Looking Back on the Sept. 22nd, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

 

Looking Back on the Sept. 22nd, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

The Alexandria Harmonizers came together for their Zoom meeting eager to begin working on music for the virtual holiday show.  Since the last meeting, a high percentage of the chorus has figured out the technology to record themselves vocally and visually as part of a dry run test in preparation for the holiday songs.

Director Joe Cerutti and associate director Tony Colosimo thanked and congratulated those who had submitted recordings.  Singers were encouraged to drop off this week’s call for a little while to make their recording, or join an “office hours” session with Tony during the electives period of the meeting to seek help.

Our chapter tech guy, Mike Kelly, and helper Joel Golden, had put a sample together using the recordings already submitted – so all could hear the chorus singing again.  It was terrific! The intro for “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” was used for this dry run test.

As members were gathering it was fun to say hello to some guys from out of town again including Bert Phillips from the Memphis TN area, and Julian LeFlore from QUIN-TONES.

Joe reported on a letter he had gotten from Brian Lynch, who works for BHS in communications.  Brian thanked us for the Covid Survival Kit.  Included with his letter was a collection of photos from our appearance at Disneyland with Dick Van Dyke in front of the chorus next to director Scott Werner.  Brian had also found a DVD of that performance from 1999 when we were in our swansong  year after winning our 1998 gold medals. He suggested these materials could go into the Harmonizer history collection.

To kick off the fun this week, we got to hear a tag sung by Ross Orvik doing all four parts. This was part of the pledge to play videos produced by members during these times of virtual meetings. Great job, Ross.

In the way of announcements and planning, Joe explained that the music team has invited a number of former singers to join us for the virtual holiday show.  Thus we will continue to have guests with us on Tuesday nite Zoom calls.

New chapter communications leader, Matt Doniger and helpers have created a flyer and social media materials for the show – Alexandria Harmonizers and Northwest Sound present, “A Barbershop Family Christmas” on Sunday, Dec. 20^th with two show times, 6 pm Eastern and 6 pm Pacific – Live Streaming Coast to Coast!

A number of quartets have agreed to appear on that show including SIGNATURE and QUIN-TONES. Harmonizer members are also invited so suggest other acts/performances/groups to carry out the family theme of the show – even if it is your own family. Contact Joe, Tony or Terry Reynolds by next Tuesday

Tony led the warm up session for the singers this week. Then there were sectionals to work on “Carol of the Bells.”

Alan Wile hosted another interview of a Harmonizer Hero based on the report that member has submitted and is posted on Groupanizer.  This week’s guest was Sam McFarland. Alan labeled him “a Barbershopper’s Barbershopper” – a man who has a legendary list of barbershop connections across the barbershop world including Sweet Adelines and Harmony Inc.  A Society member for nearly 33 years, he’s sung on the risers of nine choruses (most of them local), performed with a string of quartets, and held leadership positions at every Society level including presidency of the Ancient Harmonious Society of Woodshedders (AHSOW).  Sam has brought 26 people into barbershop over the years. His professional career included time with the US Army and assignments in the medical field at Howard University.

We did a breakout discussion for a fun topic this week – “if the Harmonizers received 1 million dollars, how should we spend or use it?” Joe says he has a list as long as your arm, but he heard some ideas that he didn’t have!  One that got a laugh – an endowment for snacks at our meetings! Frequent suggestions included funding staff for the chorus and chapter such as management, communications, marketing, or musical leadership for a youth chorus. Some wise men suggested investing a chunk of the money, and there were several suggestions such as offering free tickets to our shows for Harmonizer families or youth or seniors; or reduce costs of membership to singers. There were a number of ideas about buying property for meeting space, that might also be performance space, or space that is good for recordings, a space we could rent to other arts groups.

The chapter meeting time was conducted by Matt Doniger.  The date for the holiday show was announced again.  President Stan Quick announced that Ken Ives has been absent recently during cancer treatments, and Clyde Crusenberry was headed for major surgery at John Hopkins.

During the business meeting part of our October 6 rehearsal, we will be holding elections for the board of directors of our BHS chapter.  We need a quorum of at least 51 members, so please make every effort to join us. The nominating committee has put together the following slate of candidates:

 

President - Stan Quick
Secretary - David DesPortes
Treasurer - Al Herman
Member-at-Large - Clyde Crusenberry
Member-at-Large - Frank Shipp
Member-at-Large - Devin Gerzof  

 

The election will use the electronic polling available within Zoom per the BHS bylaws.

 

Many thanks to the nominating committee - Brian Ammerman (chair), Clyde Crusenberry, and Ben Watsky - for their work in creating this list of willing candidates.  Thanks to Ben also for serving as Member-at-Large this year. Also a big thanks to Chris Buechler who has served as secretary for over 25 years and will be helping Dave transition into the chapter secretary position.

 

There were two electives this week for those on the Zoom call: “Classic Rock and Roll Songs” was presented by Chris Huber and Joel Golden; and  “Phonetics of Singing” was presented by Ben Watsky.

 

Next week’s Tuesday meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm.  Watch for email details. The individual break out session will be a time for you to – “wear your favorite hat and to explain why is it your favorite?”

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 72^nd year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

 

Looking Back on the Sept. 15 th, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

 

Looking Back on the Sept. 15 ^th, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

The Alexandria Harmonizers were excited about coming together for their Zoom meeting after having been named Ensemble of the Year on Monday, Sept. 14^th,  during the BHS Awards Gala.

Director Joe Cerutti congratulated the members of the chapter for helping earn the award in recognition of a terrific, busy, and successful 2019.  As he said, “It’s hard to believe we crammed it all into one year!” Members were encouraged to use social media to share the news of the award with family, friends, fellow barbershoppers, and colleagues.

We all were proud to recognize three Harmonizers who were recognized as new 50-year members during the awards gala – Jack Cameron, Joe Witmer, and Harold Nantz.

This week’s meeting was planned to be a full session of meeting, learning music, chatting among ourselves, and planning ahead. Again this week we had a lot of guests from around the nation – many former members or current members who live in other states.

To kick off the fun, we got to hear a tag sung by Doug White doing all four parts. This was part of the pledge to play any videos produced by members during these times of virtual meetings. Great job, Doug.

In the way of announcements and planning, Joe explained that a work session Wed. nite at 8 pm will provide instructions for the members to prepare their recordings for the virtual chorus pieces for our virtual holiday show.  The Wed. nite session will work on the intro for “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” as a dry run during a Facebook Live session with associate director Tony Colosimo. Each singer will be asked to submit a vocal and visual recordings soon.  Get details at the session with Tony. In the end the chorus will do two or three songs for the virtual choir process.

Joe also shared a report on the funeral service for Bob Wachter at St. Louis Catholic Church in Alexandria on Monday.  Eulogies were given by Sam McFarland, Drew Fuller and Joe.  A quartet of Fairfax singers sang. Burial will be at Arlington Cemetery in the future. Recorded music from the Fairfax, Alexandria and Mount Vernon choruses was used during the services at the funeral home also.

Tony hosted the warm up session for the singers this week. Joe and Tony teamed up to help the chorus singers work on “tough spots” in “Carol of the Bells” and in “Gloria”

We did a breakout discussion for a fun topic this week – “what is your stupid human trick that you can demonstrate?” This was a crazy session with lots of laughs. Calling owls was about the wildest! Wiggling ears and clicking fingers were popular tho.

 

 

Last week, the music team asked Harmonizers via an email to take a survey of which of several Harmonizer Holiday performances on YouTube should be used on our holiday show.   They asked members to rank them and then music leaders will use the ranking: to select the recordings to use for our Virtual Holiday Show; to select our submission for the WETA 2020 Winter Concert project, and to select materials for any additional opportunities that come up to “show our stuff.” Responses were prompt and Joe thanked all those who helped and responded.

There were two electives presented by members this week.  Mike Edison spoke about building a race car.  Adam Afifi spoke about musicality as part of singing in a large ensemble.  Joe chimed in on this one too. About half of the 65 attendees were in each of these sessions.

Next week’s Tuesday meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm.  Watch for email details. The discussion topic will be – “If the chapter was given a million dollars, how would we spend that money?”

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 72^nd year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

 

Looking Back on the Sept. 14th, 2020 Virtual BHS Awards Gala

 

Looking Back on the Sept. 14^th, 2020 Virtual BHS Awards Gala

The Alexandria Harmonizers hosted a “Watch Party” Zoom session during the BHS Awards Gala presented via YouTube on Mon, evening, Sept. 14^th. We gathered about 7:30 pm for visiting, greeting some members we haven’t seen for awhile including Rick Wagner from HI, and sharing stories about our year. About 35 of us were on the call for the event that lasted until about 10 pm.

Terry Reynolds played the previous finalists announcements for our review to explain that the Harmonizers were named as finalists for two of the major awards – Ambassador of the Year, and Ensemble of the Year.  Our friend Dr. Joyce Garrett from Alfred Street Baptist was also a finalist for Ambassador of the Year.

It was great to be together for the event when the Alexandria Harmonizers were named Ensemble of the Year. The show included a great summary video of our terrific 2019 year including the trip to England and Scotland.

As president Stan Quick shared, “2019 was a banner year for the Harmonizers. I counted at least 19 events at which the chorus itself participated - from local Alexandria venues to Seneca Land District to the U.K.  To win this award in the inaugural gala especially when judged against the other nominees is a truly great achievement of which we should all be proud.”

 

Stan also acknowledged “Bill Colosimo's submission of our chapter and the Alexandria Singers concert with Vocal Collective from New Zealand for the Ambassador of the Year Award. Also nominated was Dr. Joyce Garrett, who has been instrumental in forging our relationship with Alfred Street Baptist Church.  Although we and Dr. Garrett did not win this category, we owe both Dr. Garrett and Bill and his Alexandria Singers a big thank you for their major contributions to helping us win the other category, Ensemble of the Year.”

The gala was quite well done and full of close moments for Harmonizers to see former members and coaches, helpers from our recent youth festivals, and fellow M-AD barbershoppers honored.

The Video of the Year Award went to MIDTOWN from our district and were introduced by lead of the Quin-Tones, Julian LaFore who has been on our show a couple times.

Album of the Year went to GQ and was introduced by Deke Sharon. Both the quartet and Deke were part of our youth festival.

We were pleased to learn that Alan Lamson, a former Harmonizer, and Kevin Keller, arranger of our contest uptune, were named to the BHS Hall of Fame.

The Arranger of the Year Award went to Theo Hicks who has been on our show too.

The Joe Liles Lifetime Achievement Award went to a former Harmonizer coach, Greg Clancy from the Dallas Vocal Majority.

Later in the show, Greg introduced our chapter as winner of the Ensemble Award. Stan Quick appeared on the YouTube show to give a message of appreciation from the Harmonizers.

The actual winner of the Ambassador of the Year Award went to BARBER DRUNK quartet who started Barbershop Harmony South America.

The Quartet of the Year Award went to THE NEWFANGLED FOUR and they were announced by DOUBLE DATE who sang for us recently on our Zoom event for Dog Days.

The Barbershopper of the Year Award went to Will Downey, bass of GIMME FOUR, who has often helped us with our youth festival.

Our friends and gold medal champs, SIGNATURE quartet, sang on the show and reminded us all how they helped promote our youth festival in the DC Metro area.

Overall host for the gala was Alex Morris from Australia, who often hosts the Webcast at International convention.

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 72^nd year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

 

Looking Back on the Sept. 8th, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

 

Looking Back on the Sept. 8^th, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting

The Alexandria Harmonizers continue meeting via Zoom. This week was another full session of fun, singing, BHS news, plus director Joe Cerutti came prepared to lay out plans for the next few months. 

Again this week we had a lot of guests from around the nation – many former members or current members who live in other states.  That’s one positive of this era under the virus threat – guys can join us from anywhere. Several members of the AH Inc. board were on the call this week too.  There were 68 folks on the call this week.

To kick off the fun, we got to hear some of guys in Riptide the Rock Band who made a fun video of their performance of “Saw Her Standin’ There.” Joe Cerutti Sr, Joel Golden, Chris Huber, and Kellen Hertz are in the group plus their two buddies Austin and Doc.  This was part of the pledge to play any videos produced by members during these times of virtual meetings.

As a reminder, next Monday, Sept. 14^th at 8 pm Eastern, the BHS Awards Gala event will be presented via YouTube.  The Harmonizers were nominated and are finalists for two of the major awards – Ambassador of the Year, and Ensemble of the Year.  Our friend Dr. Joyce Garrett from Alfred Street Baptist is also a finalist for Ambassador of the Year.

The Harmonizers will have a Live Watch Party too that nite, gathering to start at 7:30 pm, via Zoom.  Plan to attend and share the fun. Families and friends are encouraged to be on the Zoom call.  Watch for the link to this party time.

There was no warm up session this week, so that Joe could share music team plans for the months ahead.  Obviously much of this is dependent of the health matters in our area, but it is great to look forward to some fun new music, new venues, new gigs, and new technology.

His major points were to encourage the Harmonizers with news about two important projects on the horizon.

The first project revolves around a tentative performance schedule for the next twelve months that could include singing for the new Scottish Rite group in DC, a retreat with Harmony University classes for our members prior to a contest run in Cleveland, a show for the Fredrick MD Chapter, a fall show at Schlesinger, a gig in Rappahannock, VA, a holiday show at Strathmore in November, and a holiday show at Schlesinger in December.

A creative team of members plus Joe, Tony Colosimo, Terry Reynolds and Cy Wood developed a complete plan for our first show after the pandemic ends. It would be designed to help our audiences see new light and enjoy great music again. The theme is “A Beautiful Morning” and of course would include the terrific new song we have been working on, arranged by David Wright, “Oh What A Beautiful Morning.”

The song list would bring back some old favorites like “Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile” as an audience participation piece.  Recently Joe received a treasure-trove of barbershop songs collected by Wilbur Sparks during his lifetime as a member of our chapter.  And in that collection Joe found an arrangement by John Hohl that will be used in the show too.

The show will close with our popular “Circle of Life” number from last year.

The second project is a virtual holiday show – coast to coast.  We would be doing it in collaboration with Northwest Sound Chorus in Bellevue, WA, directed by former Harmonizer, Ken Potter.   It will be on Sunday, Dec. 20^th at 6 pm EST.

Here again there will be a live premier of the show with a Zoom pre and post gathering for singers and fans.

Joe and team have asked Harmonizers via an email sent out Tuesday nite to take a survey of which of several Harmonizer Holiday performances on YouTube should be used on the show.   They are looking for members to rank them and then music leaders will use the ranking: to select the recordings to use for our Virtual Holiday Show; to select our submission for the WETA 2020 Winter Concert project, and to select materials for any additional opportunities that come up to “show our stuff.” Responses are due on Friday, Sept. 11^th by 4 pm.

Some holiday tracks are already on Groupanizer, according to Terry.

Joe’s summary of this virtual show – “just do it.” He pledges that complete instructions will be sent to all members as to what they will need for this project such as headsets, and how to prepare.  There will be a test run of the virtual singing process on the intro to “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.”

Harmonizers should realize there are plenty of slots for volunteers, helpers, workers on these two major chapter projects. 

New chapter communications director Matt Doniger asked for business items from the chapter executive director, president, secretary and membership director.  Hearing none, the meeting was brief!

Special guests this week were Dr. Tim Workman and his young children from WV.  Tim is choral arts director at University of Arkansas in Fort Smith.  He had with him on the call his son Tanner, and daughters Analyn and Abby.  With dad on bass, they belted out some fantastic tags, taught us a tag, and shared some of their world as young singers all in one house.

Dad Tim was tenor in 2001 Collegiate Champ quartet, REPRISE. He and his siblings were a singing family too, so it is all a family tradition.

For our meeting, this generation of Workman singers sang a great “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” tag plus a couple others.

About half way thru this week’s meeting, Craig Kujawa joined the call from his post in Africa.  Great to hear from him and learn that he has only ten more weeks there.

Next week’s Tuesday meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm.  Watch for email details. The discussion topic will be – “If the chapter was given a million dollars, how would we spend that money?”

Funeral details for Bob Wachter were announced. Visitation will be Sunday, Sept. 13^th from 11 am to 1 pm at Demaine Funeral Home, 520 S. Washington Street, Alexandria.  There will be a funeral Mass at 11 am on Monday, September 14^th at St. Louis Catholic Church, 2907 Popkins Lane, Alexandria.

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 72^nd year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd