Saturday, October 20, 2018




Looking Back on the October 16th Chapter Meeting 

This was a busy nite again – lots of shifting around the meeting place at Scottish Rite Temple so that we could record in the cafeteria.  Associate director Tony Colosimo did the warm ups and launched the work effort on “From This Moment On” and worked with director Joe Cerutti and sound tech coordinator Mike Kelly for the recordings. Each of the four vocal sections recorded their track.

While a section was recording, the other sections worked on holiday songs in the upstairs lobby. There was also work on the songs and stage presence for the songs to be sung Wed. nite for the a cappella fellowship event.

When Joe started his part of the nite, he had a copy of the book, “John Glenn – A Memoir,” which has comments from Senator Glenn about his playing award winning barbershop chorus CDs from the Alexandria Harmonizers while in space.

The chapter meeting was conducted as usual by communications director Steve Murane.

Our Oct. 23rd meeting will be in the cafeteria at Scottish Rite Temple again.
 
The Men’s Choral Fellowship Event on Wed. Oct. 17th will be at 7pm at Alfred Street Baptist Church, 301 S. Alfred Street, in Alexandria.  Uniform will be the black camp shirt with jeans, etc. Call time is 6:30 however. We will be joined by the Men’s Choir from Alfred Street and the Metropolitan Baptist Church Men’s Chorus.  Joe will teach the groups “Irish Blessing” Attendees should plan ahead for parking.

The Bark Ball, Oct. 20th will be at the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut Ave. NW.  Plan ahead to take Metro or pay high prices for parking. Chorus call time is 6 pm. Dressing rooms will be available to change into the tails. Anyone with a tux is welcome to attend and help with this appearance – the recordings will play and those who don’t know the song can mouth the words. There will be an afterglow at Duke’s Counter, 3000 Connecticut Ave., NW – across from the National Zoo.

The Holiday Show is Dec. 8th at 7:30 pm at TC Williams High School on King Street. Tickets are on sale now thru Event rite. Ticket chairman Dean Sherick will have consignment tickets next week when he returns from travel.  Singing with the chorus will be our own TBD a cappella group, and BETTER TOGETHER (Tony and Elizabeth Colosimo and Andrew and Heather Havens mixed quartet).  We will repeat the very fun version of the “Hallelujah Chorus” with Monks.  Friends and relatives of members may sign up to audition as a monk – as long as they can attend a rehearsal from 6:30-7:30 pm every Tuesday in November.

The first half of the holiday show will be toys/elves again.  So singers need to start working on their costume for this.  New guys should ask for ideas about this and also check with uniform chair Robyn Murane regarding any uniform parts.

Casey Belzer will coordinate a printed program for the holiday show and needs advertisement materials by Nov. 13th.

Future shows include the Whiffenpoofs on Feb. 9th, and a joint concert with the Christchurch Pops Choir and the Alexandria Singers on Mar. 20th.  Both events will be at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.

Executive director Randall Eliason alerted all members that he is updating rosters for the various chapter administrative teams (membership and marketing to name two).  Randall will accept requests from current members to change teams, if desired.  And he will meet with all the new men asking their preference.

Krissi Folsom announced the show for her chorus, Heart of Maryland SAI, on Sun. Oct. 28th at 1 pm at F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, 63 Edmonston Dr., Rockville, MD. Tickets at the door.

President Shawn Tallant asked all singers to respond as to their availability to do a community sing for senior citizen facilities on Sat. Dec. 15th.

Shawn also asks all the able men to chip in whenever there is a need to move, load and unload risers as needed.  Help Matt Doniger who does a yeoman job needs help.

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Randall Eliason for 23 years and Terry Reynolds for 35 years.  Terry also received a 35-year lapel pin as is the tradition for our chapter.

Membership chairman Calvin Schnure welcomed Tyler and Dylan again.

During break there were refreshments again (since we were in the cafeteria).

After break it was back to work on the music.

A good crew of guys went to Ramparts for an afterglow.

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 70th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd



Looking Back on the October 17th Choral Fellowship Event 

(Thanks to Jerry Jayjohn for taking notes at the event. YeEd.)

Our time at the Choral Fellowship of Male Choruses held at the Alfred Street Baptist Church in downtown Alexandria, was a great night of fun and fellowship with other male choruses we haven’t seen for a while if at all.  To encourage fellowship, Melvin Bryant, Jr. asked that we sit by part, Tenor 1, Tenor 2 etc. but to sit beside people that do not sing in our respective chorus.

Service started at 7 pm with the welcome of Joyce Garrett, the Music and Worship Arts Ministry Director, followed by the invocation and introduction of the choruses who came to sing by Melvin Bryant, Jr.
The evening three 3 parts, one part for each chorus.

Part 1 – Alfred Street Baptist Church Male Chorus, Melvin Bryant, Jr. Director

The men’s chorus did a great job singing “Praise to the Lord, The Almighty,” an one of the Harmonizer’s favorite songs “Rock My Soul,” although it was arranged in a little different style than  we are used to.  Then Melvin, taught all the men a song they sing at Alfred Street, called “Goodbye and Amen,” arranged by Melvin himself.  

Part 2 – Combined male choruses from Metropolitan Baptist and Woodstream Churches from Largo, MD. Director Brandon Felder.

Their selections were “My Help,” “As the Deer,” and “Let Everything That Hath Breath (Psalm 150).”  All three selections were very moving, and received a standing ovation.  After the combined chorus was done, their director taught the men a song called “We Are Men,” that was fairly easy to grasp and the audience in attendance really enjoyed it.

Part 3 – The Alexandria Harmonizers, directed by our director Joe Cerutti.

To start our set as we were getting placed, Joe made the announcement about the Harmonizer Award of Harmony that was given to Joyce Garrett at our 70th Anniversary Show. 

To start we opened our set with “Great Day” which the crowd loved. Followed by “Bring Him Home,” with Anthony Colosimo as the soloist, and we rounded out our set with the “Armed Forces Medley,” which Joe asked all those who are serving or have served in the past stand up when their particular branch song was sung.  The audience participated as well as the men from the other choruses equally about 2/3 of the people in the sanctuary.  After our final song, Joe taught everyone the “Irish Blessing” arranged in barbershop style.
To close, Melvin said we hope to continue to grow and have it again next year, which Joe replied “we definitely should continue.”

We closed with a prayer and blessed the snacks that were set up in the multi-purpose room.  As the choruses went to the refreshments, there was genuine comradship that was felt among the members of the choruses.  Most everyone went for refreshments and continued the fellowship, with Gary Cregan reuniting with an old Army colleague, who is now a member of one of the other choruses. As the night continued the groups dispersed to their separate ways to come together again soon.

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 70th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd