Looking Back on the June 2, 2025 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting and the May 31 Honors Flights at DCA
The AACC singers were pleased to provide cheers and singing to welcome four Honor Flights when they arrived at Reagan National Airport on Sat. May 31 at 8, 9, 10 and 11 am. E. J. Herold from the chapter coordinated AACC support with the local volunteers from the Honor Flight Network. AACC has a personal connection to this work as Harmonizer Matt Ambler’s husband, Matt Shuman, is Chair of the Board.
The flights brought veterans to DC for a visit to the memorials of their conflicts and others as well as sightseeing in the nation’s Capital. They originated from White Plains, NY; W. Palm Beach, FL; Madison, WI; and Indianapolis, IN. During their stay in DC, the groups visited the memorials, fed a meal and then returned back to the airport to return home; quite the day, indeed. Despite their dwindling number, there were actually a couple World War II Veterans among the flights with mostly Korean and Vietnam Veterans to make up the groups.
About 20 singers were on hand for Terry Reynolds to direct in singing patriotic tunes as the plane loads of veterans arrived. The chorus wore the black AACC t-shirts and sang with music in black folders, as needed, provided for the occasion.
The June 2 chapter meeting was at AlexRenew and started with a major warm up session for all ensembles conducted by associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo. He included work on an old tag, “What a Day – What an Unusual Day.” He also shared a funny story about a singer asking him “what’s the deal about onion skins?”
Artistic director for AACC, Joe Cerutti, welcomed several folks to this week’s meeting: EJ Harold back from work travel; Mike Fasano attending to prep the music for Ireland; Clyde Crusenberry back to sing; Don Thompson back to sing; Mireille Kouagou back to sing; Julian LeFlore on hand to sing and see friends; and Tessa Walker, a busy music educator back to sing. Joe offered Happy Birthday wishes to Norm Barth; and introduced Maumen Alsheakh who was recognized in the recent Harmonizer magazine and presented him his new AACC nametag.
Joe reminded everyone about the 50th anniversary concerts of the Alexandria Singers at Bishop Ireton, 7:30 pm Friday, June 6, and 2 pm and 7:30 pm on Saturday, June 7. It will also be honoring the retirement of Bill Colosimo, who has directed the group for just over 18 years.
After those announcements, Joe worked with the AACC singers on “The Parting Glass.” Part of the work time, Matt Ambler met with the leads for some detailed work.
Before moving into the separate ensembles, Stan Quick, chapter executive director, announced the farewell of chapter general manager, Susan Fitzpartick, who has moved to Marshall, VA. She was a great asset to the operation of the chapter, especially at the time of the addition of the new ensembles.
Chapter leadership encouraged all singers of the Collective to mark their calendars and plan to attend the annual retreat scheduled for July 18-20 at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. Online
registration began on Wed. June 4. (Registration and payment is due by July 1.)
The annual event is a great opportunity for serious work on the music, plus a chance for members to meet and socialize with each other and get to know more names to go with the faces we see each week. The two coaches for the weekend will be Darin Drown from Denver, CO, and Cy Wood, our frequent performance coach from Ohio. There will also be a ceremony to present the 2024 distinguished service awards for the Collective. Great food, relaxing housing on campus close to the meeting space, casual dress, a modest drive up into MD, and always fun. Stay tuned for signing up – talk up car pools and plans for that weekend. Plus expect a few team building surprises from the music team and chapter leadership.
Membership director, Jacob Broude, welcomed five returning guests: Devin Turner, Diane Morrical, Carl Parkin, Brigit Gilvary, and Amaris Whitaker. First time guest this week was Grace Walker; and Ron Silver, former member in 1979, was in town for work from Portland, OR. Maggie McAlexander, assistant director of Metro Voices, directed the chapter “Welcome Song” (and was wearing her new engagement ring from Kevin Mendez. Congrats to them both!).
There was another new member orientation session this week with Joe as presenter who spoke on the topic “Learning Music from Home.”
The song run-down for the Harmonizers work this week included “Parting Glass,” “Come Follow The Band” in order to be ready for performance coaching, “Africa,” “Impossible Dream;” and “But The World Goes Round” with review and drills of stage moves. Tony directed some of the songs and Joe the rest.
Metro Voices reporter, Annie Ermlick, shared that their director, Samantha Tramack, worked on “Where You Lead, Together We Can” that was arranged by Maggie. Then Maggie worked on “Somewhere.” There was duet work on “ How Far I’ll Go” and Samantha taught the basses some cool percussive sounds and dynamics. Tessa helped the ensemble leadership to keep on schedule and where to meet for sectionals.
Here is a reminder that registration for Harmony College East 2025 closes on June 5! Reserve June 12-15, 2025, for the best District barbershop school ANYWHERE! Briefly, here are the particulars: WHAT: Harmony College East 2025; WHERE: The beautiful campus of McDaniel College, Westminster, MD; WHEN: Thursday, June 12 through Sunday, June 15, 2025.
The AACC black t-shirts are available for pick up if you ordered one, or for purchase if you still need one. Just $10 each. Get your shirt from Terry Reynolds by contacting him so he can bring one to a meeting for you before the Harmony College East event or the chapter retreat in July.
Also, members are encouraged to offer their input for new songs for the year ahead as we honor and recognize the 250thanniversary of the United States and the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Brad Jones, chair of the repertoire committee, issued guidelines for making suggestions via Slack.
The chapter meetings will be at AlexRenew June 10 with Cy Wood present to coach the Harmonizers for “Come Follow the Band,” and June 24; with another sing in Old Town on June 17.
President Craig Kujawa used a Slack message to encouraged more AACC members to sign up for a Raise Right Fundraising account. The chapter is making progress to earning the goal of $5000 for the year via this program.
After the 50/50 drawing organized by Alan Wile at this week’s Collective meeting, Devin Gerzof directed “Keep the Whole World Singing” before members adjourned for tags and refreshments at the Harmo House. This week’s crowd was large and they ate a lot of pizzas and birthday cupcakes for Norm!
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 76th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)
The Chapter Mission Statement: Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.