Looking Back on the August 25, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the August 25, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting 

This week’s AACC chapter meeting was a guest night for both ensembles to add new members to their ranks. Membership director, Jacob Broude, was coordinator with help from the directors and their music teams, and the culture leadership triad.  The AlexRenew halls were packed with members and 34 singer/guests – some for both the Harmonizers and Metro Voices. 

There were some guests that heard the chorus sing in Old Towne last week. Many of the guests were friends or relatives of members, and in fact, a number had sung with current members in past ensembles in the area.

Tony Colosimo, associate director of the Harmonizers did the warm up session for AACC singers and their guests. Then Maggie McAlexander, assistant director of Metro Voices, taught everyone the “Ireland, My Ireland” tag (and suggested it would be sung again before the meeting ended). 

Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, welcomed everyone to AACC and to this opportunity for many folks to sing barbershop harmony for the first time. Throughout the evening, barbershop terms like “tag” were explained to the singers; and Joeshared some recent highlights of chapter life to the guests. He included the hiring of the executive director and announced that Tuesday night, Sept. 1 the majority of the program will be a session to get to know her and to learn more about the current status of the chapter operations teams. 

Jacob officially welcomed all the guests and shared with them the general plans for upcoming chapter meetings.  He also presented our newest member of the Harmonizers, Danny Ameduit, with his official name tag. Danny is bass in the CHEF’S KISS quartet that sang on the program this week for the guests. Terry Reynolds directed the chapter welcome song. 

At this point, the two ensembles met separately to work on a couple of the current repertoire songs, and start on some holiday songs, as a demonstration of how a chapter rehearsal might go. The many guest singers were coached as to what voice part they should try.  Actual voice part auditions will be conducted in subsequent meetings. 

Next, members taught guests tags while others set up chairs and arranged the main meeting space for a mini-performance.  It was crowded, but it was still fun.  The Harmonizers sang “Africa,” CHEF’S KISS sang “Mona Lisa,” and Metro Voices sang “Me and the Sky.” To finish the performance set, the AACC chorus sang “I’m Still Standing.” 

This is when some recreation organized by the culture team was used to help guests sing and to be recognized.  Each singing member of AACC drew a piece of paper from the bowl that had a song title on it.  Then on signal, the singers roamed the room humming that song til they found the five or so other members humming that song (for example, “Happy Birthday,” “The Star Spangled Banner,” and other old favorites). 

And then each of the groups had to create new words to the “Ireland, My Ireland” tag incorporating the names of the three or four guests in their group.  When each group sang their tag, the guests announced their names, and then their little group of guests and members sang their version of the tag.  It was fun. The culture team (Becca Williams, Kellen Hertz, Matt Darouse) led the game activity. 

Here are Looking Back reports of other recent chapter events. 

The rains never let up so the Fairfax County Park Authority cancelled the performance that the chapter was set to do on Thursday, Aug. 20, outdoors at Nottaway Park, in Vienna, VA. Bad news was they cancelled after lots of members had departed from their home for an hour or two drive to the park.  The good news was the chapter will get its full fee since the show was cancelled after singers were enroute. (Many long-time Harmonizers recall that for many years, the chapter’s summer outdoor concert in August was cancelled because of rain!)

The celebration for GQ, 2026 BHS quartet champs, was Monday, Aug. 24, 7 pm, at Towson University. It was a joyful event to honor the quartet and thank them for their great music and musical leadership in the Mid Atlantic District. 

There were 33 AACC members there based on a count by YeEd which included many from Metro Voices who led the cheers and applause to support and thank the quartet – and to honor their chorus director, GQ bass Samantha Tramack.  The GQ tenor is Amanda Sandroni, lead is Kathie Gillis, and baritone is Ali Hauger. 

There was a red carpet entry to the hall and vinyls to autography for each member of the quartet.  The event was coordinated by leaders from the Alexandria A Cappella Collective headed up by Dita Rao, chapter executive director; and from leaders of the Hershey, PA, chapter. The evening started with a tasty buffet meal, and a chance for folks to meet and greet. Then the quartet sang for their friends (and many of their family members who attended including children and parents including Steve and Rene Tramack). Steve spoke about the major influence the quartet has had, and will continue to have, on future generations of barbershop singers.  Their set included their awesome song from their 

International championship set in St. Louis this past summer. Emcee for the evening was Melody Hine.

Here are important announcements about the upcoming schedule for AACC. 

The meeting for Tuesday, September 1, at AlexRenew, will include time to welcome our new executive director, Dita Rao. Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, encourages all members to take advantage of this opportunity to hear about her background, her vision for the operations of our organization and about her operations team.  He suggests this session, though another talking event soon after guest night, is incredibly important and a culmination of sorts on the work that was started a little over a year ago. Members will want to come give Dita an AACC welcome.

The meeting on September 8 will also be at AlexRenew. Then for Sept. 15, the meeting will be at Fairlington Presbyterian Church. 

Stay tuned for final word about a performance at the George Washington Masonic Temple in Alexandria, on Oct. 14 – an invitation on Groupanizer to sign up to sing from Terry Reynolds and Matt Ambler suggests the time commitment would be something like 6-9 pm. This would be a full-length concert. (For those checking their calendar, the annual Alfred Street Baptist Church men’s sing networking social for the Harmonizers is now on Oct. 15.) 

  As a reminder, the chapter has accepted the invitation 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, and other details. 

In other news related to the AACC: it is time to start recruiting for the new season for the Capital Force youth chorus in the Alexandria A Cappella Collective. To launch the new season, Tessa Walker submitted a call (in announcements in Slack recently) for someone to fulfill a volunteer administrative role for Capital Force youth chorus.  Chat with Tessa if you or someone you know might be interested. 

Other members of AACC ensembles are encouraged to share information about Capital Force with youth in the area (or their parents) about joining.  The first meeting for the 2026-27 season will be on Sunday, Oct. 18 – location to be announced soon as well as the meeting schedule for the new season. 

PLUS  there is exciting news that Capital Force will take part in the Youth Chorus Festival at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s (BHS) Midwinter convention in Virginia Beach in February 2027!  

Tyler Carpenter will continue to engrave new Harmonizer medals or to make a replacement name tag at 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.

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 78^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

 

The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.

 

 

Looking Back on the August 18, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the August 18, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting 

The outdoor sing in Old Towne Alexandria on Tuesday, Aug. 18, continued a long-standing summer tradition for the chapter. This year there were some changes since the City Hall and adjacent Market Square are closed for construction. So the gathering point at 7 pm was at the corner of Union and King Streets – an entrance into the Torpedo Factory.  The AACC chorus was well attended for both the Harmonizers and Metro Voices. Associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo, led a warm session in a nearby alley before the AACC chorus took the stairs (stage) at the Torpedo Factory. Attire was AACC t-shirts or a plain black t-shirt.  

Large crowds assembled to listen to the music and applauded with vigor after every song! Chapter leaders had a huge supply of business cards and passed them out to folks as they gathered for the show. Special guests in the audience were Josh Heit, president of the Alexandria Arts Alliance, and AACC community board member, Carolyn Griffin. 

 The AACC chorus kicked off the show with “I’m Still Standing,” directed by Samantha Tramack. Zak Sandlerdirected “We Will Be One” which he wrote and Lance Fisher arranged for AACC. 

Then Tony stepped up to direct the Harmonizers in “Hey  Jude” with Matt Ambler doing the solo. That was followed by a first-time performance of “Barber of Seville.” 

Metro Voices took the stage with Samantha Tramack directing “Yes I Can,” and their first-time performance of “Preamble.”

A youth quartet, CHEF’S KISS, sang “After You’re Gone” with Ezekiel Ramirez performing the first time with them.

To wrap up the performance, the AACC chorus sang “Parting Glass” with Joe Cerutti directing.  The song began with an intro sung by Lance Fisher, Robert Stark and Christine Pan. The. final song was “Defying Gravity” with Christine as soloist.

Songs and soloists were introduced with great enthusiasm by Tony and Joe throughout the evening and included frequent reminders to use welovetosing,org as the way to find out more about the group.

The singers moved to the patio facing the Potomac and did another complete set but interchanged some other songs. The Harmonizers did “Africa” and “I’m Just a Bill” with Zak, Tony Reynolds and Joe adding the comedic narration; Metro Voices did “Somewhere” and “Preamble” with Hannah Drobac as narrator.

The ensemble did one more run of the songs back on the entry stairs before many members headed to Chadwicks for an afterglow. Unlike some years, the  weather was terrific this time for the singers and the listeners.  

Here are important announcements about the upcoming schedule for AACC. 

There was particular importance in the reminder about the Thursday, Aug. 20, outdoor performance at Nottaway Park, 9537 Courthouse Rd., Vienna, VA 22181. It will start at 7:30 pm. Arrival time will be about 6 pm. Uniform will be the AACC t-shirt or any black t-shirt.  Sometimes folks have organized picnic dinners or gatherings in the area before report time. NOTE: here again, chapter leadership will issue a call to cancel by 4:30 pm that afternoon. 

The celebration for GQ is Monday, Aug. 24, 7 pm, at Towson University. 

Looking ahead, the chapter guest night and rehearsal will be on Aug. 25 at AlexRenew.  Meetings for the first two Tuesdays of September on the 1^st and 8^th will also be at AlexRenew. Then for Sept. 15, the meeting will be at Fairlington Presbyterian Church. 

As a reminder, the chapter has accepted the invitation 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, and other details. 

Also looking ahead, the music team announced that work on holiday music will begin in September.

Terry Reynolds announced the need for “Facebook streamers” for Tuesday nights – members who bring their laptops or such to connect meetings with Facebook users who could not attend in person. Volunteer to Terry if you can help.

In other news related to the AACC: it is time to start recruiting for the new season for the Capital Force youth chorus in the Alexandria A Cappella Collective. To launch the new season, Tessa Walker submitted a call (in announcements in Slack recently) for someone to fulfill a volunteer administrative role for Capital Force youth chorus.  Chat with Tessa if you or someone you know might be interested. 

Other members of AACC ensembles are encouraged to share information about Capital Force with youth in the area (or their parents) about joining.  The first meeting for the 2026-27 season will be on Sunday, Oct. 18 – location to be announced soon as well as the meeting schedule for the new season. 

PLUS  there is exciting news that Capital Force will take part in the Youth Chorus Festival at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s (BHS) Midwinter convention in Virginia Beach in February 2027! 

 

Tyler Carpenter will continue to engrave new Harmonizer medals or to make a replacement name tag at 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.

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 78^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

 

The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.

 

 

Looking Back on the August 11, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the August 11, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting 

There were some singers gone this week, some parents getting kids ready to go to school or college, and some members on vacation. But overall the meeting of AACC singers at AlexRenew was well attended and full of energy. 

Tony Colosimo associate director of the Harmonizers, led the warm up session for the combined ensembles. He incorporated some rhythm drills and used the popular “We Sing Late at Times, Canned Goods” exercise for proper vowels. Then he used some of “I’m Still Standing” for warming us the voices.

After the warm up, artistic director Joe Cerutti jumped into action to have the AACC chorus continue rehearsal of “I’m Still Standing” and then moved on to “Defying Gravity” in the pitch needed for soloist Christine Pan to sing at upcoming performances. Then Joe invited Zak Sandler to direct “We Will be One” followed by Joe directing a run-through of “Parting Glass.”

Then there were announcements about the upcoming schedule for AACC. 

The outdoor sing in Old Towne Alexandria on Tuesday, Aug. 18, will start at 7 pm with a few warm ups before singing for the assembled folks in town. The two ensembles will take turns performing before combining for the finale. Usually the evening ends with an afterglow at Chadwicks which is the last spot where the chorus sings on these annual Old Towne sing-outs. Attire is AACC t-shirts or a plain black t-shirt. For years the chapter has gathered on Market Square by City Hall, but this year that whole property is blocked off for construction and repair.  So the gathering spot will be the large stairway leading into the Torpedo Factory at the river and King Street.  NOTE: if weather is bad, chapter leadership will send out a message to cancel by 4 pm. 

Then two days later, Thursday, Aug. 20, the chapter will have an outdoor performance at Nottaway Park, 9537 Courthouse Rd., Vienna, VA 22181. It will start at 7:30 pm. Arrival time will be about 6 pm. Uniform will be the AACC t-shirt or any black t-shirt.  Joe encourages singers to at least make this Thursday night sing, if possible. Singers will be allowed to step off the risers for some songs during the performance if needed, so everyone is encouraged to plan to sing the songs they know. Besides it will be another fun evening.  In the past, these sorts of outdoor concerts were well attended by chapter member families and friends.  Sometimes folks have organized picnic dinners or gatherings in the area before report time. NOTE: here again, chapter leadership will issue a call to cancel by 4:30 pm that afternoon.

The celebration for GQ is Monday, Aug. 24, 7 pm, at Towson University. Any members who had not signed up to attend were asked to speak to culture team coordinator Becca Williams before this week’s meeting ended. The chapter is overjoyed to celebrate having a gold medal quartet member as part of the weekly meeting – Samantha Tramack, bass, from GQ. The celebration is a joint celebration with the Parkside, PA, chapter.

Looking ahead, the chapter guest night and rehearsal will on Aug. 25 at AlexRenew.  Meetings for the first two Tuesdays of September on the 1^st and 8^th will also be at AlexRenew.

As a reminder, the chapter has accepted the invitation 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, and other details. 

Also looking ahead, the music team announced that work on holiday music will begin in September.

Terry Reynolds announced the need for “Facebook streamers” for Tuesday nights – members who bring their laptops or such to connect meetings with Facebook users who could not attend in person. Volunteer to Terry if you can help.

Chapter president Craig Kujawa happily reported that at this point near the end of the chapter’s fiscal year, members have added over $8,000 income for the chapter by purchasing gift cards.  Members who have not set up a plan to purchase them can see Craig and he can help get members started. 

Craig also announced the resignation of Cody Leihgeber-Carpenter who has served as a community board member for the chapter for a number of years. Many thanks to Cody for his service and support of the chapter. Alex Chen was named to fill the vacancy by the chapter board. In this regard, Craig is seeking volunteers to serve on a nominating committee for the next board election. See Craig to offer to help.

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. The annual guest night events are always fun and a great chance to entertain prospects, plus a chance to help newer members sing the repertoire. Thanks to Maggie McAlexander for creating and sending out via Slack a couple attractive flyers that members could download and post in efforts to get more prospects to attend guest night. 

ALSO: Jacob will have cards to pass out during the sing in Old Towne on Aug. 18, and will be looking for volunteers or maybe non-singing members or friends.

This week’s guests included returnees Danny Ameduite (Congrats to Danny who passed his audition this week!) and CJ Hunt plus first timers Sean O’Connor and Anne Lefeuvre. Maggie directed the chapter welcome song. 

The two ensembles worked separately on their music. 

The Harmonizers worked on “I’m Just A Bill” with Zak Sandler and Terry Reynolds adding the narration (music leaders added a couple measures to the vamp so the comedic narration fits easier). Joe will be the speaker for the “executive pardon” gag so Tony will direct this number. 

Harmonizers had more sectional work on “Barber of Seville” in order to have the song well prepared for upcoming performances – especially for the Feb. 4 appearance at the BHS Midwinter. Section leaders for these sessions were Lance Fisher for tenors, Matt Ambler for leads, Jared Liscinsky for baritones, and Calvin Schnure for basses. 

After the sectionals, Joe directed the Harmonizer chorus for a long rehearsal of this piece.  Then he pushed the chorus to do a run of “Hey Jude,” “Africa,” and “Wonderful World.”

 

Meanwhile in the board room at the sixth floor or AlexRenew, Metro Voices director, Samantha Tramack, andassistant director, Maggie McAlexander, used the second half of the meeting to continue preparation for their show songs.

After the 50/50 drawing, Joe surprised Heidi Brown and invited her to direct “Keep the Whole World Singing.”  A fun crew made it to the HarmoHouse for the afterglow and they enjoyed the outdoor room to swap stories and visit with the food and drink.

In other news related to the AACC: it is time to start recruiting for the new season for the Capital Force youth chorus in the Alexandria A Cappella Collective. To launch the new season, Tessa Walker submitted a call (in announcements in Slack recently) for someone to fulfill a volunteer administrative role for Capital Force youth chorus.  Chat with Tessa if you or someone you know might be interested. 

Other members of AACC ensembles are encouraged to share information about Capital Force with youth in the area (or their parents) about joining.  The first meeting for the 2026-27 season will be on Sunday, Oct. 18 – location to be announced soon as well as the meeting schedule for the new season. 

PLUS  there is exciting news that Capital Force will take part in the Youth Chorus Festival at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s (BHS) Midwinter convention in Virginia Beach in February 2027!  

Tyler Carpenter will continue to engrave new Harmonizer medals or to make a replacement name tag at 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.

YeEd received a note from former member and quartet promoter, George Azzam, reporting that his quartet, CHORAHOLICS, will be singing at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Nov. 24 as part of a large choir event.

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 78^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

 

The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.

 

 

Looking Back on the August 4, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting

Looking Back on the August 4, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting 

Even though it is “summer vacation season,” there was a good attendance of AACC singers at Fairlington Presbyterian Church for rehearsal this week.

Jason Lee, assistant director of the Harmonizers, led the warm up session for the combined ensembles. He incorporated “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” for his drills for proper vowels.

After the warm up, artistic director Joe Cerutti led the combined AACC chorus rehearsal of “I’m Still Standing.” 

Next Joe gave a thorough report of a long list of  major “good news points” about the great Alexandria chapter!

He started with the news that four members were certified by the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) as official judges for contests – having completed their training and evaluations recently at a BHS school in Denver. Congrats to Renee Tramack – singing category; Maggie McAlexander – musicality category; Tyler Carpenter and Terry Reynolds – administrative category!

Also four members will be retiring as official judges after years of service: Chris Buechler, Alan Lamson, Joe Cerutti and Tony Colosimo. 

Joe was excited to report on the successful Harmony University held recently in Denver, CO, with 100 attendees from all over the USA and other countries including Japan, Columbia, Canada, England and Sweden (those are the counties he could mention off the tip of his tongue).  Both Joe and Samantha Tramack were faculty.

Certainly the chapter is overjoyed to celebrate having a gold medal quartet member as part of the weekly meeting – Samantha from GQ (a first in the nearly-80-year history of the Alexandria chapter). Joe encourages all members to attend the celebration event on Monday, Aug. 24, at 7 pm, somewhere at Towson University (where the quartet got its start).  He did suggest that the planning committee is eager to hear from any current or former members who could make a donation to help support the event.  Let Joe or Becca Williams know if you can help with that. There is an RSVP form in Slack for folks to use so the committee has an idea of how many will be there to cheer and congratulate the quartet.  The celebration will be a joint celebration with the Parkside, PA, chapter.

The success story of GQ was noted by the Mayor of Alexandria, Alyia Gaskins, and she addressed the news in a letter to the quartet and the chapter.  The mayor acknowledged the super accomplishment for a quartet to have won the gold medal, and shared her pride as mayor by adding her accolades.  Mayor Gaskins also expressed her congratulations for the success of the entire AACC chapter including FIRST TAKE that earned a fifth consecutive top-five medal, the Harmonizers for earning their 22^nd chorus medal, and to Metro Voices for making an incredible debut as one of the top 20 barbershop choruses in the world. 

Looking ahead, the Aug.11 meeting will be at AlexRenew, and the chapter guest night and rehearsal on Aug. 25 will also be at AlexRenew. 

The outdoor sing originally scheduled Aug. 4, will be moved to Aug. 18, so stay tuned for more details and the exact location.  

The chapter will perform an outdoor performance on Thursday, Aug. 20, at Nottaway Park, 9537 Courthouse Rd., Vienna, VA 22181. It will start at 7:30 pm. Arrival time will be about 6:30 pm. Uniform will be the AACC t-shirt or any black t-shirt. Each ensemble will sing and then they will join together to wrap up the performance.

  Singers will be allowed to step off the risers for some songs during the performance if needed. In the past, these sorts of outdoor concerts were well attended by chapter member families and friends.  Sometimes folks have organized picnic dinners or gatherings in the area before report time. 

As a reminder, the chapter has accepted the invitation 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, and other details. 

The music team sent word to the members via Joe that work on holiday music will begin in September.

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. The annual guest night events are always fun and a great chance to entertain prospects, plus a chance to help newer members sing the repertoire. Thanks to Maggie McAlexander for creating and sending out via Slack a couple attractive flyers that members could download and post in efforts to get more prospects to attend guest night.

This week’s guests included Elizabeth Halford, Matthew Dacanay, Danny Ameduite, Jonathon Meyer, and Mattfrom the Ambassadors of Harmony who was in town for work. Terry Reynolds directed the chapter welcome song. 

The two ensembles worked separately on their music.  The Harmonizers worked more on “The Barber of Seville.” – first in sections led by Joe for the tenors and baritones, Jason Lee for the basses, and Matt Ambler for the leads.  Then Joe pulled the sections together and did a lengthy session on adding more color to the performance in addition to accuracy. He also organized a “push out” quartet for extra drills (there were enough new members present that Joe had to explain how a “push out quartet” works. A good problem to have to solve!).

They also worked “I’m Just A Bill” with Zak Sandler and Terry Reynolds reading through the narration.

Meanwhile in the basement room of the church, Metro Voices director, Samantha Tramack, and assistant director,Maggie McAlexander, used the second half of the meeting to continue preparation for their show songs.

About 9:15 pm the two ensembles regrouped and worked on “Defying Gravity,”  “Parting Glass,” and “We Are One” which Zak Sandler directed. 

After the 50/50 drawing, chapter leaders welcomed Rob Stark and Christine Pan back from their travels - first to give Rob his medal from St. Louis since they departed for their trip right after the chorus contest in July; and second, since it was also Christine’s birthday, Joe invited her to direct “Keep the Whole World Singing.” 

In other news related to the AACC: Tessa Walker submitted a call (in announcements in Slack) for someone to fulfill an administrative role for Capital Force youth chorus, the third active ensemble in the Alexandria A Cappella Collective. It is a voluntary position and generally is tied to that ensemble’s concert season.  The volunteer does not need to be an AACC member and might be a friend, spouse or partner of a member.  Chat with Tessa if you or someone you know might be interested. 

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.

YeEd received a note from former member and quartet promoter, George Azzam, reporting that his quartet, CHORAHOLICS, will be singing at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Nov. 24 as part of a large choir event.

At this week’s meeting, YeEd presented chapter history books to several recently added new members of AACC – both the 50 year history and the 75 year summary.  If you have not gotten the set of history books, let Jack know so he can bring them to you at a coming meeting.  Everyone is entitled to have the set. 

Finally, cheers for the dozen or so fellow AACC members who are classroom teachers in the area (several are music educators). They will be reporting back to their schools soon to get classrooms ready and lesson materials set for the next school year. 

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 78^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

 

The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.

 

 

Looking Back on the July 28, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the July 28, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting 

The AACC singers were prepared for another solid rehearsal this week on their show songs for upcoming performances. The pending storms and possible tornadoes reduced attendance some, but it never did rain in Alexandria.

The chapter congratulates five members who were certified by the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) as official judges for our contests – having completed their training and evaluations recently at a BHS school in Denver. Congrats to Renee Tramack – singing category; Maggie McAlexander – musicality category; Tyler Carpenter and Terry Reynolds – administrative category;  and Cy Wood – performance category!

This week the BHS was holding the annual Harmony University also in Denver and artistic director, Joe Cerutti, was there as a BHS staffer. Samantha Tramack was there as a coach, teacher for a membership class and director for general session warm ups. Of course she was also there as a member of the 2026 quartet champs, GQ

Jason Lee, assistant director of the Harmonizers, led a good warm up session for the singers at AlexRenew. He taught a children’s jingle – one of many versions of  “Tony Chestnut Knows I Love Him” and Cooper Schwartz taught the body movements with the singer touching “toe, knee, chest, head for nut, nose, etc.” Of course, the faster the tempo, the more challenging it was!

After the warm up, Tony Colosimo directed the combined AACC chorus rehearsal of “I’m Still Standing,” and “We Will Be One.”

Chapter leaders alerted everyone that the chapter will not sing in Old Towne on Tuesday, August  4 – instead the meeting will be held at Fairlington Presbyterian Church that night.  The outdoor sing will likely be held on Aug. 18, so stay tuned for more details. The Aug.11 meeting will be at AlexRenew. The chapter guest night on Aug. 25 will also be at AlexRenew.  

The outdoor performance on Thursday, Aug. 20, at Nottaway Park, 9537 Courthouse Rd., Vienna, VA 22181, is confirmed. It will start at 7:30 pm. Arrival time will be about 6:30 pm. 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 has accepted the invitation 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, and other details. 

Chapter secretary Cy Shuster presented membership renewals to Devin Turner for two years; Logan Glauser for three years; Charlie Rothermel for three years; Jerry Candrilli for 26 years, and Ken Rub for 35 years.  As is the chapter tradition, Ken also was given his 35-year membership lapel pin. 

Earlier in the week, president Craig Kujawa forwarded messages to members of both active AACC ensembles about the BHS offer to sell photos from the St. Louis convention and contest.

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, Serena Davis, David Strasser, and Matthew Dacanay, plus CJ Hunt from Pennsylvania and Chris Noga from Ohio. 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 led by Lance Fisher for the tenors, Jason Lee for the basses, Jared Liscinsky for the baritones, and Matt Ambler for the leads.  Then associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo, worked with the full chorus. 

They also worked on “Africa;” “I’m Just A Bill” with Zak Sandler and Terry Reynolds reading through the narration; and “Hey Jude” with Matt Ambler’s solo. 

Maggie McAlexander directed the Metro Voices rehearsal for their show songs.

Since Joe was in Denver, there was no afterglow at the HarmoHouse. The two ensembles combined to sing “Keep the Whole World Singing” to end the meeting with David Strasser directing.  

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.

YeEd received a note from Joel Golden about the classic rock band he is in – Riptide - with two other Harmonizers, Chris Huber and Doug White. They did a gig on Thursday evening,  July 23, as part of the Fairfax County Park Authority summer concert series. Several AACC members went to hear them.

Several members reported seeing Ben Hawker in the choir for Lindsay Graham’s memorial that was televised on Tuesday. 

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 78^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

 

The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.

 

 

Looking Back on the July 21, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting

 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 78^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

 

The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.

 

 

Looking Back on the July 14, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the July 14, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting 

There was a full-house for this week-after-International meeting with both the Harmonizers and Metro Voices together much of the evening to celebrate and make more great music! Dean Rust was sporting a “We Are Proud of You” balloon tied to his name tag, and Samantha Tramack was sporting a blue ribbon with a shiny gold medal around her neck.  When she arrived, the hall burst into cheers.

Jason Lee, assistant director of the Harmonizers, led a good warm up session for the singers in chairs in the board room at AlexRenew. 

Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, welcomed everyone back after such a wonderful experience in St. Louis. Then he shared news from the recent AACC music team meeting that the fall show will be cancelled.  Finding a venue is one reason. The plan is to find a more informal venue or setting for something in the fall.

He confirmed that next week the July 21 AACC meeting will be at Fairlington Presbyterian Church and then July 28 will be back at AlexRenew.

Joe alerted members that they need to sign up for appearances ASAP on Groupanizer – especially the Aug. 20 show at Nottaway Park, and then the Thursday, Feb. 4, appearance at the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) Midwinter convention in Virginia Beach.  The music team needs to know who will be doing those shows before officially committing to the appearances. Members should stay tuned about possible bus transportation to Virginia Beach. 

Then it was time to sing!  Joe had the AACC chorus sing through “Parting Glass” three or four times. And then the two ensembles went to separate rehearsal spaces to work on songs for the upcoming shows.  The Harmonizers worked on “The Barber of Seville” and Joe used sectional duets to rehearse the music and then invited guys to volunteer to sing it in an octet. Metro Voices worked on some of their show music too.

Joe presented 2026 gold medals to Randy Lazear, Joel Golden and Antony Takahashi who had to leave St. Louis before the ceremony there. It was great to see Chuck Powell back on the risers with the Harmonizers. Mark Klostermeyer presented a framed replica of a poster promoting the original Comedian Harmonists to Joe for his collection. 

President Craig Kujawa reported some extra thank yous for International: for Ken Rub and Patrick Horne who drove the Harmo truck there and back; to Maggie McAlexander who created the Jumbotron ads for the chapter; and to the 30 members of AACC who bought gift cards to pay for hotel costs and earned nearly $3500 for the chapter. Joe paid tribute to Craig who served as convention/contest coordinator on top of being president. 

Jacob Broude welcomed a long list of guests and alerted 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 Jonathon Meyers, Patrick Lawson, Elizabeth Halford, Ruth Catlett, Andy Budzinski, Matthew Dacanay, Serena Davis and David Strasser, plus the CHEF’S KISS quartet from Montgomery County – Mark Magpantay, Isaac Teheren, Danny Ameduite and Ivan Diehl - that sang a couple songs for the chapter.

There was a break about 8:30 pm and everyone enjoyed the various treats and lemonade some members brought in to share to celebrate the chapter’s success at International.

Following the break, Terry Reynolds did his traditional statistical review of the scores and history markers for the chapter and its ensembles (there were some new things to report with a second ensemble these days).  There were laughs when he referred to all the “Geeks” who like this sort of thing!  Just a few notes from his presentation: the performance score for the Harmonizers was a record. Samantha is the only gold medal quartet winner in Harmonizer or Metro Voices history. Steve White is the only Harmonizer to have sung in every one of their International contest appearances. Finally, the Harmonizers are tied with Cincinnati for the most medals ever. When he was done, the gang cheered “Terry!, Terry!, Terry!” 

As is the tradition, Joe invited any first timers who sang on the stage in either ensemble to share their thoughts and reactions and perspectives. There were about ten who raised their hand to share very personal thoughts. The common themes included the joy to be included and welcomed so warmly; the pride of the quality and work ethic; a discovery of the administrative and musical leadership that makes the chapter run at such a high level; understanding the ranking of the chapter in the BHS community; and developing an appreciation for what barbershop harmony can be!

Joe ended the comments with his thanks to all and his challenges to keep the ball-in-the-air. One challenge is the need to find ways to fund the chapter operation with grants and fundraising. Certainly there is a need to continue to grow the size of each ensemble. And finally, the unwritten magic is the volunteer leadership service members will need to contribute to the operation of a great barbershop chapter.

Before this week’s 50/50 drawing led by Alan Wile, Joe thanked Kathy Kauffmann for the mementos she created for each ensemble and presented to each member before taking the stage at the contest. 

Joe added to things in his part of the room, challenging YeEd to make a note of every detail for this report.  Samantha Tramack directed “Keep the Whole World Singing,” 

Before leaving the hall, members took advantage of the service from Tyler Carpenter to have their medal engraved or to have a replacement name tag created. A big crowd made it to the afterglow at the Harmo House for pizza and lots of story-telling from St. Louis. 

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 78^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

 

The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.