Looking Back on the May 21st
Armed Forces Show and May 24th Chapter Meeting
Our third Armed Forces show was held Saturday afternoon at 2 pm at
Fort Meyer Memorial Chapel. This event
is held for and in honor of local service members, veterans and their families.
Associate director Tony Colosimo was
director and assistant director Terry
Reynolds did the warm ups and helped with the concert.
There were 55 singers there for the show for a good crowd of
veterans, military folks and chorus family and friends. We sang our standard
patriotic package.
Greg Tepe was package show producer (and this was his
last time to perform that duty. He has
served in this capacity for ten years. Many thanks – Greg.) He recognized Todd Ryktarsyk, Shawn Tallant, Ike Evans,
Randall Eliason and Bruce Lauther
for lots of behind-the-scenes preparation work.
Bill Colosimo was emcee. President Eliason welcome the guests. Mark
Klostermeyer helped us line up and as chorus manager. A crew of men moved risers, Doug White drove the truck and got the
sound system working, Rich Hewitt
produced the slide show slides during
the finale of our concert.
We had assistance from the Sea Cadets who served as ushers, color
guard and hosts for those veterans who needed assistance. There was a WWII re-enactor
just outside the chapel for guests to see.
Bruce Lauther, our chapter bookings man, worked hard to get
guests to the concert and had invited folks from the Armed Forces Retirement
Center in DC, The Fairfax at Belvoir Woods near Ft. Belvoir, Vincent Hall in
McLean, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. Many
thanks Bruce.
It was good to see Bob
Wachter, Martin Banks and Don
Johnson in the house.
On Tuesday nite the 24th, we found out director Joe Cerutti was home sick. But we had a great workout and made lots of
progress on the contest music.
Associate director Tony
Colosimo was at the helm for warm ups and directing. He worked a large part of the nite with
choreographer Carlos Barillo on
refining the presentation plan for the uptune.
It was great to have enough time to work on the whole song.
Great to see Frank Fedarko and Mike Kelly back with us.
Before the meeting started, the usual set up crews worked hard to
get ready. Chuck McKeever led a stage presence review at 6 pm and the front
row used the space in front of the risers for their drill for the uptune with Carlos.
Chapter executive director Terry
Reynolds conducted the chapter meeting.
He reminded guys about the vocal studios in the evenings this week (and
pointed to the list of assignments posted on the wall). He acknowledged Bruce Minnick was accepting payment for
the retreat in Westminster MD.
Terry announced that former director Scott Werner would be with us on June 7th.
Chapter secretary Chris
Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Craig Kujawa for 13 years; Ian
Poulin for 16 years; Michael Gilmore
for 24 years; Bob Wells for 25
years; Ike Evans for 29 years; and Al Herman for 33 years. Bob
also received a 25-year lapel pin.
Membership director Rich
Hewitt welcomed a large group of guests including a French horn player from
the Strathmore show orchestra. Rich also introduced the Class of 2016
and their president Casey Belzer.
The class includes tenors: Jay Sorenson and Masahasa Takahashi; leads: Casey Belzer. Jason Lee and Art Medici; baris: Jeff Burkey, Jim Kirkland and
Antony Takahashi; basses: Tim Cash,
Matt Doniger, Tom Jackson and Steve
Spar. The class was presented the
traditional neck scarf to be worn and visible at every official chapter
function until they are told to discard them during International week.
Earlier in the evening the
class met to get some briefing about what international week would be like –
Harmo schedule, what to expect for the contest and convention schedule, uniform matters.
President Randall Eliason
presented monetary support to two quartets that have Harmonizer signers and
will compete this weekend at the Southern Division contest in Reston: MISFIRE and HANDSOME REWARD. MISFIRE sang for the chapter earlier in the
evening. Good luck to all.
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 67th year of the
Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd
