Looking Back on the Dec. 2, 2025 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
AACC held their post-Thanksgiving chapter meeting at AlexRenew and there was a large attendance for the rehearsal getting so close to the holiday show. Again, artistic director, Joe Cerutti, mentioned several times how pleased he was that so many members were able to attend this week.
Development chairman, Ken Rub, reports that the chapter reached 64% of its $6000 goal (as of 8 am, Wed. 12/30) for our Giving Tuesday campaign. Donations may still be made.
https://givebutter.com/AACCGivingTuesday2025. Kenand the team thank everyone for inviting friends and relatives and chapter supporters to donate.
Associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo, led warm up exercises for the AACC chorus before Joeworked with them on “Welcome Christmas,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “Gloria.” He invited Steve Tramack to offer a few points for improvement of the songs that were made right away. Zak Sandler and Heidi Brown will be soloists for “Have Yourself.” Our own BETTER TOGETHER will be the guest quartet for the show and sing a solo spot in “Gloria.”
Steve was attending the meeting this week as specific coach for Metro Voices. He particularly worked with them for voice placement and riser placement, plus offered inputs for their holiday songs, as well. The placement exercise was a fun, first-time experience for many of the Metro Voices singers. Thanks also to Steve for donating his coaching fee to the Giving Tuesday campaign!
Before the two ensembles went to separate rehearsal space to work on holiday show songs, the weekly business meeting was held. Both groups were reminded to be off the paper before next week’s rehearsal that will be at the Fairlington Presbyterian Church, 3846 King Street. As a reminder, AACC cannot enter the church on Tuesday until 7:25 pm. Please be careful about that.
The chapter’s holiday shows are scheduled for Friday December 12 at 8 pm, and December 13 at 7:30 pm, both at the Fairlington Presbyterian Church. Call time for both shows is 5:30 pm for all AACC singers. Uniform for both ensembles for the holiday show will be all black dressy with red and/or green accents. For the Harmonizers, that also means no white shirts. If there is a question, contact Becca Williams.
Catherine LaValley, show producer, announced lots of details and logistics that members will need to know regarding parking options for members with thoughts about how members could get their family to the show. She also explained it would be good if one passenger in each car takes the shuttle back to the parking area, and then that driver goes to get the other passengers at the church.
Again, she emphasized the need for members to each sell five more tickets to the shows. Tickets for the shows, “Follow the Season,” are available via Eventbrite. We are not sold out yet!
She is also appealing for members or their friends who are willing to volunteer outside at the show to direct the parking situation. Catherine emphasized that this year’s parking and venue challenges are well documented with intentions to remedy next time.
The show audience will be invited to sing-along on “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and Terry Reynolds is seeking volunteers who would coordinate a section of the audience to sing one of the “days” as part of the fun. Watch for a detailed message from Terry about volunteering to help. It has always been an audience hit.
Looking ahead: Sunday, Dec. 7 some members will sing holiday music for Blue Star Families in Falls Church. Then the Dec. 9 meeting will be back at Fairlington Presbyterian prior to the shows.
AACC will have their traditional holiday carol sing in Old Town on Tues. Dec. 16, gathering at Market Square at 7 pm. Wear colorful scarves and gloves if it is cold. There will be no rehearsals on Dec. 23 and 30. The Jan. 6 meeting will be the traditional kickoff session for the 2026 year and also the chapter’s next Put Together Quartet Contest – as the name implies, members are encouraged to “put together” a quartet and enter the fun. Usually some BHS friends are the judges. Rules and details to come soon from Terry, but members were encouraged to form a quartet to sing a song, or even a tag, in the contest. (Since we won’t be meeting for two weeks in December, now is the time to talk to your fellow singers about forming a fun quartet.) If anyone needs help finding a singer or two for a quartet, Terry will be offering service for this “put together” event.
President Craig Kujawa gave an update for some details regarding the AACC participation at the International convention in St. Louis this summer. Metro Voices will sing third on Friday in the chorus contest, and the Harmonizers will sing sixteenth that day. As for housing, he request all members to be alert for a housing link (only for members of choruses competing) that we can use to get into an approved hotel. We will be rehearsing on the 20th floor of the headquarters hotel – a Marriot property.
On another subject, Craig asked members to be watching for a new chapter form to use in suggesting fellow members for any of the official chapter awards to recognize 2025 participation. A list of the awards with a description and a list of former recipients will be sent out with the form.
Membership director, Jacob Broude, welcomed two returning guests this week: Josh Frakes and Logan Glauser. Devante Lucas was announced as our newest member.
At this point the two ensembles went to work on their music for the rest of the evening. Tony and Joe each ran through the songs they will direct on the show for the Harmonizers. Joe shared that local WETA will use our recording of “O Come O Come Emanuel” during this holiday season. He also asked for singers to bring a pretend microphone to animate the fun arrangement of “White Christmas” – a toothbrush, hairbrush, banana, carrot or candy cane – for example.
The Harmonizers wrapped up about 9:30 and Metro Voices worked til 10. There was a good crowd of members and guests at the afterglow this week with reports to share of Thanksgiving travel last week.
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 77th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)
The Chapter Mission Statement: Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.
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