Sunday, February 14, 2016


Looking Back on the Feb. 9th Chapter Meeting and Extra Rehearsal

The snow held off and another huge crowd of members got to Durant for the usual start time of our rehearsal nite.

The extra rehearsal on Thursday, Feb. 4th was at Convergence Church in their theater building.  After an hour of work with Tony on the Harvey Milk Oratorio, we stayed on to watch the movie, “Milk” about Harvey Milk and his activism before and after he was elected to the city council.  Randall Eliason brought a popcorn popper and sodas for all to enjoy during the movie time. Bob Rhome worked hard to get the theater space ready for us.

Tonite’s work was serious to help us all advance on the contest package and the “milk” music. Reed Livergood did the vocal warm ups.  Associate director Tony Colosimo was at the helm for the music direction.

During the first half of the nite, Tony had us work on the ballad and then we took a stab at the uptune music we have so far.  We also we able to self record the ballad for our own review and possible submission.

Executive director Terry Reynolds did a presentation to further explain the qualifications requirements for contest and how we can submit our recordings.  Michael Gilmore will do the admin work for this process. Watch for email details.

Announcements have been mailed to all members by director of communications Scipio Garling, but here is brief recap: there is no extra rehearsal on Feb. 11th; an all-sectionals rehearsal on Sat. Feb. 13th runs 9-noon at First Baptist Church; all members need to sell tickets for the ACA Challenge on Mar. 26th   at Lincoln Theater in DC; the Alexandria Harmonizers, Inc., has received approval as a 501 (c) 3 organization; Chuck Harner is in Fairfax Hospital recovering from a planned open heart surgery.

Chairman Calvin Schnure met with Singing Valentine quartet men and prospects to fill out the quartets needed for community appearances this weekend.  YeEd heard some quartets guys rehearsing songs in the lobby before the meeting started.

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented  membership renewal cards to Aaron Simoneau for 3 years; Matt Doniger for 4 years; Clyde Crusenberry for 6 years; Mike Moncibaiz for 11 years; Bob Rhome for 15 years; Brian Ammerman for 22 years; Chuck Powell for 22 years; and Bruce Minnick for 39 years.

Director of membership Rich Hewitt with help from Jack Pitzer made permanent name tags for the “milkmen” who are joining us for that show.  Rich recognized this week’s birthday men and welcome prospective member guests and applicants.

After break, we worked on the “milk” music until closing time.

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 67th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd