Looking Back on the May
2nd Chapter Meeting and Sing with Alfred Street Choir on April 26th
Last week on Wed, April 26th,
Harmonizers gathered with the men’s choir from Alfred Street Baptist Church in
Old Town Alexandria for a sing and social nite.
The meeting was at Convergence on Quaker Lane. Their choir warmed up in the sanctuary and we
warmed up in a classroom.
We sang first - “I’ll Be
Seeing You” and “Summertime” and one of our new spirituals, “There Must Be a
City.” Joe did the warm ups and directed. Then the choir sang with Melvin
Bryant directing. Their church music
program director Joyce Garrett accompanied them.
After that we all sat
together and Melvin taught us “Down By the Riverside” and Joe taught the combined group “Rock My Soul.” This will yield a combined performance at the
Alexandria GospelFest next month.
After lots of singing, we
shared lemonade and a cake with “Singing Together” decoration. It was a fun
evening for all.
Then on Tuesday May 2nd,
it was back to hard work on our music at Durant. Director Joe
Cerutti did the warm ups using “The Star Spangled Banner” as our exercise –
since we will be singing it for the Armed Forces Day event soon. We also worked
on “Armed Forces Medley” for that event.
Then we embarked on contest
preparation for the Southern Division which is coming up during the weekend May
26-27. Joe invited assistant
director Chuck Hunter to coach the
package. It was a great session and we
got some solid work time in on the songs – especially to help the many new
members perform these Harmonizer standbys.
At the start of the chapter
meeting session, Joe explained that
we would be participating in a workshop next week about “inclusion” as part of
our growth and development as a chapter.
Dr. Sheila Peters from Nashville TN will be the facilitator for the
session.
Executive director Terry Reynolds began the important
announcements:
The chapter is co-sponsor of
Alexandria’s GospelFest which will be at Durant on the weekend of May
19-20. We will sing on the Sat session
from 11-1. The FAIRFIELD FOUR will be our guests and appear both on Fri and
Sat.
Later on Sat afternoon, the
chapter will have our Armed Forces Tribute event also at Durant from 3-4.
As a reminder, the chorus
will be singing at the Southern Division contest on Sat. May 27th. The chapter must qualify to go to the
district contest in the fall. The
division contest is in Reston. Another
reminder – each man must be paid up on his dues, and must have a contest
registration/ticket. They are $42 each and can be purchased on site or in
advance on the district website – midatlanticdistrict.com. Hope many of the
members will go on Friday nite to cheer for the seven quartets with
Harmonizers singing in them. That contest session starts at 5 pm.
For those going to Harmony U
in August, you need to reply to a survey request from conventions coordinator Craig Kujawa as to your travel plans to
Nashville.
There is also an opportunity
for members to help Craig plan and
manage our chapter’s duties in hosting the fall contest in Reading PA. Speak
with him if you can help.
President Randall Eliason presented a President’s
Valor Award to Clyde Crusenberry for
his successful work in getting together a theater party at Little Theater of
Alexandria for the chapter. Everyone had
fun and we even sang for other show patrons.
Randall reported that Bob Ulibarri
was having some heart issues and in the hospital. More details to come.
The communications committee
has produced a new chapter business card that members can carry with them for
prospective members or gigs
The chapter has arranged
with Vickie Dennis to provide
private vocal instruction sessions on Tuesday nites during chapter meeting
between 7:30-9 pm. There is a small fee.
Secretary Chris Buechler presented a membership
renewal card and lapel pin to Paul Grimes in recognition of his 30 years.
A task force met with operations
chairman Mike Edison regarding
replacing the Harmo truck during the break.
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 69th year of the
Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd
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