Friday, May 1, 2020

Looking Back on the April 28th, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting
The chapter has suspended in-person meetings of the chorus, boards and committees until further notice as well as for any small group or ensemble gatherings. This is in recognition of recent mandates by officials and leaders of the BHS and in cooperation with local health authorities and government officials. 

Thus there was not a regular in-person meeting of the Alexandria Harmonizers on April 28th,  2020.  
Instead, director Joe Cerutti hosted a gathering at 7 pm via Zoom video meeting this week to continue the work on music, learn performance plans, and learn more about our chapter and the barbershop hobby in general.

Joe was excited to report that we were anticipating coach Kevin Keller on this call to share his thoughts, ideas, and concepts for his arrangement of “42nd Street” that we are learning; and that we will hear from Mark Kettner explaining the performance judging category for BHS contests. 

Chris Huber and Joe shared the news that Peggy Harris, our friend from our stop in Les Ventes France, after our trip to Normandy, had died on April 14th.  She was 96 and living in Vernon, TX. 

Joe reminded singers to please submit their rehearsal ready materials right away for “Chorus Line.”

Associate director Tony Colosimo did the physical and vocal warm up sessions for the 60+ singers on the call. His session included dancing to “Twist and Shout!”

Then there was work on “Goodbye” from The Producers (arranged for the Harmonizers by Steve Tramack) with rehearsal ready singers working with Joe and others working with Tony

Next, music team administrator Terry Reynolds used the Zoom system to randomly divide all attendees on the call into a small group of five or so.  This gave us a chance to check in with each other and each small group reported back to the whole with news and updates from the members.  Great chance to help fill the gap of not seeing or singing with each other.  Joe had asked the guys to share “what they have been doing to survive these days!”

The business meeting was brief with no announcements.  A couple Harmonizer families have covid-19 issues so our thoughts are with Calvin Schnure and Frank Fedarko who have elderly family members who tested positive for the virus.

Kevin Keller, from the Ambassadors of Harmony and a popular Harmonizer coach, joined our Zoom call. He was well prepared, and with the music for “42nd Street” appearing on our screens, he spoke about his thoughts, ideas, concepts, desires, suggestions and major details he had put into this exciting arrangement for our chorus.  He was glad to see and hear from the men in the chapter and created more excitement about this new uptune.

Joe and the guys thanked Kevin for his insights and thorough instruction.

There were two electives/breakout sessions again this week.  Terry Reynolds presented Great Barbershop Chorus Performances; and Mark Kettner explained the performance category.  He is from the Dixie District and resides in Tennessee. He shared all the current info about that category and shared his thoughts of how we earned good marks in performance with our uptune “Anything Goes” that we sang at the International in Toronto.

After these sessions ended, Joe thanked Mark  for joining us.  Then a good number of men stayed on Zoom to visit and chat.

Next week’s meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm.  Watch for email details.

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 71st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd