Looking Back on the March 25^th Chapter Meeting

It was a busy nite for the Harmonizers as we roll forward from the A CA CHALLENGE to the next shows and concerts.  There were a lot of important announcements, especially regarding the trip to France.

Chuck McKeever conducted a visual review on the stage at 6. A big crew of guys got the room ready for singing, coffee break and seating for the guests.

When the gong sounded at 7, we heard music by the Bowling Green OH University chorus.  Assistant director Will Cox did the vocal warm ups.

When director Joe Cerutti took over, he started with thanks for the great CHALLENGE event and we all enjoyed hearing about the many standing ovations we earned. Many men on the risers shared fun stories from customers or family or from their own observations. 

Joe shared his excitement that David Wright is coming to coach us next Tuesday nite and particularly work with us on “Stars and Stripes” which is one of the songs we will sing with the Ambassadors on the June 21^st Crescendo Show.

Joe also announced that our friend and member Chuck Hunter, stationed in Turkey, has made plans to sing with us in France. In addition to Chuck, YeEd hears the following guys are planning to sing with us: Jay Butterfield, Bob Eckman, Jim Gammon, Don Johnson, Jim Kew, Alan Lamson, Jim Lucey, Jim McConnell, Dick Newton, Chuck Roots, John Santora, and Fr. Joe Witmer.

We worked hard on more songs for Normandy and we listened to a message from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower that he sent to all of his troops. This is part of the effort by chapter leaders to help us prepare mentally for our important mission in honor of WWII heroes.

Next, choreographer Carlos Barillo introduced his exciting visual plan for “Something About a Soldier” and the chorus grasped his plan and really was able to do it all from the start. 

Associate director Tony Colosimo conducted another important barbershop craft session for us.

Then operations vp Bob Blair began the chapter meeting for this week.  As promised, he presented the “Oops I Forgot My Nametag” large nametag to Rick Wagner.  Beware next week.

Creator of the A CA CHALENGE, Ken Rub, thanked all the many helpers personally (as reported in the previous Looking Back column).

Shows vp Nick Leiserson announced many details about shows coming up such as Crescendo,  June 21^st. He announced that Steve Murane is handling consignment ticket sales for that show.  Get Steve word how many tickets you want to get.  Reed Livergood is helping with the project of hosting the Ambassadors in our homes – we need many more families to offer to host. Shawn Tallant is coordinating the afterglow for that major show and is about to announce the location and details.

Ken Fess explained many details about the Normandy trip, and announced that Peter Hubbard is selling the shirts for those who want one for the trip and is helping with many other details. Ken is expecting immediate responses to emails in order to make the trip a success.

Brad Jones is coordinating the Youth Harmony Festival event on Saturday April 5^th for over 60 youth and several music teachers. We all need to help – especially to contribute cookies, snacks or goodies for the youth.  Bring these items on Tuesday April 1 or Friday nite April 4 when you come to help set up the tables and chairs and such for the event.  AND we sing on Saturday nite of the Festival.

Quartet promotion chairman Calvin Schnure encouraged quartet singers or prospective quartet singers to register for the Southern Division Contest in May in Roanoke. Calvin also offered to help guys find others to form a quartet.

Alan Wile spoke to the chorus about contributions to the Harmony Foundation, plus introduced a new Harmo item that is about to come on the market –  Harmo Logo cufflinks for $10.  The similar lapel pins are just $2.

Guys who need to update their mug shot photo on the board in the hall were asked to meet with Ike Evans at the break for a new shot.

President Terry Reynolds asked for good support for the Youth Festival, the May 17^th retreat in preparation for Normandy; and suggested that hard workers like Ken Rub are the reason why “It is Great to Be a Harmonizer!”

Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Bob Griesemer for 3 years; Joel Golden for 9 years; Harold Weinberger for 20 years; and Bruce Minnick for 37 years.

Membership vp Jeremy Richardson with help from Rich Hewitt welcomed and introduced the many guests present this week.

After coffee break, it was back to work on the risers including a successful first-time-through “Deep River” and work right up til closing time on other songs.  We did a performance of three songs that will be performed as a package.

YeEd forgot last time to report on the M-AD House of Delegates meeting held Sunday, March 16^th as part of the Prelims weekend.  Our chapter president Terry Reynolds attended as our voting delegate. Terry Jordan reports to YeEd that he and a long list of other Harmonizers were also present including Bill Colosimo, Keith Jones, Bob Eckman, Alan Wile, Mike Kelly, John Santora, Chris Buechler, Gary Plaag and Sean Devine.

In other news, former member Mark Rodda's quartet ZERO HOUR earned a slot in the BHS contest in Vegas this summer to represent the Carolinas District.  Mark’s dad, Brian, was a front row Harmonizer for years and sang with the NOVA CHORDS quartet from our chapter who qualified to sing at International from 1967-78. Brian died some years ago, but his wife Ceil is an avid barbershop fan and lives in SC these days.  She was the first president of the chapter’s auxiliary group in 1966.

At that same contest, current member John Adams was in the first place seniors quartet, THE HARDLY BOYS.  He is a past president of our chapter and retired to NC. He sang with the NOVA CHORDS too and was tenor in REMINISCE  with Scott Werner, Alan Durick and Dick Whitehouse when they won the BHS Seniors Quartet gold medal in 1995.

e

Did you see Dick Dangel and Drew Fuller on the evening news piece Monday nite about the District of Columbia annual celebration for Centenarians?  They were in a quartet POTOMAC RIVER RASCALS with Bob Scarlett and Wes Kriebel who are members of the Harmony Heritage Singers.  Dick has been doing this gig for several years with various pick-up quartets.  He reports that the quartet made a lot of folks happy strolling among the tables to serenade the honorees and did a couple songs from the stage.  Good job guys.

Many guys were wearing special t-shirts in support of our buddy Rick Wagner as he fights thru the radiation treatments.

Thanks to the guys who brought in goodies (such as boxes of Girl Scout cookies) for coffee break. Contributions are always welcome!

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

Looking Back on the April 1^st Chapter Meeting

It was a busy nite for the Harmonizers as we roll forward from the A CA CHALLENGE to the next shows and concerts.  There were a lot of important announcements, especially regarding the trip to France.

Chuck McKeever conducted a visual review on the stage at 6. A big crew of guys got the room ready for singing, coffee break and seating for the guests.

When the gong sounded at 7, we heard music by the Bowling Green OH University chorus.  Assistant director Will Cox did the vocal warm ups.

When director Joe Cerutti took over, he started with thanks for the great CHALLENGE event and we all enjoyed hearing about the many standing ovations we earned. Many men on the risers shared fun stories from customers or family or from their own observations. 

Joe shared his excitement that David Wright is coming to coach us next Tuesday nite and particularly work with us on “Stars and Stripes” which is one of the songs we will sing with the Ambassadors on the June 21^st Crescendo Show.

Joe also announced that our friend and member Chuck Hunter, stationed in Turkey, has made plans to sing with us in France. In addition to Chuck, YeEd hears the following guys are planning to sing with us: Jay Butterfield, Bob Eckman, Jim Gammon, Don Johnson, Jim Kew, Alan Lamson, Jim Lucey, Jim McConnell, Dick Newton, Chuck Roots, John Santora, and Fr. Joe Witmer.

We worked hard on more songs for Normandy and we listened to a message from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower that he sent to all of his troops. This is part of the effort by chapter leaders to help us prepare mentally for our important mission in honor of WWII heroes.

Next, choreographer Carlos Barillo introduced his exciting visual plan for “Something About a Soldier” and the chorus grasped his plan and really was able to do it all from the start. 

Associate director Tony Colosimo conducted another important barbershop craft session for us.

Then operations vp Bob Blair began the chapter meeting for this week.  As promised, he presented the “Oops I Forgot My Nametag” large nametag to Rick Wagner.  Beware next week.

Creator of the A CA CHALENGE, Ken Rub, thanked all the many helpers personally (as reported in the previous Looking Back column).

Shows vp Nick Leiserson announced many details about shows coming up such as Crescendo,  June 21^st. He announced that Steve Murane is handling consignment ticket sales for that show.  Get Steve word how many tickets you want to get.  Reed Livergood is helping with the project of hosting the Ambassadors in our homes – we need many more families to offer to host. Shawn Tallant is coordinating the afterglow for that major show and is about to announce the location and details.

Ken Fess explained many details about the Normandy trip, and announced that Peter Hubbard is selling the shirts for those who want one for the trip and is helping with many other details. Ken is expecting immediate responses to emails in order to make the trip a success.

Brad Jones is coordinating the Youth Harmony Festival event on Saturday April 5^th for over 60 youth and several music teachers. We all need to help – especially to contribute cookies, snacks or goodies for the youth.  Bring these items on Tuesday April 1 or Friday nite April 4 when you come to help set up the tables and chairs and such for the event.  AND we sing on Saturday nite of the Festival.

Quartet promotion chairman Calvin Schnure encouraged quartet singers or prospective quartet singers to register for the Southern Division Contest in May in Roanoke. Calvin also offered to help guys find others to form a quartet.

Alan Wile spoke to the chorus about contributions to the Harmony Foundation, plus introduced a new Harmo item that is about to come on the market –  Harmo Logo cufflinks for $10.  The similar lapel pins are just $2.

Guys who need to update their mug shot photo on the board in the hall were asked to meet with Ike Evans at the break for a new shot.

President Terry Reynolds asked for good support for the Youth Festival, the May 17^th retreat in preparation for Normandy; and suggested that hard workers like Ken Rub are the reason why “It is Great to Be a Harmonizer!”

Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Bob Griesemer for 3 years; Joel Golden for 9 years; Harold Weinberger for 20 years; and Bruce Minnick for 37 years.

Membership vp Jeremy Richardson with help from Rich Hewitt welcomed and introduced the many guests present this week.

After coffee break, it was back to work on the risers including a successful first-time-through “Deep River” and work right up til closing time on other songs.  We did a performance of three songs that will be performed as a package.

YeEd forgot last time to report on the M-AD House of Delegates meeting held Sunday, March 16^th as part of the Prelims weekend.  Our chapter president Terry Reynolds attended as our voting delegate. Terry Jordan reports to YeEd that he and a long list of other Harmonizers were also present including Bill Colosimo, Keith Jones, Bob Eckman, Alan Wile, Mike Kelly, John Santora, Chris Buechler, Gary Plaag and Sean Devine.

In other news, former member Mark Rodda's quartet ZERO HOUR earned a slot in the BHS contest in Vegas this summer to represent the Carolinas District.  Mark’s dad, Brian, was a front row Harmonizer for years and sang with the NOVA CHORDS quartet from our chapter who qualified to sing at International from 1967-78. Brian died some years ago, but his wife Ceil is an avid barbershop fan and lives in SC these days.  She was the first president of the chapter’s auxiliary group in 1966.

At that same contest, current member John Adams was in the first place seniors quartet, THE HARDLY BOYS.  He is a past president of our chapter and retired to NC. He sang with the NOVA CHORDS too and was tenor in REMINISCE  with Scott Werner, Alan Durick and Dick Whitehouse when they won the BHS Seniors Quartet gold medal in 1995.

e

Did you see Dick Dangel and Drew Fuller on the evening news piece Monday nite about the District of Columbia annual celebration for Centenarians?  They were in a quartet POTOMAC RIVER RASCALS with Bob Scarlett and Wes Kriebel who are members of the Harmony Heritage Singers.  Dick has been doing this gig for several years with various pick-up quartets.  He reports that the quartet made a lot of folks happy strolling among the tables to serenade the honorees and did a couple songs from the stage.  Good job guys.

Many guys were wearing special t-shirts in support of our buddy Rick Wagner as he fights thru the radiation treatments.

Thanks to the guys who brought in goodies (such as boxes of Girl Scout cookies) for coffee break. Contributions are always welcome!

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

Looking Back on the A CA CHALLENGE Event March 22^nd

The event was a huge success!!  A huge and wild audience cheering for the six A CA CHALLENGE contestants in the first such contest sponsored by the Harmonizers came to the famous Lincoln Theater on U Street in DC all in support of a cappella singing.

There were six groups competing for the $1000 first prize offered by the Alexandria Chapter:

UMW Symfonics

GW Vibes

Chromatics

Capital Blend

Word of Mouth

Noctonals

Each of the groups is from the DC Metro area and has grown out of singers wanting to do more singing in their work or college communities.

First place winner was Word of Mouth.  Second place was Chromatics and third place was GW Vibes

Judges were Amanda Cornaglia (managing partner at Clear Harmonies productions and The A Cappella School in Gaithersburg, MD), Danny Ozment (director of outreach with CASA); and Joe Sawyer (Harmonizer bari of DA CAPO).  Emcee for the event was Harmonizer Rick Taylor (also director of the Dundalk Chorus of the Chesapeake).

While judges scores were tallied and the audience votes collected (audience favorite votes were cast via texts to numbers assigned to each contestant), the Harmonizers performed for the enthusiastic audience.  The chapter’s own a cappella group,. TBD, sang a song as well (Kellen Hertz, Scipio Garling, Ben Roberts, Dave Hood, Terry Reynolds, Todd Ryktarsyk, Tom Kraus, Noah Van Gilder, Josh DesPortes, Josh Roots, Nick Leiserson, Troy Hillier, Jeremy Richardson)

Director Joe Cerutti and the chorus debuted two new songs for this show that will be used during the shows in Normandy France when the chorus sings there in June.  Choreographer Carlos Barillo had developed a revived “Glenn Miller Medley” for the chorus.  The strong arrangement by Jay Giallombardo of “Tribute to World Peace” was a resounding finale for the show.  The highly entertaining “Anything Goes” package from the Harmonizer’s third place medalist performance in Toronto for the BHS contest was also a hit with the audience of singers.

The show and contest pushed the old Lincoln Theater to the limits with so many performers on the stage during the nite.  So the chorus did warm up work in the lobby with assistant director Will Cox before the show, in a nearby bar that was not opening til late, and in the parking lot just before taking the stage.  The 85 chorus singers dressed where ever they could find a corner.  Terry Reynolds and Mark Klostermeyer kept the chorus informed and headed in the right directions throughout the rehearsals.  Don Dillingham, Mike Kelly and Chris Huber helped introduce songs during our part of the show.  This was the first Harmonizer show for Nathan Ritter and Tony LaRosa.

Ken Rub was over all producer for the event including getting the idea off the ground. Greg Tepe was event director and kept the stage operations rolling. Christina Ammerman was coordinator of the talent groups back stage along with Robyn McQueen.  Craig Kujawa was judge coordinator. Scipio Garling was talent scout. Noah Van Gilder was marketing head. Skip Coburn did the “showbill” advertising sales and production as well as helped with outside events such as the afterglow at Diego Lounge.  FRIENDS IN HARMONY volunteered and staffed information and will call tables in the lobby.

The hall was very full thanks to a big push of ticket sales via Groupon and the good response to ticket sales by the chapter members. 

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

Looking Back on the Show on Mar 15^th , Prelims Weekend and Mar 18^th Chapter Meeting

Producer Greg Tepe thanked the 45 singers who performed Sat. night Match 15^th at the ASPA dinner at the Mayflower Hotel. The organizers were pleased beyond their expectations.
Assistant director Terry Reynolds was show director and announced for us. Ten guys stayed until 9pm to sing “God Bless America.” For most of the performance we served as background music, but people were listening and enjoying the singing. And perhaps we'll get additional paid performances from this appearance.

Also during the weekend, nine quartets with Harmonizers singing in them were competing in the M-AD spring International prelims quartet contest at the Reston Hyatt to earn the right to sing in Vegas in July. 

 Four of them qualified to compete in July and ranked first, second, third and fourth!

 

DA CAPO with Ryan Griffith, Tony Colosimo, Joe Sawyer, Wayne Adams

BSQ - Rob Seay, Kevin King, Rick Taylor, Al Mazzoni

MAYHEM - Matt Fellows, Pookie Dingle, Mike Pinto, Ken White

LAST MEN STANDING - TJ Barranger, Drew Feyrer, Ed Bell II, Mike Kelly

 

Our other quartets were

ACME CHORD COMPANY - Dan O'Brien, Chris Susalka, Paul Grimes, Eric Wallen in fifth

FORECAST - Mike Fitch, Ian Galvin, Travis Murray, Dan Cook in sixth

THE MONORAIL FOUR - Kellen Hertz, Phil Ferguson, Bobby Seay VI, Andrew Havens in seventh

YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT - Mike Wallen, Roger Tarpey, Hardman Jones, Vic Owen, Jr. in eighth

OLD TOWN SOUND - Alan Kousen, Clyde Crusenberry, Bob Mattes, Dave Welter coming in as second place seniors quartet.

 

As usual there were lots of Harmonizers around for the contest weekend:  over 20 guys there to cheer on our quartets over the weekend; Sam McFarland and Harold Weinberger who are dual members with Fairfax helped host the weekend; Sean Devine was on hand to promote support of the Harmony Foundation; Chuck Harner and Alan Wile hosted a reception for Presidents’ Council members with help from several Harmonizers;  Bill Colosimo was emcee for the finals session as district president and Gary Plaag helped run the contest as district vp for contest and judging in addition to other M-AD leaders from our chapter Kauffmann, Ritchey, Kelly, Eckman, and Keith Jones. 

 

Next year’s prelims will be in Harrisburg, PA, March 13-15 and for the first time will include mixed harmony sessions for men and women to sing together.

The Tuesday nite meeting on Mar. 18^th was BUSY!  Lots of work in preparation for the A CA  CHALENGE on Sat. nite March 22^nd at Lincoln Theater on U Street NW.  Skip Coburn helped get the DC Mayor to issue a proclamation for the event! He also helped arrange for a social hour pre-show especially for family members who had to come early with their singers; and then too an afterglow to follow the show.

On Tuesday there was a lot of work in the hall at 6pm for stage presence drills.  Associate director Tony Colosimo did the warm ups when the chorus assembled on the risers at 7 to the music of Vocal Majority singing “Deep River.” Then director Joe Cerutti went right to work on the songs for the A CA CHALLENGE. 

The chapter meeting was conducted by operations vp Bob Blair.  He announced his intentions to start issuing the “Ooops I Forgot My Nametag” badge to be issued to guilty guys next week!  (It is huge and should motivate us to wear our regular tag.)

The FRIENDS IN HARMONY members were at work on checking and repairing scarves and front row vests as needed, including fitting some new front row guys with their uniform parts for the “Anything Goes” routine.

Bob Griesemer is coordinator for Harmo Truck drivers and invited any interested guys to see him as we need some new drivers this year.

Ken Rub thanked the chorus for selling more tickets for the Challenge show, but assured all that there will be tickets at the door. Marketing vp Noah Van Gilder asked for helpers to staff an information table at the show.

Shows vp Nick Leiserson thanked again those who did the show on Mar. 15^th including a shout out to Bruce Lauther for helping line up this paying gig.

 Terry Reynolds filled in for music and performance vp Steve White and reported that we will be adding “Music of the Night” for the June 21^st show and will sing it with the Ambassadors of Harmony.

In his role as president, Terry thanked again all those working on the shows on our schedule and paid tribute to the quartets mentioned above.  He was proud to suggest that having some many of our members going to the International quartet contest proves we keep the “Q” in SPEBSQSA – another reason why It is Great to Be a Harmonizer!

Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Sam McFarland for 27 years and to Alan Lamson for 34 years.

Membership vp Jeremy Richardson and Rich Hewitt welcomed Michael Bobrowski who was a first-time guest this week. Jeremy also reminded all about the Open Auditions event on April 9^th  at Durant.

After coffee break, it was back to work on new music for shows this year and for our shows in France in June.  Our a cappella group, TBD, sang for us. (There are some new guys in the group but YeEd failed to write down the names.  So stay tuned.)

Most of the rest of the evening was spent on “World Peace” with soloists, quartets and chorus. We will sing it and “Glen Miller” for the first time at the A CA CHALLENGE.

Peter Hubbard filled in for Ken Fess and Mick Stamps regarding payments for the Normandy trip. He was busy since many of us had a payment to make.

The meeting closed with the reminder that David Wright will be at the April 1^st chapter meeting to work with the chorus.  David is associate director for the Ambassadors, a prolific arranger for the BHS (we sing several of his pieces like “Stars and Stripes,” and is a frequent coach for our chorus.  Welcome back David!

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