Thursday, August 19, 2021

Looking Back on the Aug. 17th 2021 Virtual Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the Aug. 17th 2021 Virtual Chapter Meeting

 

This week the chapter leadership, including administrative and musical leaders, called for another virtual Zoom meeting to go over plans for the meetings, shows and events coming up in the months ahead.

A good number of Harmonizers were on the call and many stayed for an informal afterglow too.

Artistic director Joe Cerutti welcomed everyone back and including several folks who are members but live far from our meeting place and can only attend via Zoom.  Great to see them all. Don Thompson spoke up early in the call to salute and share the good feelings of fellowship and comradeship among the Harmonizer family. 

The first announcement was to remind the family of the Remembrance Service for Sandy Stamps which is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 23 at 11am at the Fairfax United Methodist Church, 10300 Stratford Ave, Fairfax VA. The Harmonizers will sing “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and “There Must Be A City.”  

 

Joe confirmed the news that the fall show originally set for Sept. 11th was cancelled.  Mostly this change was made because of the restrictions imposed by the venue.  The chorus was totally ready and a large number of other ensembles were in the que to be on the show with us.  Joe assures all that as soon as we can reschedule, we will do so.  It might be next year though, since we will try next to have our holiday show in December 2021.

That prompted Joe to share that the chorus would start work on holiday music before long as well as continue work on “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.”  

The Aug. 24th event at Fort Ward Park will not be a performance event but a casual one with tag singing and fellowship.  The chorus will likely sing through some songs too. Guests are welcome.  Likely many will bring picnic, snacks or goodies. It’s all about being together!!  Of course we all will be keeping an eye on the weather!!

The August 31st chapter meeting has been cancelled so everyone can have some rest and recouperation after lots of work on their music in recent weeks.  September meetings/rehearsals will be planned as the precautions for Covid safety emerge.

At this point, the Mid Atlantic District convention is still scheduled for Oct. 1 and 2 in Lancaster, PA.  If it does indeed happen, we will make our plans based on the number of singers available and then choose one of the songs we have been working on to sing at the contest.

Finally, Joe was able to welcome Bob Rhome and his wife Anne who have begun their move to the Atlanta area.  They were on the Zoom call from Georgia and Joe was able to pay a farewell tribute to Bob for his years of dedication to the chapter and his support of the chapter’s leadership teams. He has been the operations manager for many years – every time there was need to fill the slot, he was willing to step in again.  He has been a vital member of the chapter’s history team especially keeping the inventory.  He was a cheerleader for the uses we could make of Groupanizer and posted a chapter events calendar every year.  Bob was presented the Chapter Honor Award in 2007 and then was named recipient of our highest honor, the Chapter Memorial Award, in 2011.

And who could forget Bob’s part in the colorful costumes for holiday shows with him as one of the Crayons!!

We did sing “A Place on the Risers for You” to Bob and many members expressed thanks and tributes in the chat feature.

Bob and Anne say they will be checking into the barbershop world in the Atlanta area after they get settled.

Our next  Harmonizer Tuesday meeting will be at 7 pm on August  24th, 2021 at Fort Ward Park, 4301 W. Braddock Rd., Alexandria VA 22304.

 

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 for the great things going on each week during the 73rd year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. - YeEd)