Looking Back on the July 21, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
Both the Harmonizers and Metro Voices came to this week’s rehearsal to work on music for shows and performances that are on the calendar soon.
Maggie McAlexander, assistant director of Metro Voices, led a good warm up session for the singers in the main hall of Fairlington Presbyterian Church. She taught a tag as part of the warm up and then directed rehearsal for “Parting Glass for the AACC chorus.
Several members of the chapter music team are headed to Denver, CO, for the annual training session for judges and judge candidates – Terry Reynolds, Tyler Carpenter and Maggie McAlexander are judge candidates from AACC. Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, was already there on Tuesday night.
Chapter leaders confirmed that next week the July 28 AACC meeting will be at AlexRenew. Then on Tuesday, Aug. 4, the chapter will sing on the streets of Old Town Alexandria – certainly stay connected via Slack in case of weather or any other event that causes a change in location for the Aug. 4 meeting. The Aug. 11 meeting will be back at AlexRenew.
YeEd assumes everyone in AACC responded with their availability for the Aug. 20 and Feb 4 performances. And YeEdassumes the chorus might do both of those shows if numbers are good.
The show on Thursday, Aug. 20 show will be at Nottaway Park, 9537 Courthouse Rd., Vienna, VA 22181. Stay tuned for arrival details. Uniform will be the AACC t-shirt. Each ensemble will sing and then they will join together to wrap up the performance.
Looking ahead, the chapter had been invited to sing Thursday, Feb. 4, at the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) Midwinter convention in Virginia Beach. Members should stay tuned about possible bus transportation to Virginia Beach.
Congratulations to Tessa Walker, recipient of the 2026 SingUnited (formerly Sweet Adelines) International Music Educator Award! Tessa is currently director of choral activities and adaptive music at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown, MD, and director of Capital Force Youth Chorus as part of AACC. She sang with several quartets, including the 2018 Sweet Adelines International Rising Star Champion and 2019 Harmony Inc. Champion HOT PURSUIT.
Tessa has used her own music education to inspire and teach youth and adult singers. Her nominator writes, “I know of no one who cares more about bringing barbershop to the world than Tessa Walker.”
She will receive the award in the fall at the SingUnited convention in Columbus, OH.
There was a surprise in the July- August 2026 issue of the BHS “Harmonizer” magazine – the article by AACC member, Joel Golden, on page 14!! Titled “Are We Having Fun Yet? a theory of performance.” It was illustrated with the great photo of Joe Cerutti in a gold lame jacket with his arms outstretched to the sky for the finale of the Alexandria Harmonizers 2013 contest package in Toronto. Great article Joel.
Chapter secretary Cy Shuster presented membership renewals to Brigham Blackhurst for 14 years;; Ashley Merryman for 3 years; Matt Ambler for 4 years; Jacob Broude for 9 years; Rob Barnovsky for 16 years and Joel Golden for 21 years.
Jacob Broude welcomed this week’s guests and reminded members that there will be a guest night on Tuesday, Aug. 25. The goal is for each member to bring a singing guest.
This week’s guests included Elizabeth Halford, plus the CHEF’S KISS quartet from Montgomery County – Mark Magpantay, Isaac Teheren, Danny Ameduite and Ivan Diehl. Former active singer Rob Korsan was back to sing with the Harmonizers after several years. Scott Kitzmiller was in town and was on hand to sing along and see all of his friends in the chapter. Terry Reynolds directed the chapter welcome song.
The two ensembles worked separately on their music. The Harmonizers worked on one more section of “The Barber of Seville.” – first in sections, and then with associate director, Tony Colosimo, as a chorus. They also worked briefly on “I’m Just A Bill” with Zak Sandler and Terry Reynolds reading through the narration to see how long it was. After “Wonderful World” the two ensembles combined for “We Will Be One.”
Scott Kitzmiller directed “Keep the Whole World Singing” to end the meeting. Although bad weather was predicted, members had to rush to their cars in the deluge just as members were leaving. There was no formal afterglow this week.
Tyler Carpenter will continue to engrave new Harmonizer medals or to make a replacement name tag at next week’s chapter meetings. Members can bring their medals and give them to Tyler as early as possible at the meeting place so he can do them all. There is a small fee for the engraving.
There have been a number of former Harmonizers contact YeEd after reading the Looking Back reports from St. Louis including Scott Kahler, Larry Sylva, and Bob Wilson. Scott Werner, former Harmonizer director, reminded YeEdthat REMINISCE was the gold medal champion senior quartet in 1995 with John Adams, Scott Werner, Alan Durick and Dick Whitehouse. Scott is the only living member of that gold medal quartet. David Welter shared with YeEdthat chapter coaches Steve Armstrong and David Wright were at the breakfast honoring new 50-year members of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) in St. Louis.
Another wrap up story from St. Louis – Class of 2026 member Cooper Schwartz wore his class bandana a different way each day at the convention concluding the last day on Saturday using it as a belt with the Harmonizer logo as the belt buckle. He started with a pocket stuffer, then headband, then as an untied tie, a bandit style Wild West look, braided into his hair, a triangle over his hair, flight attendant style around his neck, woven thru the buttons on his shirt, a square in a pants pocket, a square in a jacket pocket, an ankle bracelet, tied onto his ponytail, tied around his glasses and finally as a belt. Creative and a fun class tradition.
Here is other news about a singing opportunity in the DC community: Be part of an extraordinary production of Leonard Bernstein's MASS, bringing together singers from leading choral organizations across the Washington, D.C. region.Community singers are invited to join the ensemble for the “Agnus Dei” and “Pax” movements.
Two barbershoppers, Shana Oshiro (HALO Quartet) and David Breen, AACC member and bass of PRAXIS quartet, are featured vocalists in this production.
Performances will be September 4 & 5 at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, Washington, D.C. Rehearsals take place throughout August, with singers asked to attend at least 4 of the 8 scheduled rehearsals. Learn more and sign up here.
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.
