Looking Back on the June 9^th, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

Again the chapter has suspended in-person meetings of the chorus, boards and committees until further notice as well as for any small group, quartet, or ensemble gatherings. This is in recognition of recent mandates by officials and leaders of the BHS and in cooperation with local health authorities and government officials. 

Thus there was not a regular in-person meeting of the Alexandria Harmonizers on June 9^th  2020.  

Director Joe Cerutti hosted the gathering at 7 pm via Zoom video meeting this week to continue the work on music, learn performance plans, and learn more about our chapter and the barbershop hobby in general.

It was great to have some Harmonizers with us for this week we haven’t seen for a while including Bert Phillips, Tim Cash, Craig Kujawa, Mike Geipel, Jim McConnell, Bill Colosimo, and Mike Wallen.

Joe was excited to report that our special guest for next week will be Tim Waurick, tenor of VOCAL SPECTRUM and creator of many of our learning tracks including the new ballad.

There were 60-plus attendees again this week. Terry used the Zoom system to randomly divide all attendees on the call into a small group of five to share thoughts about the favorite recording or song a member might listen to, or the quartet most often listened to.

Tony did the warm up session for the chorus this week. After warm ups, Joe worked with the singers on sections of “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.” He asked Tony to sing and coached him as an example of what the chorus members should concentrate on.

There were break out periods next for those who were Riser Ready or Not Riser Ready on “42^nd Street.”

The chapter’s business meeting was brief with no major announcements.  Executive director Randall Eliason requested some volunteers to assist the chapter’s history committee move the storage locker the chapter uses for historical materials, past uniforms, trophies and displays.  Three guys signed up on the Chat feature of Zoom to join the committee on Tues. June 16^th at 10 am.

The reports of the small group discussions were mixed and fun. AMBIANCE was on the list and their version of “Rhapsody in Blue” as were some often mentioned gold medal BHS quartets VOCAL SPECTRUM, RINGMASTERS, OC TIMES, FOUR RENEGADES, and GAS HOUSE GANG.

To wrap up the evening, Tony hosted a great chat with Steve White and Ricky Savage about the great fun and experiences they have had in quartets.   Both have won the M-AD contest multiple times.  Both have sung at the International level in the top 20 quartet semifinals rounds. We all enjoyed their stories about crazy times their quartets have had with other quartets on the show circuit or at contests. 

On a more serious note, Ricky shared that he thought strong chapter support helped a quartet succeed.  Steve shared the significance of personal friendships and being on the same “page” in life, work, skills, desires and goals. 

Both of these longtime Harmonizer front row men have sung together in some great quartets such as COPYRIGHT 86 and THE GREAT ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC CHORD COMPANY. Ricky currently is tenor in a seniors quartet SILVER ALERT with three other Harmonizers. He sang with PREMIER for about 10 years including a period with the great Fred King.  Steve sang with BAY RUM RUNNERS which included a half dozen times in the top 20 and two personal performances for John and Annie Glenn. He sang with PHAT CATS four times in the top 20. Steve reports he has sung in 16 quartets since high school. 

A big crowd stayed around for the afterglow period and more behind-the-scene stories from other quartet guys like Tony and Bill Colosimo and Mike Wallen.

Next week’s meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm.  Watch for email details.

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 71^st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the June 2^nd, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

Again the chapter has suspended in-person meetings of the chorus, boards and committees until further notice as well as for any small group, quartet, or ensemble gatherings. This is in recognition of recent mandates by officials and leaders of the BHS and in cooperation with local health authorities and government officials. 

Thus there was not a regular in-person meeting of the Alexandria Harmonizers on June 2^nd ,  2020.  

Director Joe Cerutti hosted the gathering at 7 pm via Zoom video meeting this week to continue the work on music, learn performance plans, and learn more about our chapter and the barbershop hobby in general.

Joe was excited to report plans for this week’s meeting and news from around BHS. We will have a lengthy time to spend with CEO of the BHS, Marty Monson. Therefore, the small group discussion topic this week will be to collect any questions members have for Marty. Each group posted their questions via chat; so during warm up time, the questions were collected.

A new annotated version of the new ballad is on Groupanizer  (It actually replaces the first one published). Also the learning tracks have been replaced too.  Joe also strongly suggested that everyone take a look at the Origins of the new ballad posted by associate director Tony Colosimo. 

There were over 60 attendees this week. Music team administrator Terry Reynolds used the Zoom system to randomly divide all attendees on the call into a small group of five to collect possible questions for Marty.

Tony did the warm up session for the chorus this week. After warm ups, Joe worked with the singers on the introduction and second verse of “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.” 

Alan Wile conducted another member interview from the Harmonizer Heroes series – this week was Don Harrington.  Don’s career in agriculture was a vast array of postings in countries all around the world either as a Peace Corps volunteer, staff member or staffer for USAID.  He shared one of his favorite locations was in Egypt. We were all impressed that Don has fulfilled a goal of his and has ridden his bike over 4000 miles across the USA.  His wife, Naida, was his back up and drove their car with him as they did it in three legs (depending on when he could get a chunk of vacation time). Each time Don ended an assignment he returned to the Harmonizers!

The chapter’s business meeting was brief with no major announcements.  

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler reports that he has mailed membership cards to the following men who have renewed recently: Jed Casey - 65 years, Gene Swartz - 54 years, Dave Welter -  44 years, Dave Branstetter - 15 years, David Desportes - 13 years, Kellen Hertz -12 years, Dean Sherick - 8 years, and Duncan Woodbury - 8 years.

We had three guests this week too.  Lewis Smith, who sang with the chorus when his Dad Al was a member in late 1970s and Lewis was about 15.  He is currently a member of the A Cappella Syndicate in Phoenix.  Arriving on the call was Yuhan Roh who has moved to VA after graduation from college in Indiana.  He has sung with the Ambassadors of Harmony and Voices of California in Sacramento.  He had a new job here.  And it was great to see former front row guy, Doug White, on the call.  He has retired and is moving to VA in a week or so and has already worked to transfer his membership. Great to have all of you visiting us.

The chapter was eager to hear from Marty and get his report on the status of the BHS. He was eager to share with us news and updates on all things from Harmony Hall in Nashville.  The building is secure and no big issues at this time during protests and such. Joe was moderator of the interview with Marty and presented the questions from the chorus. Marty shared some of his challenges and surprises as the organization rolls out the Everyone One in Harmony program.  

Before taking the CEO position, Marty was president and executive director of the Great Northern Union chorus is MN. They had built a strong program there.  Marty’s dad and brother are barbershop singers as well. His career field was communications technology.

He clearly likes a cappella singing and has started singing with the Nashville Music Medics to make visits at Nashville area Children’s Hospitals. A joy in his life was when he discovered how much he likes harmony singing.

When asked about how the Society and its chapters will come back from this quarantine situation, he suggests we will all have to start small - maybe quartet singing or small ensembles first.  After all, that is what we are about.

There was a lot of teasing as Marty is actually Joe’s boss at BHS, so we had some fun with that!

Next week’s meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm.  Watch for email details.

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 71^st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the May 27^th, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

The chapter has suspended in-person meetings of the chorus, boards and committees until further notice as well as for any small group, quartet, or ensemble gatherings. This is in recognition of recent mandates by officials and leaders of the BHS and in cooperation with local health authorities and government officials. 

Thus there was not a regular in-person meeting of the Alexandria Harmonizers on May 27^th,  2020.  

Again, director Joe Cerutti hosted a gathering at 7 pm via Zoom video meeting this week to continue the work on music, learn performance plans, and learn more about our chapter and the barbershop hobby in general. 

Recently chapter leaders sent a message to all members (not just the singing chorus) to make sure all Harmonizers, wherever they are, feel free to join us any Tuesday via a Zoom link. The chapter will resend the link every Tuesday in the hour before the 7 pm start time. This appeal brought some members to the call we have not seen for a while including Jeff Ashford and his brother Phil.

Since it has become clear that the chorus will not be able to get together in person anytime soon, the music team is adjusting the Tuesday night virtual rehearsals to include a significant amount of educational, social, and fellowship activities along with the singing.

Joe was excited to report plans for this week’s meeting and news from around BHS.  He expressed his appreciation to all those who competed the survey to choose special guests for chapter meetings in the weeks ahead. Next week we have a special visit with Marty Monson, CEO of the Barbershop Harmony Society (Marty asked to change to that date since he could not make it this week. )

The annotated version of the new ballad is on Groupanizer.

There were over 60 attendees this week again. Finally Joe again acknowledged that some members may find themselves lacking desire or drive to keep learning show music, turning in recordings, and drilling themselves.  He understands those who might not get a recording submitted. Most importantly, he hopes every member will continue to join the virtual meetings to stay caught up and stay in touch with our Harmonizer brothers. 

We had special guests this week to conduct the warm up sessions – Mo Field and Amelia Charnock from Toronto.  Many members might recognize them as the performers for ‘Beatles-A-Day- with Mo and Amelia’ on Facebook.  They have sung and performed a Beatles song on 70 days.  Amelia led the physical warm up session and Mo conducted the vocal warm up with emphasis on breathing.  Mo has been a Harmonizer coach in recent years and recently was named director of the Great Northern Union Chorus in MN.

After warm ups, the chorus separated into groups Riser Ready (with Joe) and Not Riser Ready (with Tony Colosimo) for “42^nd Street.”

We were happy to have another guest from the BHS staff, Dustin Guyton, who is lead of the guest quartet, ROOTOP RECORDS, currently lined up for our fall show.

For fun, Terry Reynolds conducted a Harmo Trivia contest and members could enter their answer on the screen.  There were three guys who got all of the questions right except one, so the tie breaking question was “How many men have belonged to the chapter in 71 years?” Steve White got closest to the 1,367 answer!  It was fun.

 Next, music team administrator Terry Reynolds used the Zoom system to randomly divide all attendees on the call into a small group of five or so.  The discussion topic this week was “How are you satisfying your hunger, If you’re cooking, what are you go-to meals, and if you are buying out, what new places have you found that are good. 

The small group YeEd was in wanted the recipe he talked about making several times since the shut down – Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Bars.  Here it is: 

½ cup crunchy style peanut butter   1/3 cup margarine, softened

¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar     ¾ cup sugar   2 eggs    2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup unsifted flour     1 tsp. baking powder     ¼ tsp. salt

One 12 oz. pkg  (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In large bowl, combine peanut        butter, margarine, brown sugar and sugar; beat til creamy.  Gradually beat in eggs and vanilla.  Blend in flour, baking powder and salt.  Spread into greased 13x9x2 inch baking pan.  Sprinkle chocolate morsels over top.  Place in 350-degree oven for three minutes.  Remove from oven, run knife through to marbleize.  Return to oven.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Cool.  Cut into 2x1 inch bars.  Makes four dozen bars.

The business meeting was brief with no major announcements.  

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler reports that Dean Sherick has renewed his membership and Chris has mailed him his renewal card.   

There were two electives this week that attendees could choose to attend:  Joe spoke about his duties at BHS as Director of Outreach and Tony spoke about Pedagogy.

Next week’s meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm.  Watch for email details. (Note that the Zoom call info number is the same each week.)

Other news from outside the chapter meeting:  Ken Ives emailed all members with this note - If you’re thinking of signing up for our scrip program (or purchasing additional eCards, or reloading a card), now would be a GREAT time to do it!  For a limited time, the chorus will get bonus rebates (at no additional cost to you!) on every order. If you have questions, contact Ken.

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 71^st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the May 19^th, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

The chapter has suspended in-person meetings of the chorus, boards and committees until further notice as well as for any small group, quartet, or ensemble gatherings. This is in recognition of recent mandates by officials and leaders of the BHS and in cooperation with local health authorities and government officials. 

Thus there was not a regular in-person meeting of the Alexandria Harmonizers on May 19^th,  2020.  

Instead, director Joe Cerutti hosted a gathering at 7 pm via Zoom video meeting this week to continue the work on music, learn performance plans, and learn more about our chapter and the barbershop hobby in general. 

Recently chapter leaders sent a message to all members (not just the singing chorus) to make sure all Harmonizers, wherever they are, feel free to join us any Tuesday via a Zoom link. The chapter will resend the link every Tuesday in the hour before the 7 pm start time. This appeal brought some members to the call we have not seen for a while  – Bob Sutton, Bob Eckman, Al Herman, and Phil Ashford.

Since it has become clear that the chorus will not be able to get together in person anytime soon, the music team is adjusting the Tuesday night virtual rehearsals to include a significant amount of educational, social, and fellowship activities along with the singing.

Joe was excited to report that we were anticipating a surprise guest for this week and there would not be any other electives.  He kept the members guessing as to who it would be. Next week we have a special visit with Marty Monson, CEO of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Also next week there will be sessions for ‘Riser Ready’ or ‘Not Riser Ready’ singers for “42^nd Street.”

The annotated version of the new ballad will be on Groupanizer maybe as early as Wednesday.

Finally he again acknowledged that some members may find themselves lacking desire or drive to keep learning show music, turning in recordings, and drilling themselves.  He understands those who might not get a recording submitted. Most importantly, he hopes every member will continue to join the virtual meetings to stay caught up and stay in touch with our Harmonizer brothers. He was happy to have over 60 attendees this week again.

Associate director Tony Colosimo conducted another compete warm up session with lots of physical as well as vocal exercise

.

Then Joe worked on the uptune with special emphasis on rhythm and phrase endings; and he revised the traditional 1-10 range of volumes we have used  down to 1-6. 

Next, music team administrator Terry Reynolds used the Zoom system to randomly divide all attendees on the call into a small group of five or so.  Joe had asked the guys to share “What’s your  favorite memory as a Harmonizer.”  Each small group reported the stories and there were some amazing stories from our members as well as some pretty crazy ones. The guys who have been members over 40 years often referred to the first time we won the district contest and the first time we won the Southern Division and thus started a run of many trips to the International contest. Other popular points were Les Ventes, France; first Kennedy Center Honors performance; the New Zealand show;  Harvey Milk show; show with Dick Van Dyke; the gold medal in Atlanta; and a quartet singing for John and Annie Glenn at their home.

Alan Wile continued his interviews of members (who have submitted their personal story via the Harmonizer Heroes program.  This week’s guest was Frank Shipp who has been a member of our chapter a short time. His professional career has been in agriculture and equestrian management in KY and VA.  Plus he has had a lot of theater and music experience over the years. 

The business meeting was brief with no major announcements.  Executive director Randall Eliason reinforced the point for members to use the Scrip program to help raise monies for the chapter and make shopping easier.  If anyone needs explanation about using Scrip, contact Ken Ives.  This is a great way for members who live far away from the chapter to lend a hand. Randall also suggested guys use Amazon Smile to donate to the chapter.

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler reports the following members have renewed their membership and he has mailed them their renewal cards: Bob Thames - 60 years; Bill Colosimo - 44 years; Bob Eckman - 36 years; and John Oswald Greene - 9 years. Chris is now calling all renewals in addition to mailing their cards with a note.

The surprise guest was former chorus director, Scott Werner, who now lives in The Villages in Florida, with his wife Linda.  He is director of The Heart of Florida Chorus.

Scott joined the Harmonizers in 1964 as a guest of former director, Oz Newgard, who was director from 1963-70. Within two years of his joining, Scott was elected administrative vice president of the chapter and during his term, the chapter achieved Century Club Status.  He was elected chapter president in 1967 and again in 1968 – the first man to serve two consecutive terms in our chapter. He proved to be a versatile musical leader having been lead section leader, assistant director and music committee chairman prior to 1970. He arranged close to a dozen songs for the chorus during the ‘70s.

Scott served as Musical Director of the Harmonizers from 1970, with time out from 1980 to 1983, and then from 1984 until 2002 – a total of almost 30 years! He guided the chorus to its first District championship in 1977 and its first International appearance and medal in 1978—a fourth place bronze. He led the chorus to ten District titles, each of which culminated in an International medal, including four bronze medals, three silver medals, and four gold medals in 1986, 1989, 1995 and 1998.

In 1995, Scott won a gold medal when his senior quartet (Reminisce) won, and the chorus won a gold medal also that year. 

During Scott’s tenure as director of the Harmonizers he helped grow the chorus to 145 singers.  He added Geri Geis to his team to help create many great show appearances. 

Joe conducted an interview and one of the fun points was Scott’s favorite song was “Music of the Night.”  Scott shared that his philosophy was to use all the talent in our chapter and suggested that advice to others.  He also believed in making sure the experience was fun for everyone. Scott stayed on the call into the afterglow portion and greeted many men who sang with him before his retirement.

Next week’s meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm.  Watch for email details. (Note that the Zoom call info number is the same each 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 of the great things going on each week during the 71^st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd