Looking Back on the 2014 Fall District Contest in Wildwood NJ Oct 24-25

This year’s fall contest weekend was much later than usual, so many shops and business firms were closed for the season in Wildwood, NJ by Oct. 24th and 25th. But the Harmonizers were there for business and won their 25th M-AD chorus championship with a great 90.9 score.

We had 106 men on the risers and we sang “Someone Like You” arranged by Steve Tramack and “Anything Goes” arranged by Kevin Keller. The music team had prepared us well and we had all worked hard to achieve these high marks – Joe Cerutti, director; Tony Colosimo, associate director; Carlos Barillo, choreographer; and Steve White, music and performance vp. Plus there are the assistant directors, visual team members, and section leaders.

The chapter is also proud to have another Harmonizer quartet take the district championship – LAST MEN STANDING with TJ Barranger, Drew Feyrer, Edward  Bell II, Mike Kelly.  There have been 18 before. 

We also had FORECAST with Mike Fitch, Ian Galvin, Travis Murray, Dan Cook who took fifth place; and THE MONORAIL FOUR with Kellen Hertz, Phil Ferguson, Bobby Seay VI, Andrew Havens who took sixth.  MAYHEM with Matt Fellows, Pookie Dingle, Mike Pinto, Ken White sang their swan-song as last year’s champs.

The chorus championship entitles us to go to the International contest in Pittsburgh in the June/July 2015. Currently we are ranked third based on all the other district chorus contest scores behind Westminster and Ambassadors.  Our friends and fellow district competitors Hamilton Square rank seventh and Hell’s Kitchen rank eighth.

As president Terry Reynolds wrote, “We received rave reviews from other barbershoppers and some excellent comments from the judges. It’s hard to even imagine the potential of our ballad after another eight months and a ton of coaching. It certainly feels like we’ve demonstrated we are on track to continue raising our level.”

As usual the chapter was well organized for the weekend.  Most men and any families and friends drove up on Friday.  We had our first gathering on Saturday morning at a high school we have used in other years when in Wildwood.  Our great front row met early there to button down their routines.  The chorus arrived at 9. We actually warmed up outdoors for a few while the riser crew worked.  Then Tony, Carlos and Joe worked hard to get us in the groove.

The chorus contest actually started at 9 but our FRIENDS IN HARMONY came to the school to cheer for us and presented each man on the risers with a memento. (This was Sandy Stamps last time to make the presentation as retiring FRIENDS president.)  Robyn Murane also was on hand with her trusty needle and thread to fix or adjust as needed (including getting a roll of black tape from the electricians to tape one guy’s shoe together when the sole came loose).

As is our tradition, Joe asked to see the hands of the guys who are singing with us for their first district contest – there were 16!!

Shawn Tallant gets a large thank you from the chapter members for finding us a hotel that would open up on this weekend.  It worked great and the hotel also allowed us space for a great afterglow in their lobby. YeEd knows there were many helpers including Randall Eliason.  The Harmo truck drivers got everything to Wildwood including the boxes/steps we used as part of the finale for the uptune.

Actually there were 128 current members in Wildwood – several sang with other choruses on Saturday or directed other choruses. As usual we had many guys in leadership and operations positions to run the district and the convention.

The Harmonizers appeared on the Saturday nite Jamboree and presented songs and some stories about our meaningful trip to Normandy in June as our part of the program.  They were wildly accepted by the Saturday nite audience.

Also there were a lot of Harmonizers on the stage for the presenting of the trophies to the quartet winners when all past district quartet champ members form a chorus and honor the new champs.

 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 66th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)