Looking Back on the December 26^th and 27^th Events With Harmonizer Participation

Tuesday the 27^th was the 40^th annual Blast hosted by a MD chapter.  It was a long-time event hosted by Bowie, now managed by Dundalk guys.  They did a good job of promoting it and setting up the hall and managing a put-together-type quartet contest for the evening.

Since our chapter did not have a meeting that nite, there was a large crowd of our guys up in Glen Burnie – YeEd counted 27.  Three of our new guys were there and Kellen Hertz was there from college.

Many Harmonizers formed quartets and entered the contest – especially Phil Ashford, Sam McFarland, Tim Buell, Brad Jones.  Phil and Tim was in the first place quartet and Kellen, Sam, Brad and Phil were third place.  Way to go guys.

Several quartets sang made guest appearances during the evening, including LIMELIGHT that was third last fall at district; Steve White and the guys from MAD HATTERS who were first in the fall; and CAPRI who were judges for the contest.  Mary Ann Cleaveland’s quartet sang too.

A surprise guest quartet was a reunion appearance of ARCADE with Mike Kelly filling as their bass.  Rick Taylor was the ARCADE baritone.

Rick also was emcee for the contest.

Plenty of hotdogs and chips and cold drinks were available to all.

On December 26^th, the No Borders Youth Chorus sang at Carnegie Hall.  The 150+ young men’s chorus was organized by Joe Cerutti who was director, with major admin support from Scott Kahler as chorus manager. Several other folks from our chapter helped manage the event such as Greg Tepe as producer, Mike Kelly to do video, and Craig Kujawa, Ian Poulin, Mary Ann Cleaveland.

Singers from the chapter included Eric Wallen, Andrew Havens, Victor Hills, Ben Nelson, Kellen Hertz, Edris Qarghah, Patrick Kim and Kyle Blomgren.  Singers were provided learning materials in advance for five songs the chorus did.

Two guest quartets sang including GOOD TIMES and PRESTIGE, last year’s collegiate champs.

Alan Wile, proud grandparent of one of the chorus members, reports, “The youth chorus did a great job, complete with some remarkable solos and quartets ... and Cindy Hansen's "enhancements" in the form of gymnastic flips.

“The Japanese youth (high school) "orchestra" they appeared with was really a band ... a very large band. When you see 13 French horns, an English horn and an e-flat clarinet, 11-13 clarinets, trumpets, saxophones, four bass violins, a host of percussionists and four tubas ... you knew it was going to be something special ... and it was.

“Nice afterglow at McGee's Irish Pub with lots of old friends. Saw several from the Big Apple Chorus and other Harmonizer supporters like Chris Buechler and Dixie Kennett, Joe’s parents, and family members of our guys who were in the chorus.

“Sure glad we were there!!!

Director Joe tells YeEd the whole show in on YouTube.  So check it out.

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 at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —YeEd.)