Looking Back on the April
14th 2018 Aca-Challenge
The Harmonizers hosted the fifth-annul Aca-Challenge April 14th
at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in DC. This year’s event was presented by
the Harmonizers, hosted by contemporary a cappella spokesperson Deke Sharon,
and co-sponsored by the venue. Jason Lee
headed this event for the chapter with help from TBD.
Here is a report of the event from Gary Cregan. (Thanks for
taking notes Gary, And for filling in details by Robyn Murane. – YeEd.)
“It was a packed house, with hardly any
seats available. The crowd was quite varied, ranging from young teens up to
folks who could have been their great-grandparents. There was a lot of excitement
for the show to begin, and everyone was looking forward to some great a
cappella singing.
“The emcee for the event was a cappella
advocate Deke Sharon who bounded
onto the stage and helped the crowd prepare for a nite of great singing. He
said that the Historic Synagogue at Sixth & I reminded him of his college
experience singing, and gave the origin of the term a cappella (Italian for ‘in
the style of the chapel’). He also announced that the show was being broadcast
on FloVoice (www.flovoice.com). He closed his introductory remarks by talking about the rules,
and the prizes, concluding by saying “when you sing a cappella, everybody
wins.”
“ConneCT, from Connecticut and
consisting of nine performers (four women and five men), took the stage wearing
grey tones, and gold armbands that related to the plot of their set. This group
varied from the format of a three song set by performing a ‘mini-musical’ consisting
of three related original songs. The crowd was very enthusiastic to hear
music they had never heard.”
“In the break between acts, Deke gave a
brief history of a cappella music, starting with Gregorian chant all the way
through doo wop. He introduced the next act, The Workshop, hailing from NYC and
wearing black and grey, who took the stage with six women and five men. They
performed three songs, each of which was applauded with enthusiasm.”
“Before introducing the next act, Deke
described how recorded music has changed the way we approach music, because now
that we have recordings, there isn’t a requirement to be able to perform in
order to have music. He also started giving judge’s resumes, starting with our
own Tony Colosimo.”
“The next act was DaCadence, from
University of Maryland. Wearing all black, this group consisted of five women
and seven men. Their three song set was extremely well-received by the
audience.”
“Deke’s next patter was an introduction
of judge Mike Rowan, director of communications for ChorusAmerica.”
“The only all-woman group of the
evening, BluesTones, came to the stage wearing black with blue accents.
These ladies from James Madison University were enthusiastically cheered by the
crowd after each of their three songs.”
“After the BluesTones, Deke presented
the resume of judge Amanda Cornwallis, senior manager of FloVoice.”
“The next contestant group was Word
of Mouth, a DC local group, who wore blues, blacks, and whites. They had an
even mix of six women and six men, and two of their songs were popular enough
that even the older folks in the crowd recognized them (‘The Time of My Life’
and ‘Lady Marmalade’).”
“Before the last group came out, Deke invited
the audience to visit the Harmonizer’s ‘Learn a Tag’ and display table. He then
introduced GW Vibes, who was a
last-minute fill in when Out Of The Blue had to bow out.”
“GW Vibes was also a big crowd favorite,
bringing six women and seven men to the stage, dressed in tones of grey and
black. Before they started, one of the ladies announced that their set was an
exploration of mental health issues, warning anyone in the audience that they
were going to deal with very dark themes. The audience enjoyed it very much,
despite the theme.”
“Deke announced the intermission, and
the judges departed to deliberate.”
“After the intermission, Deke introduced
two exhibition groups, the first of which was Evolve, a co-ed a cappella
group from Chesapeake Senior High School in Pasadena, MD. Deke discovered
them during one of his youth festivals. Despite the fact that they have only
been around for two years, Deke said that they were so good, he had to pull the
members of Evolve out of the larger group to work on their own music.”
“Evolve took the stage in all
black; the men had blue accents and the women had silver accents. Their
performance was very impressive, and they followed the format of the contest,
presenting three songs. The crowd was quite impressed.”
“Finally, Deke came out to introduce our
own TBD, who came out in their black suits. This Harmonizer a cappella
group includes Terry Reynolds, Todd
Ryktarysk, Clark Chesser, Reed Livergood, Jeff Burkey, Troy Hillier, Noah Van
Gilder, Nick Leiserson, Joshua DesPortes, Kellen Hertz, Scipio Garling, and Josh Roots.”
“Their first number was “All You Need Is
Love,” with solos by Noah and Josh. Reed stepped out during the tag and asked everyone in the audience
to tell their neighbor “all you need is love,” and then led audience
participation.”
“Terry stepped out next to talk
about TBD’s mission, then brought Deke out to discuss his arrangement of
their next song, “The Rhythm of Love.””
“Finally, Scipio stepped up to introduce TBD’s final number, “Take You
There.” Following the massive applause for TBD, Deke came back out with
the results of the competition.”
“Deke did a great job of building
suspense, leading off with the audience favorite (determined by electronic
voting), which was the BluesTones. He then announced the 2nd runner up
(third place), which was DaCadence, 1st runner up (second place), was
BluesTones, and the winner of the $1000 prize, GW Vibes.”
As usual there was a large contingent of
Harmonizer helpers that nite too. This
was not a theater so back stage was a little crowded but our crew of Randall Eliason, Adam Afifi, Steve Murane,
Robyn Murane and Nick Leiserson make it work smoothly.
There were about 400 attendees. A Harmo crew served greeters. Programs were
available for guests before they took their unreserved seats in pews in the
synagogue. There was an afterglow after the show for premium ticket customers
to meet Deke and visit with the contestants.
Ken Rub managed this aspect
of the event with Clark Chesser. There was a membership table there too
coordinated by Dave Kohls with Bruce Roehm, Dean Sherick, Mario Sengco, and Steve Murane.
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
of the great things going on each week during the 70th year of the
Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd
