Looking Back on the June 2, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
Again, it was another busy weekend for AACC singers with an Honor Flight sing on May 30 at 7 am at Reagan National Airport. Thanks to Christine Pan who filled in as the only baritone for that sing.
Then, on Sunday, May 31, crews gathered to work in the two chapter storage units with the goal to reduce the amount of stored materials to fit into just one unit. This meant working in a unit where risers and uniforms and props were kept, and in a unit where chapter historical collections were kept. The end point was to reduce the huge financial cost that have grown in recent years. Terry Reynolds helped coordinate this project with Chad Ross, Harmo truck driver; plus Craig Kujawa, Patricia Chow, Cooper Schwartz, Gary Cregan, Rob Barnovsky. Don Harrington, and Jack Pitzer. Some items went to the HarmoHouse. Plus a large amount of discarded materials will be on display at the Retreat for any members to look over and take as much as they want – photos, trophies, CDs, tapes, shirts, and such. And a lot of “stuff” went to trash.
Now back to the report for the Tuesday, June 2, rehearsal at AlexRenew.
Planning ahead, the chapter meeting for Tuesday, June 9 will be at AlexRenew; for Tuesday, June 16 the meeting will be at Beth El Synagogue, 3830 Seminary Rd. Then, the traditional send-off performance for family, friends and patrons prior to the chorus going to an International contest, will be on Tuesday, June 23, at Beth El.
Other important dates include the chapter retreat June 5-7 at AlexRenew, and extra chorus rehearsals on June 18 and 25 at AlexRenew.
The warm up session for the AACC chorus was started at 7 pm by Tony Colosimo, associate director of the Harmonizers; then Jason Lee, assistant director of the Harmonizers, introduced a series of activities that will be used each week to help AACC singers with emotion, involvement, ownership and understanding of the contest packages.
Tony also taught the traditional tag used at the chapter retreats every year – “A Lifetime’s Not Too Long to Live as Friends.” He asked those who knew it to help demonstrate it for the Class of 2026 singers. Our chapter has been singing it to end our retreats for many years.
After that, there was a bandana check for the Class – two didn’t have their bandanas and so they had to answer three questions from their chorus friends on the risers – like ‘your favorite music as a kid,’ ‘food favorites,’ or ‘what did you do as a kid that your parents didn’t approve of?’ The Class of 2026 includes 10 Harmonizers: Matt Darouse, Robby Della Bernarda, Cooper Schwartz, Jerry Candrilli, Devante Lucas, Billy Ermlick, Ben Raja, Owen Lyons, Josh Frakes and Logan Glauser; and five Metro Voices: Susan Friel, Morgan Fabber, Laura Rutledge, Renee Tramack and Sarah Lott.
Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, reviewed the rehearsal schedule for the weeks leading up to the International. He explained the plan for the stop time of the two extra Thursday night rehearsals at AlexRenew as 9:30 pm on 6/18 and 6/25; and the end time for the next two Tuesday rehearsals (6/9 at AlexRenew and 6/16 at Beth El) will be 10 pm. This helps folks plan ahead.
Regarding the send-off on 6/23 – members are encouraged to invite family and friends. The guests are welcome to come at the 7 pm start time to observe rehearsal, but the actual start of the send-off performances will begin at 8 pm. The send-off event will be at Beth El Synagogue. The AACC chorus will sing “I’m Still Standing” and “We Will Be One” for the audience at the send-off, who will also enjoy a guest appearance of GQ quartet with Samantha Tramacksinging bass.
The annual chorus retreat has been scheduled for June 5-7 at AlexRenew. Here is the proposed schedule for the retreat:
- Friday
- 7:00pm Rehearsal Start
- 9:45pm Rehearsal End
- Saturday
- 8:30am Breakfast
- 9:00am Rehearsal
- 12:00pm Lunch (on your own)
- 1:30pm Rehearsal
- 4:30pm Social Break
- 6:00pm Choruses perform for each other
- 6;45pm Rehearsal
- 7:30pm Dinner / Awards / Class of 2026 skit / Party
- 9:30ish Afterglow Astro Beer Hall, 4001 Campbell Ave., Arlington 22206
- Sunday (TBD - will either be 8:30 to 12:00 or 9:30 10 1:00)
Coaches for this year’s retreat will be David McEachern and Darin Drown for the Harmonizers, and Blair Brown and Patrick McAlexander for Metro Voices. As a reminder, Harmonizers will bring their all black contest attire to wear on Saturday night of the retreat when they sing the package for Metro Voices (and chapter team can check the fit and appearance of the choices that members made). They will also bring the annotation music for the contest package songs. Metro Voices will sing their package for the Harmonizers too. Everyone will for sure wear comfortable shoes and clothes, bring water or snacks as needed, meds, charger maybe.
There will be a $25 fee collected from retreat attendees for foods and such. The Culture team will work to provide for members with food allergies during the weekend.
Jacob Broude recognized guests this week including returnees Dana Wooster, Mike Zelno and Carl Parkan; first timers Jonathon Meyer and Sophia Self. Jason Lee, assistant director of the Harmonizers, led the AACC in singing the chapter welcome song for all the guests.
After the business session, the two ensembles worked on separate risers for contest preparation – one full set in the main room at AlexRenew and a smaller set of the old risers in the smaller room.
For the Harmonizers, there is a call for speaking roles auditions for “I’m Just a Bill” – Tony is the contact for this. AndJoe is asking for some volunteers to work on the costumes for those characters/spokespersons.
Joe did report that Patrick Horn is on extended work travel but will be able to do the speaking part on the contest stage. Thanks to Terry Reynolds for being his understudy. The rabi for the contest set is Stuart Zagnit who was the understudy for that role on Broadway in the “Harmony” musical production. (He is best known for voicing Professor Oak in the Pokemon TV Show.) Stuart will be at the June 9 rehearsal. Joe and the chorus all thanked Randall Eliasonfor his dedication as the understudy and for his doing the speaking during all rehearsals. Finally, Joe thanked Turner Arndt for his efforts to provide learning materials for Harmonizers’ choreography in the midst of his wedding activities.
Here are other announcements for the chapter:
Another addition to the schedule is the outdoor performance at Nottoway Park in Vienna, VA, on August 20, as part of the Fairfax County Park Authority summer concert series.
Registration for the Mid Atlantic District (M-AD) Harmony College East (HCE) – a weekend barbershop educational opportunity on June 18-21 at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD - can be managed at midatlanticdistrict.com until the cutoff on June 11.
The chapter Culture Team invited anyone interested to gather for dinner at Sake Japanese Steakhouse and Bar at 5 pm before this week’s rehearsal.
To wrap up this week’s meeting, the ensembles met together to sing “Keep the Whole World Singing” directed by Devante Lucas, one of the many music educators in the chorus. The singers at the afterglow enjoyed the pizza and the great summer evening weather which made it fun to gather on the patio!
An important note was on Slack recently – there is a need for smaller sized tux outfits that members and former members might have stored at their homes. The smaller sizes are needed for some of the Harmonists to wear for the contest package. Members who can offer some parts to that uniform should respond ASAP.
LATE BREAKING NEWS: The Communications Triad announced today the launch of the new AACC website! The address is aaccsings.org. The old URL Harmonizers.org will now redirect to that site, as will welovetosing.org. If you discover glitches or typos, let the members of the Triad know – Maggie McAlexander, Randall Eliason and Frank Shipp. Good job.
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 78th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)
The Chapter Mission Statement: Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.
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