Looking Back on the Feb. 27^th 2018 Chapter Meeting 

This week we were back at Convergence Church.  The front row met early in the front of the sanctuary while the members gathered.

Director Joe Cerutti did the warm ups using “A Place on the Risers for You” which we sang at Dick Hall’s funeral on Wed. Feb. 28^th at the Oxon Hill, MD, Methodist Church. We also sang “I’ll Be Seeing You.”  A very large group of Harmonizers came to honor Dick (and Carolyn) including several guys who don’t sing with us regularly including Larry Silva, Bob Wilson, Paul Greiner, Jerry TePaske, Joe Wagovich, Al Herman, Geoff Berman, Bob Eckman, Lew Klinge, Mike Everard, Ken Fess, Don Johnson, and Bob Hoffman. Some of us went to the burial at the Maryland Veteran’s Cemetery in Cheltenham and then back to a reception. Dick’s brother Bob, who sings with the Ambassadors of Harmony, visited with us while we did our warm ups at the church.

As a reminder, a Keep America Ringing Memorial for Richard Dick Hall has been established with the Harmony Foundation.  Donations can be sent to Harmony Foundation International, Memorial for Richard T. Hall, to 110 7ths Ave. N, Ste. 200, Nashville, TN 37203 or online at harmonyfoundation.org at memorial giving.

Then we launched a performance driven rehearsal of the songs we will sing Thurs. March 1^st at the Intercollegiate Men’s Chorus (IMC) Seminar, at National City Christian Church.  (Call time for our chorus will be 5:45 pm; uniform will be black suit, thin tie and shiny black shoes. It is important to plan ahead to travel during in rush hour, and find parking and get to the room to assemble.  We can change there.)

Terry Reynolds, executive director, coordinated the chapter meeting period.  Associate director Tony Colosimo reported some preliminary details about our Youth Harmony Festival that will be an all –day event on Fri. April 13^th.  A number of members will be needed to assist with hosting the students and their teachers. Guest quartets who will be teachers are THE LADIES and GIMME FOUR. 

Then Saturday April 14th is our next ACA Challenge. Marketing flyers for this event will be distributed to local college campuses by volunteers from the chorus.

Next week’s meeting is back at Durant with the arranger of our uptune, Rasmus Krigstrom, as coach.  The rehearsal on Mar. 13^th will be for Iron and Coal music.  

Terry reminded Harmonizers to form their small learning groups. He announced that there was printed scores for “Iron and Coal” if anyone still needed one. 

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewals to Mario Sengco for 8 years, Clyde Crusenberry for 8 years, and Chuck Powell for 24 years.

Ben Watsky welcomed guests for the nite – Carter, Ryler, Mike, and John.

Before we left for the nite, everyone had a chance to make a recording of the contest uptune for self review and to send to their section leader.

New appointee as manager of the Music Admin Team, Steve White has added a whole new dimension to helping the singers with behind the scenes work on their music and access to materials.   His team is working to update all charts and learning tracks for the entire repertoire as discrepancies and changes are identified.  They have uploaded to our Groupanizer website "live" rehearsal tracks from last Tuesday (2/20) for "Bring Him Home" and "Deep River".  

Dave Welter reports from the Harmony Sweepstakes that was Sat. nite Feb. 24^th at the Birchmere: My group, TOP OF THE SEVENTH finished third with a very solid hit. Second place went to POLARITY, a high school group from Ohio. First place, and going to the national event, was UP ALL NIGHT, a Sweet Adelines quartet from the Vienna-Falls chapter. The ‘audience favorite’ was THE DISTRICT, an all-female group of 12 from DC. Several members of the Harmonizer family were in the audience. It was a lot of fun, - Dave

 

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