Looking Back on the June
30th International Send Off for 2016
The venue at Providence Presbyterian Church was packed with a huge
crowd of fans which included many non-competing members, former members and
family friends and our guests from Barbershop in Germany (BING). There was
excitement in the air!
The 103-chorus singers arrived in their contest outfits and were
on the risers at 7 pm for a good warm up session with associate director Tony Colosimo. Great to have the Class
of 2016 on the risers - tenors: Jay Sorenson,
Masahasa Takahashi; leads: Casey
Belzer, Jason Lee, Art Medici; baris:
Jeff Burkey, Jim Kirkland, Antony Takahashi; basses: Tim Cash, Matt Doniger, Tom Jackson, Steve Spar.
The singers from BING mostly all had just arrived at Dulles and
came to the venue with their Harmo hosts. They warmed up in a separate
room. The chorus is called Heavy Medal
and are all medalist quartet singers in their organization. Their chorus will rehearse in Alexandria on Friday
in preparation to sing on shows in Nashville.
Director Joe Cerutti
took over the Harmonizers in prep for tonite’s demo of the contest
package. He first welcomed everyone,
thanked our friends from Germany for coming, and set the stage for how the nite
would unfold. He particularly thanked the chorus men and their families for the
dedication to the package in the last couple months. After he finished his warm
up time, the chorus took a break to regroup uniforms and all. AND since the crowd for the send off had
grown so large, more chairs were brought in after the warm up.
Soon executive director Terry
Reynolds announced the start of the contest send off demo. He encouraged cheering and welcoming the
chorus to the risers. The Harmonizers
performed their set – “Yesterday” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
both arranged by David Harrington.
After the first run-thru, Joe
invited Heavy Medal to sing for us. Their
singing stimulated a couple standing ovations!
President Randall Eliason
thanked all those who came to support us, thanked the riser and set up crews
and thanked Robyn Murane and her
uniform crew. He also explained that the Harmonizers will honor director
emeritus Scott Werner as part of
their contest package where he will appear as part of the Sgt. Pepper number
and even direct a part of the song. Scott is an icon in the BHS world
having directed the Alexandria Chapter to earn its four gold medals.
Soon it was time to cheer again and the chorus performed the
contest set again.
To wrap up the nite, the two choruses combined and sang “Tribute
to World Peace” as a fitting conclusion to the great nite of barbershop
harmony.
Two Harmonizers have had to cancel their participation in
Nashville – Jack Pitzer is
recovering from gall bladder surgery and Phil
Ashford is recovering from a serious car accident. Both made it out to cheer on their chorus
pals.
Other reporters (Dixie
Kennett and Keith Jones) kept
track of the many other non-competing Harmonizers in the hall for the send off
(of course they have their fingers crossed that no one was missed!). That list includes Martin Banks, Geoff Berman, Chris Buechler, Larry Dennis, Len
Dornberger, Mike Everard, Paul Greiner, Dick Hall, Al Hanenbaum, Don
Harrington, Al Herman, Troy Hillier, Ross Johnson, Terry Jordan, Matt Kahn,
Dave Kohls, Lew Klinge, Walt Page, Rich Payton, Ron Precup, Dave Reyno, Ben
Roberts, John Smith, Bob Sutton, Greg Tepe, Bob Wachter and Joe Wagovich. Some former member
spotted in the hall included Chuck
Botts, Sean Devine, Dave Ermick, Bob Hoffman and Dean Schienbein. Mark
Medrik, one of the “milkmen” was also with us. Great to have their support
on this important nite.
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 68th year of the
Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd
