Looking Back on the July 1 Hospital Sing and the July 8th Chapter Meeting

First off, there was not a regular chapter meeting on July 1^st as a large number of the Harmonizer family was in Vegas for the International convention.  Stay tuned for a complete Looking Back report from that event.

 

Treasurer Howard Nestlerode took some notes at the July 1^st Alexandria Inova Hospital event: 

The sing out was a  typical event with no  major events or surprises except that when we stated warming up with 15 guys and Will Cox directing, we only had one tenor - Alvin Figer. And Alvin just joined and only knew his audition song, “Anything Goes.”  He had come to "observe" his first sing out. Fortunately, of the next six guys who showed up, four were tenors. We finally had 23 singers and a good balance. We sang a total of 13 songs at four stations and were asked to return - every week. “I'm the Music Man,”  “Something About a Soldier,” and Glenn Miller: got the best response. Fun was had by all. – Howard

 

Tuesday July 8^th was our first time for the 6:30 pm start time at Durant (due to budget cuts for the city of Alexandria).  This will be our starting time for the near future.

 

Director Joe Cerutti did the warm up session and then went right to work on shows for the outdoor concert at John Carlyle Park on Thursday, July 17^th.  Chorus call is 6:30 and show starts at 7:30pm.  Bring friends and family and have them bring chairs to sit on. This Park is in walking distance of the King St. Metro.  See Greg Tepe’s  memo regarding casual uniform, song list and such.

 

Joe did take some time to chat about the Vegas convention.  He offered our congratulations to the guys who got fourth place chorus medals as part of the Denver package – TJ Donahue as a singer (and the guy who made all the set and props for the pirate scene and Terry Reynolds and Ken White who did walk on spots posing as Justin Miller and Aaron Dale for the Denver joke about those choruses.  Carlos Barillo was chorographer for the package. 

 

We also congratulated Mike Kelly for his quartet LAST MEN STANDING; as well as the MAYHEM guys, Ken White, Mike Pinto and Pookie Dingle, for their appearances on the contest stage.   More Vegas news in another report – just the news than can be shared, of course, based on the axiom, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!!”

 

As soon as we did the show material, we started on the new contest ballad.  There were lots of men on the risers who are clearly on board to launch another run for the gold in Pittsburgh.  Back to International reflections, Joe shared an email post that compared the pre-Vegas ranking of the choruses and the contest results – only a couple of them were different!  It is a good note for everyone to realize the importance of a good hit in Wildwood NJ this fall at the district qualifying contest.

 

Operations vp Bob Blair conducted the chapter meeting. Alan Wile presented a 50-year membership pin to Dick Hall.  He was honored in Vegas and Alan accepted the pin for Dick and brought it to chapter for the presentation.  The chorus congratulated Dick with a standing O!

 

Shows vp Nick Leiserson announced next week’s show, mentioned above. And he promised that the holiday dinner theater tickets will be on sale very soon – as soon as computer matters are cleared up.  He also promises we will get advance notice, but start talking to customer so you can order fast.

 

Nick also did a wrap up and thank you for the Crescendo show with the Ambassadors of Harmony.  We sold 1,180 tickets – over 500 of them in June! The details of the thank you list were in a precious report including a thank you to our FRIENDS IN HARMONY for the support and work at the show.  He also thanked four guys from the Ambassadors who made things work: Dave Schuler, Matt Hamilton, Bill McLaurine and Todd Johnson.

 

President Terry Reynolds announced news that Roger Day is in the ICU at Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge.  His family found him in serious condition in his home over the weekend.  He is serious but in stable condition according to reports we have received. We will keep the chapter posted.

 

Rich Hewitt filled in for membership vp Jeremy Richardson. Rich had his hands full as we had many guests and even some former members who are coming back to rejoin the performing chorus.  Great news.  Rich made the introductions and we welcomed them with enthusiasm. We need a new director or the “Harmonizer Welcome Song” now that Will Cox has moved and won’t be with us regularly.

 

Then it was break, and after break we worked more on the songs for the show.

 

We adjourned at the new end time of 9:30.  Hopefully we can be fast to take down and put away so we can sing a little longer.

 

There was a lot of singing at the afterglow this week, AND a good number of those guys planning ahead and choosing guys to sing with for the chapter’s Put Together Quartet contest, scheduled for July 29^th.  We won’t have a regular rehearsal that nite but will do some other fun singing and then the quartet contest. About the only serious rule is that guys in registered quartets gotta sing different parts and can’t all sing together. Guests and non members can sing.  And there is no time limit.  Comedy is appreciated by the rest of us!!  An expert panel of judges has been hired by quartet promotion chairman Calvin Schure.  If you have questions, contact him – especially if you need help forming a quartet. 

 

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.)