we knew, based on what the 4 or 5 baris new!  But the crowds loved us – seemed to really react to the “Hallelujah” and “Drummer Boy.”  Thanks to the soloists and emcees who did us proud. Jeremy Richardson had his first time as emcee. Glad that we invited any men in the audience who like to sing to come join us.  This is one of the gigs we do as payback to City Dept. of Rec for their support. Joe and Will were directors.  A quartet sang “Grinch” and Bob Rhome brought the box of Santa hats for guys to wear.  Greg Tepe was show producer.

When you arrived on Tuesday nite, you wondered where everyone was.  Well they were in every breakout room and office and store room in the Rec Center practicing for the Put Together Contest.

The usual set up work was done early and sales operations continued as usual.  Ian Poulin had a lively business selling scrip cards to guys who need them for gifts for family members or office crew, stocking stuffers, or to buy holiday groceries and treats.

Will Cox conducted the vocal warm ups and got the guys singing well.   Director Joe Cerutti was full of excitement to help the guys discover the contest songs we will sing in Roanoke for the 2012 Southern Division contest.  We have to compete there in order to qualify to sing in the district contest in the fall and earn the right to go to the International contest in Toronto in 2013.

Joe worked hard on introducing the chorus to vowel sounds, taught new guys how to detect an overtone, revealed some of his musical goals for 2012, and helped us to understand the slogan, “I give my best, not my all.”

Music vp Terry Reynolds used the projector to have the music on the screen so Joe could coach with it.  Scott Kahler had the sound system set up too.

Joe also stressed how singers will benefit from quartet singing.  Why not form a quartet for the division, since we are all gonna be down there that weekend.

We ended chorus rehearsal a little early in prep for the quartet contest.

Ops vp Mark Klostermeyer conducted the chapter meeting period. Chapter secretary Chris Buechler gave out new names tags to newest guys – TJ Donahue, Randal Eliason, Ross Felker and Gerry Fuller.

The chapter’s musical section leaders make up a registered quartet with the BHS.  This is the 25^th year for our chapter’s HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES – Rick Savage, Tony Colosimo, Ken Ives and Mike Kelly.

Chris presented membership renewals to Lew Klinge for 10 years, Brian Ammerman for 18 years, Troy Hillier for 21 years, Bob Sutton for 28 years (great to have Bob visit tonite), and Chuck Harner for 44 years. Ken White was given his card for 13 years last week.

Dr. Put, Eric Wallen, offered any last many quartet entries to sign up for tonite’s contest.  He is chapter quartet promotion chair.

Terry Reynolds recognized the new guys who sang with the chorus for their very first time on Sat at Market Square – Ross Felker, TJ Donahue, Mike Vlcej.  He also announced the music and performance committee meeting this weekend.

There is a board meeting on Wed. nite this week.  China trip deposits are due this week – note the address is in Canada so use the right amount of postage.

Membership vp Phil Ashford introduced another applicant with us.

After a coffee break, we held this Wilbur Sparks Memorial Put Together Quartet Contest.

Eric had collected 16 entries for the nite.  Lew Klinge was emcee again and made his usual “call” to talk to Ev Nau. 

Judges for the contest were Erin Odell, Tony Colosimo, Wayne Adams and Joe Sawyer.  They sang for us too – THIS OUGHT TO BE LEGAL.  Great fun to hear Erin keep up with the guys when she sings tenor! Jack Pitzer was judge official.

The judges recognized the top three winners in two categories – comedy and regular.  Trophies were presented to each guy.

Comedy Quartet winners were:

First – MASTER DIRECTORS – Savage, Wallen, Hillier, Dillingham

Second – OUR BASS IS DREAMY –  Cerutti, J George, Hillier, Wallen

Third – GIVING IT OUR ALL, NOT OUR BEST – Garling, Cerutti, Reynolds, Evans

Regular Quartet winners were:

First – FAST & SHARP – Garling, Roots, Richardson, C Clark

Second – OCCUPY DURANT – Savage, Kujuwa, Cameron, S White

Third – WINGIN’ IT – O’Brien, Eliason, Ives, Wallen

The chapter also had a trophy for the guy who sang in the most quartets in the contest.  The George Azzam trophy went to Eric Wallen who sang in five quartets and sang all parts at some point.

After the presentation of trophies, the chapter materials put away and the hall closed.

Next week, Dec. 20^th, we meet at Durant and then will go down into Old Town to sing carols at restaurants and bars.  Always a fun nite. Wear a warm coat with scarf for this one.  Everyone come out and join in the fun. There will likely be a gathering place after we have sung around.

K12 also passed out flyers about the Blast on Tues. Dec. 27^th – instead of our own chapter meeting. A good nite to go to meet and sing and celebrate with other barbershoppers from our DC Metro and Baltimore Metro areas.  (Also a good way to represent our chapter!)  Mark your calendar too for the BLAST in Glen Burnie. Usually some top quartets make the stage plus a bunch of put-together type quartets. Maybe our chapter winners will go represent us.  Form a car pool and lets all go.  Last few years a huge crowd of us took in the fun, chow and cold drinks.  Ask Steve White or Jack Pitzer about going.

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the December 6^th Chapter Meeting

It was a rainy nite in Alexandria but the guys came out to Durant to celebrate the great show we had and to get a start on the new contest package for May 2012.

There was a lot of chatter about the fun Holiday show and the guys were proud of their hard work and musical success.  Director Joe Cerutti paid tribute to a lot of the guys and expressed his appreciation for efforts to deliver a top-rate musical product to our customers. He was especially complimentary about Act III on every show.

A bunch of guys shared reactions from customers and family members who were at the show.  Show producer Bob Mattes thanked the long list of members and FRIENDS who worked to make it all happen.  A round of applause erupted from the guys in the chapter to thank Bob Blair for his dedication and extra efforts to haul and move and deliver!!

YeEd adds these notes to the article he published earlier this week about the show: great to have Dick Dangel and his accordion to welcome customers to the shows; Will Cox is amazing with his comedic rendition of  “The Night Before Christmas”; and did you see how the little kids who came up on the stage reacted to his telling it wrong!. In the spirit of being green, the Potomac Harmony Sweet Adelines chorus took all the wrapped boxes for their show.  No need to waste all that wrapping paper.  We also left many of the decorations on the stage and Bob Blair will return to the church later to get them back into our storage area. The premium seating table idea was a success and Lew Klinge was in charge of those special decorations.  Word is the chapter netted about $1500 from the silent auction Drew Fuller was able to pull together on such short notice. YeEd also learned last nite that Joe spoke to a group of Girl Scouts who were meeting in the church on Saturday morning and told them about barbershop harmony and had a quartet of Rick Savage, Craig Kujawa, Jack Cameron and Steve White to demonstrate.  This event was part of class for earning a badge. 

Amidst the celebrations this week in Durant, there was the usual business activity on the sidelines of the hall.  White House Ornament sales and CDs sold by FRIENDS (especially thanks to Sandy Stamps and Mary Ann Cleaveland).  Entertainment books sold by Chuck Harner. (He tells YeEd that next week is the last week to settle accounts and turn in unsold books.)

The FRIENDS group says thanks for buying sodas and such for the last couple years. They have sold out their supply and will take a vacation for selling them next year.

Roger Day was there smiling to all customers for 50/50 tickets.

When the bell rang at 7, the risers filled up and Tony Colosimo conducted the warm-ups.  When Director Joe was introduced he reviewed some Christmas songs from the Society book of holiday songs so we could use them for the show at Market Square on Saturday, Dec. 10^th.  Chorus call is 1 pm. Free validated parking under the square, so bring your parking ticket with you to the warm up area to be stamped.  Sweaters and scarves and holiday gear like Santa hats. Greg Tepe is producer of this show.

The bulk of our singing time this week was introduction and start on work in preparation for our contest appearance at the Southern Division contest in May, 2012, in Roanoke.  We have to sing there to earn a position in the fall district contest where we must score enough points to qualify for the International contest in Toronto in 2013. For division we are bringing back the gold medal package from 1995 with “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “I’ll Be Seeing You.”

When it was chapter meeting time, ops vp Mark Klostermeyer kept things flowing.  Secretary Chris Buechler presented three new members their name tags – Calvin Schnure, Mike Vlcej and Shawn Tallant.  Chris presented Scipio Garling his membership renewal card for 16 years; and presented jeweled pins for 25 years to Vince Cazenas and for 35 years to Steve White.

Membership vp Phil Ashford introduced a long line of guests including a couple first-timers, and many applicants.  YeEd heard before the nite was over that three of them had passed their auditions – Gerry Fuller, bari; Ross Felker, bass; and Randall Eliason, lead. Great to see guest Carlos Barilla singing with us after his busy weekend as a hi school music teacher who had show concerts this past weekend and one next weekend with his student choral groups.

Eric Wallen pushed for guys to sign up for the Put Together quartet contest on Tues, Dec. 13^th on the stage in Durant.  He offered to help guys find additional singers for a quartet, suggested holiday songs would be good, hinted that parodies are high scoring entries in the contest, and promised to come up with a crazy name if the quartet does not.

K12 announced that while our president Steve Murane is en route to Germany, he has sent word of a pending Presidents’ Ball Award Nite on Jan. 28^th.  Time and details to follow!

K12 also passed out flyers about the Blast on Tues. Dec. 27^th – instead of our own chapter meeting. A good nite to go to meet and sing and celebrate with other barbershoppers from our DC Metro and Baltimore Metro areas.  (Also a good way to represent our chapter!)  Mark your calendar too for the BLAST in Glen Burnie. Usually some top quartets make the stage plus a bunch of put-together type quartets. Maybe our chapter winners will go represent us.  Form a car pool and lets all go.  Last few years a huge crowd of us took in the fun, chow and cold drinks.  Ask Steve White or Jack Pitzer about going.

About 9:15 the meeting ended and guys were released to get coffee (and help eat the left over goodies from the show), and to work on their quartets for the contest on the 13^th.

YeEd got word of another Harmo event last week when TBD sang for the Alexandria City Public Schools “outreach for the arts” event.  Also president Steve Murane, community service chair Clyde Crusenberry, Don Dillingham and Alan Wile attended the evening event at TC Williams Hi School.  They staffed a Harmonizer info table. We were one of several arts groups invited to appear and to provide info at this inaugural event about our work to provide musical experiences for youth and adults in the community.

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —YeEd.)