Looking Back on the March 5^th Retreat

Our Saturday retreat on March 5^th was fun and lots of hard work!  Coach Tony DeRosa made it fun even when he was telling you to do more, or to change things.  He had our director Joe Cerutti and all of us laughing as we worked.  The all-day work session yielded a ballad ready to work on for the months ahead.

There was coffee and donuts (thanks to Jack Pitzer and Terry Reynolds), along with plenty of bottled water for all.  Bob Rhome had arranged for us to all get into Durant early, so coffee was on and a crew had the risers and chairs set up along with the av equipment. Bob also did some repairs for our storage area under the stage.

Great to see some guys back to do contest with us such as Gene Swartz, Kris Zinkievich, Michael Fasano and Paul Grimes. All 105 singers were encouraged to get onto the risers in our traditional contest positions with the many new members finding a home for now.

Associate director Tony Colosimo did the warm ups for us while Joe was getting our coach from the airport.  We did some work on the uptune during that time, but we worked all day until 5 pm on the ballad.  Coach Tony met with the music team over lunch from 12:30 – 2 while the rest of the chorus found places in Old Town to get chow (the traditional St. Patrick’s Day Parade was happening in the center of the city too.)

Before the day ended, the chorus was also given time to make a self recording. Chuck McKeever produced a video of the final product and has already released it to members for review.

Another fun moment was when Joe played the Beatles’ song “Day in the Life” that is the verse of the ballad arranged by David Harrington. 

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 67^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd