Saturday, April 6, 2019




Looking Back on the April 2nd  Chapter Meeting 

The rain held off and guys could get to chapter meeting with only medium traffic delay. There were a couple meetings that started at 6 pm and then when the clock struck 7, the call was made for “Harmonizers 0n The Risers.”

Associate director Tony Colosimo did a great warm up session and then director Joe Cerutti took the reigns.

He was quick to extend a heartfelt welcome back to Mick and Sandy Stamps, a he led a cheer for Mark Klostermeyer for making it to chapter with his crutches.

Joe stressed what a terrific show we will have Friday nite right at the Scottish Rite Temple with the chorus, guest quartets SIGNATURE (from BHS) and HOT PURSUIT (from SAI) who will help teach the youth at our Festival; and the boys and girls choruses.  Joe welcomed one of the SAI quartet members who arrived in town early from Atlanta – Tessa Walker.

Joe reminded everyone that coach Cy Wood will be at next week’s meeting and will be teaching the visual plan for “Brotherhood of Man.”

Look for a sign up survey from Joe about which part of the Memorial Day weekend would be best for you to attend a chorus retreat.  Options will be Friday nite, May 24th, Saturday daytime, May 25th, Sunday daytime May 26th, or Monday daytime or nite May 27th.  

Finally Joe reminded guys to respond to his survey from last week seeking ideas about how to make the Strathmore holiday show a spectacular one. 

Then it was off to work on the 2019 show music starting with “I’m The Music Man.”

Joe and Chuck McKeever launched a major work session to review (reteach) the visual plan in detail for “Anything Goes.” It was most helpful to the many new members who have joined since we did it in contest, and a solid review for those who did sing it in Toronto. (Altho it was great to see how many men had gotten a lot of the plan under their belt just from reviewing the video posted by Chuck in the past week.) 

During this week’s rehearsal we  also worked on “Circle of Life,” “For Good” with new lyrics, “The Brotherhood of Man” with recent musical changes, “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” with Ben Roberts singing the solo,  and “For Good.”   

The chapter meeting session conducted by communications chair Steve Murane included more details about the Youth Harmony Festival organized by education director Sheryl Berlin for 125 youth singers. 

Steve confirmed that the chorus uniform for Friday nite’s  7 pm performance (call time is 6:15)  at the SRT will be black camp shirts and jeans and black shoes. The three songs we will sing are “America,”  “Empty Chairs” with Ben singing the solo, and “Blow Gabriel Blow.”



Team leader for the YHS Rob Barnovsky asked for more coolers, and reminded folks to note his recent memo about parking. The SRT opens at 8 am on Friday April 5th (there will be coffee and donuts for faculty and volunteers!) It is not too late to make a cash donation to Rob to help with food costs for the Festival.

Executive director Randall Eliason reminds the whole Harmonizer family about Spring2ACTion on April 10th.  Get your email lists ready.  Share with Randall. Plan to attend the social time at Virtue Feed & Grain on the eve of the 10th.

An official announcement was made that the snail mail address for the Alexandria Harmonizers is now 1430 W. Braddock Rd, Alexandria, VA 22302. 

And speaking of addresses:  chapter secretary Chris Buechler tells YeEd that if any member has a change in contact info, that member must report any changes to the BHS Member Center with  a copy to chapter secretary.  Members must also update their info in Groupanizer.

President Shawn Tallant had to make a number of medical updates about our members: two guys have protective boots to hobble around on – Mike Edison and Mark Klostermeyer; two guys are recovering pretty well after recent knee surgery – Sam McFarland and Bob Wells; Chris Huber has hurt his foot in an personal accident recently; and former member Mike Vlcej is having a major heart surgery next week in PA. 

YeEd heard that our buddies in Riptide rock band won the Battle of the Bands at the Electric Palm in Occoquan this past weekend.

Joe also is seeking ideas from us on how to develop partnerships with veteran groups in the area.  Pass along your suggestions to Dean Rust.

Some other news outside the chapter – FIRST TAKE quartet with Tony and Andrew competed at the Cardinal District prelims recently and scored well.  Saturday nite was the Mid-Atlantic Regional Harmony Sweepstakes contest at the Birchmere in Alexandria and the Richmond quartet, FORCAST, was named winner. 

The chorus left exhausted and excited about the new music and the great sound and energy on the risers!! Another good crowd of guys made it out to Ramparts for an afterglow.  Everyone is welcome.



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