Looking Back on the Feb. 24, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
This week’s meeting was back at AlexRenew in Alexandria.
Tony Colosimo, associate director of the Harmonizers, conducted the 7 pm warm up session for an overflow number of AACC singers on the risers. After the warm up exercises, he continued work on “Place on the Risers for You.” He didn’t have time though to let them sing the tag, as promised last week.
Terry Reynolds presided over a business meeting for all before they concentrated on new music.
Looking ahead: Sunday, March 1, the chapter will celebrate Youth Harmony Day at the Lee Center from 2-6 pm. NOTE: there are two Lee Centers in Alexandria – this one is at 1108 Jefferson Street. Other groups invited to participate with Capital Force include the Children’s Chorus of Washington, Alexandria Children’s Chorus, and the GenOUT Youth Chorus from the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington. All AACC singers will be the demonstration chorus for a short workshop on ensemble singing technique using “We Are One.” Capital Force is learning it too for this workshop. Singers should arrive no earlier than 1:45 pm to help with risers and to meet and greet. Non-youth can depart about 3 pm or stay to the end after each youth chorus sings for the others. The black AACC t-shirt is suggested or a plain black one. There is also an appeal for providing snacks for the afternoon – money or supplies, coordinate with Terry Reynolds. Terry and Sheryl Belin are contacts for this first Youth Harmony Day. As usual, it would be great for the youth to see a number of singers supporting the event during the day.
The Wilbur Sparks Memorial Put Together Chapter Quartet Contest has been rescheduled for the March 3 chapter meeting at Fairlington Presbyterian. Members still looking for fellow singers to form a quartet can get help from music team leaders. Quartets can be mixed genders, guests can sing in the contest, quartets can sing a whole song or just a tag, costumes and comedy have always been a popular part of the event and in fact, there are awards for the best comedy group. Quartets are asked to use the registration form in advance of Tuesday night. A VIP judging panel will score the contest and award medals to the top three regular quartets and top three comedy quartets.
Chapter meeting on March 10 will be at AlexRenew, and on March 17 it will be at Fairlington Presbyterian with Cy Wood coaching the Harmonizers.
On Thursday, March 19, the AACC chapter will support a day-long choral festival for schools in DC. This is a major, annual event for the chapter in cooperation with music educators in the DC School system.
There are several quartets with AACC members working to compete at the Southern Division contest and convention, March 20 and 21, at the Towson University Center for the Arts in Towson, MD. The Friday night first-round for quartets starts early –3:30 pm – with 30 contestants. The chorus contest starts at 9:30 am – here again there will be AACC members appearing with other choruses (neither the Harmonizers nor Metro Voices will be competing since they are already qualified for the International contest in July to represent the Mid-Atlantic District). The quartet finals on Saturday night will begin at 6 pm.
Finally, Capital Force will have their wrap-up concert for this season, on Sunday, March 22. Both Metro Voices and the Harmonizers will sing on that concert.
The AACC interview process is rolling along so that every member meets with a chapter musical leader and can offer input or suggestions and ask question.
Membership director, Jacob Broude, reminded members to be sure they have added their photo to Slack. He welcomed returning guests Todd Miners, Owen Lyons, Brie Hebron, and Morgan Fabber. It was great to see Dixie and Chris Buechler at the meeting – she received her new AACC membership pin. Plus Jordan Zimmerman who sings in a chapter quartet with other AACC members; Costanza, wife of Josh Frakes; and Mike Fasano, who is a chapter member and is in his second term as executive vice president of the Mid-Atlantic District of BHS. Assistant director of the Harmonizers, Jason Lee, led the chapter welcome song.
At this point, the two ensembles began work sessions on their music in separate spaces in the building. Metro Voices kicked off their rehearsal with sectionals to work on their contest song, “Yes I Can.” and then gathered in the large meeting hall for a coaching session with Maggie McAlexander for a new song, “Me and The Sky.”
Steve Armstrong, the arranger for the two Harmonizer contest songs for this summer, was present this week from Canada to help the chorus dig deeper into the meaning of the songs. It went great since the chorus was well prepared, and Steve gave them many insights as to how the arrangements could enhance the delivery of the message.
The two ensembles regrouped as one to wrap up the work for the night. Alan Wile offered the 50/50 drawing for the week. Then Joe thanked Steve Armstrong for his work session with the Harmonizers and invited him to direct “Keep the Whole World Singing.” There was a large group of members and guests who came to the HarmoHouse for pizza and the afterglow.
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.
