Looking Back on the August 27^th Dog Days Sing and the Cerutti Wedding Performance

The Dog Days of Summer traditional chorus-sing hosted by the Bull Run Troubadours was held  at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Manassas.  A large crowd of family and friends was there including many from our chapter.  Great as always to see Larry and Cathy Silva in the audience..  The show opener was Dick Dangel playing his accordion and leading a sing-along.

The host chapter provided snacks and drinks for all and set up the hall for the event.  That included unloading and setting up our risers from the Harmo truck. Our guys also provided the sound equipment for the event.

The Mount Vernon Harmony Heritage Singers were first on the show.  Bob Wachter is their director, altho Drew Fuller directed one song for them. They announced that they are the largest day-time chorus in the BHS.  It was wonderful and drew a standing ovation when Bix Doughty sang “Old Bones” again for us this year.  He is 99 and headed for 100 in January. YeEd counted 9 former or current Harmonizers on the risers with this neighboring chapter who do shows and gigs during the daytime in the DC area.

Next on the show was the Chorus of the Old Dominion from Loudoun County area, followed by the Fairfax Jubilaires.

Our hosts, the Bull Run Troubadours, sang next while the Harmonizers assembled in the church foyer to warm up. Associate director Tony Colosimo did the warm ups and prepared us for the show opener, “I’m The Music Man” and invited the other assistant directors Terry Reynolds, Will Cox and Mike Kelly to direct their songs for the show. 

Emcees for our portion were Noah Van Gilder and Shawn Tallant.  Tony did the solo on “Circle of Life” and that song earned us a standing o too.  “Jersey Boys” was also a huge crowd pleaser!  We finished our set with “Anything Goes” in a revamped version to fit the small floor space by the front row. Thanks to those guys for their extra work to make it work so well.

As is tradition, during the warm up we asked if this was anyone’s first time singing with the chorus on a show and for sure it was Rusty Orvik’s first show.  Welcome to him.

To wrap up the evening, all barbershop singers present assembled on the risers to sing “Keep The Whole World Singing” with Tony as director.

Director Joe Cerutti was absent this week, as he and his new bride, Bridgette, were in Atlantic City.  The chorus sang for their 6 pm wedding on Saturday, August 24^th at the George Washington Masonic Temple in Alexandria.

The chorus was directed by assistant director Terry Reynolds and served as a backdrop for the ceremony.   We sang Steve Tramack’s arrangement of the Beatles tune, “Here, There and Everywhere” to bring in the wedding party which included family members of the bride and groom along with Wayne Grimmer and Greg Tepe.

Joe Cerutti Sr. escorted the bride down the center aisle to the ceremony while MAYHEM quartet with Matt Fellows, Pookie Dingle, Mike Pinto and Ken White, and the chorus sang the Bob Dylan song “To Make You Feel My Love’ arranged by Eric Ruthenburg.

Ken Fess was conducted the wedding ceremony. Cindy and Dave Ellis and Gail Henley read for the ceremony.

When Joe smashed a glass (reportedly an Italian custom as well as a Jewish tradition at a wedding) at the end of the ceremony, the chorus launched into David Wright’s arrangement of the “Hallelujah Chorus” to send the new couple off.

During the warm ups prior to the ceremony, Joe thanked the guys for their extra effort to learn the songs and come help he and Bridgette celebrate their big day.  The wedding program thanked a number of other Harmo family folks for their work in making the event a well organized and smooth flowing ceremony – Mark Klostermeyer, Ina Berkey, Mike Kelly, Craig Kujawa and Linda and Catherine Colosimo and of course the chorus members who did riser set up and av equipment set up for the ceremony.

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 during the 65^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)