Looking Back on the September 18^th Chapter Meeting 

This was a most unique chapter meeting and rehearsal for the Harmonizers.

Carlos Correa joined us at the beginning of our rehearsal for a tribute for his husband Alan Kousen and our tenor friend. Alan died on Sept. 8^th in Massachusetts.  Carlos was joined by members of Alan’s family and his own family and several friends who have been to our shows and events in the past.  Carlos shared that Alan’s goal was to sing with the Harmonizers when he was 80 years old – but he only made it to 76.  Several members of the chapter spoke about singing with Alan and director Joe shared on our behalf how important his tenor voice and participation in quartets and sing outs was to us.  Alan was given credit for helping us find our new meeting place at Scottish Rite Temple.  There was a photo display, a Harmo bear and Alan’s ashes.  We sang our traditional “There Will Always Be a Place on the Risers for You.”  Alan earned his gold medal in 1998.

Also this week we launched our work on holiday show music with 15-minute sectional rehearsals on a song, then back on the risers to sing the song. 

The usual chapter meeting time was managed by communications director Steve Murane with a reminder of the busy calendar for Oct.! 

New on this list is the gathering with the men of Alfred Street Baptist Church and two other men’s choirs from the community. This event will be at their church on Wed. Oct. 17.  Clyde Crusenberry is coordinating this for us.

There will be an election for the 2019 Alexandria, VA BHS Chapter Board of Directors at the fall chapter business meeting, Tues. Oct. 2^nd.   The slate presented by the nominating committee is President – Shawn Tallant; Immediate Past President – Terry Reynolds (not subject to election); Secretary – Christopher Buechler; Treasurer – Alan Herman; Member at Large – David Branstetter; Member at Large – Clyde Crusenberry; and Member at Large – Matthew Doniger. Each of the above has been contacted and agreed to serve in the positions indicated. 

The nominating committee members are Alan Wile, chair; Clark Chesser; Kellen Hertz; Mark Klostermeyer; and Michael Schwartz.  There will also be a presentation of the chapter’s strategic plan.

Matt Doniger, one of the producers of the 70^th anniversary show, took a few moments to officially thank the Platinum Moments show team and presented them framed show flyers. The chorus gave the team a rousing round of applause.  The team listed in the printed show program included: artistic director, Joe Cerutti; director of shows, Joe Cerutti Sr.; chapter executive directors, Terry Reynolds and Randall Eliason; chapter president, Shawn Tallant; producers, Matt Doniger, Rebecca Conner, Krissi Folsom, Rob Langston; marketing, Jon Enten, Krissi Folsom, Steve Murane, Eileen Spinela; publicity, Walter Page; ticketing, Ian Poulin; printed program, Casey Belzer and Adam Afifi; script, Dave Branstetter and Steve White; stage manager, Robyn Murane; guest refreshments, Connor Goss and Terry Reynolds; front of house, Sandy Stamps; props, Janet Cerutti; costumes, Robyn Murane; history, Jack Pitzer and Martin Banks; videography, Mike Kelly; photography, Rob Langston; housing, Stan Quick; and Platinum Affair, Ken Rub.

Shows chairman Joe “Senior” pushed for guys to sign up for the Oct. “shows marathon” on Groupanizer.  He did alert us that holiday show tickets will go on sale shortly.  Jeff Burkey is show chairman. That show is Dec. 8^th at 7:30 pm in the 1056-seat auditorium at TC Williams High School.

President of the AH, Inc., Chapter, Liz Birnbaum, reported that we have raised nearly $55,000 toward our $70,000 goal for this anniversary year.  An important step toward helping us achieve that goal is the matching gift of $10,000 from Bill and Charlie Sowers.  All gifts received during this last few months of the year will be matched up to that amount.  Many thanks to these long-time chorus friends!  

Also Liz reports that we will be collecting significant gifts for the silent auction to be held at the holiday show – mostly gift cards, and high-value trips or vacations, and services are suggested. 

Then we were entertained by a mixed quartet from James Hubert Blake High School in Montgomery County, MD.  Their music educator is Sandra Zinkievich (wife of Harmonizer - Kris!) who is teaching the barbershop genre to her students this year.  A huge part of their plans is to travel to the Youth Chorus Festival at this year's BHS midwinter convention in Nashville.  The high school barbershoppers sang several songs for the chorus and then, at the encouragement of Joe, made a pitch for donations as they passed their hats.  

Membership chair Calvin Schnure introduced Adam Shepherd (who passed his audition this week), and singer guests Mike Weber, and Kevin Hacker.

Before we adjourned, we watched a video of Happy Birthday from our friends in Koln, Germany, who filmed a greeting for our 70^th.

Then we watched the recently released video of our contest performance in Orlando in July.
We wrapped up the nite with a song for our Arts on the Avenue show in the Del Ray community, Sat. Oct. 6^th.

Director Joe also paid tribute to and thanked the men who worked hard to do the terrific performance at Strathmore over the past weekend.

In other news, congrats to Alan Wile who earned three medals in the NoVA Seniors’ Olympics senior’s category last week!!

After the meeting, the men who will sing at the wedding for Joia  Hertz, Kellen’s sister, practiced their performance of “Ave Maria.”
 

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