Looking Back on
the 2018 International Contest and Convention, Orlando
Amazing
numbers of current and former members of the Alexandria Chapter were at the 80th
annual BHS International Convention and Contest in Orlando, FL, July 1-8, 2018.
The Harmonizers competed again this year, and as usual the Alexandria crowd was
there to sing together, rehearse, compete, work and volunteer, attend meetings,
cheer for our friends from our M-AD, meet old friends and hang out with each
other.
The Harmo family began arriving on Sunday and Monday
since the first contest sessions were on Tuesday this year. Folks checked into the Hyatt Orlando and got
settled. Many took flights, but some
drove, took the train or auto-train. Dean
Sherick actually rode his motorcycle. Some guys combined the trip with
family vacations.
And
the always-competitive Harmonizer chorus returned to the International stage
with 84 singers with our director Joe
Cerutti. Our ballad was “We Kiss In A Shadow” arranged by David Wright, and our uptune was “Blow,
Gabriel, Blow” arranged by Rasmus
Krigstrom. We earned 2,728 points, 90.9% and an eighth place finish!
We have competed at 27 International chorus contests
since our first one in 1978 when we placed fourth.
The Harmonizer convention week and rehearsals was
simplified compared to past contests as we only met twice – 8 am on Wednesday
and Thursday mornings. On contest day,
Friday, we met at 8 am again for some preparation before taking the stage. All 84 singers were present for the first
time at the Thursday session.
As usual there were a number of crews at work such
as Mike Kelly and Dennis Ritchey who kept the sound equipment
running for all the rehearsals and performances. Chuck Powell and Chris
Leyen drove the Harmo truck to FL.
Riser crews were ready to set up and take down as needed.
Associate director Tony Colosimo conducted all warm-up sessions. Choreographer
Carlos Barillo, who created the plan for the uptune, helped fine tune
and helped add the extra performance by Cy Wood (as a sort of Gabriel
character) and Cecil Brown (as a sort of “confessing sinner”). Cy
was our coach at Harmony University and Cecil sings in UP ALL
NIGHT. Cindy Hansen helped at all
rehearsals. She was joined by coaches
from our pre-International retreat, Steve Scott and David McEachern.
There are many Harmonizer traditions during
International convention week. One
special one is the surprise of the director.
And this year was no exception.
On signal, the first time doing the uptune, the chorus jumped into
singing the first line of Toni Basil’s song “ Mickey” which got Joe (and
our Mickey) for sure. And our coaches had a good laugh too!
Last year’s champion chorus, Masters of Harmony from
CA, sent three guys to bring the traditional gift from the outgoing champ to
each guy on the stage for the chorus contest.
This year was coasters.
In the evenings during the week, many of us
adjourned to socialize with our friends in the Harmo HideAway. Good crowds made it there each nite to the
suite hosted by Chuck McKeever, with Craig Kujawa and Ken Rub
whose room we used. Thanks to those who
helped finance the suite or made contributions for goodies. Also thanks to the
Class of 2018 for helping with shopping, set up and clean up.
Another
important tradition for our chapter is the Togetherness meal, held this year on
Thursday. President Shawn Tallant was emcee for the 5 pm gathering at
LaFayette’s, a nearby restaurant. The
preset menu options made it go well.
Shawn recognized several folks including Craig Kujawa who was our convention
director and helped us all get there, get info we needed, organized all aspects
of the week and coordinated the many other Harmo volunteers who made things
happen. Kudos to Craig from all of us.
During the evening there was a bandana check for the
Class of 2018 (they have been wearing a wildly colorful blue/green scarf since
our retreat in May). Thirteen-year-old Mickey Robertson, their
president, gave a great talk based on a new guy’s perspective. This year’s
class of guys who have never sung on the International stage with us before
included Connor Goss, Jerry
Jayjohn, Mario Sengco, Mickey Robertson, Rob Barnovsky, Johan Westberg, Adam
Afifi, and Chris Leyen. Later
in the week, Cy Wood and Cecil Brown were presented bandanas
and welcomed to the Class of 2018.
Coach and friend of all the chorus members, Cindy
Hansen, recognized how the Harmonizers have changed her life just as an
example of how they change lives of others.
Current Mid Atlantic District president, our own Dennis
Ritchey, extended greetings from the district. Jack Pitzer shared
the Top Ten Moments of Harmo History from the many other International
convention appearances. Guest quartet, BLIND WIVES and current M-AD mixed
quartet champs, sang for us. The quartet
includes Tony and Elizabeth Colosimo and Andrew and
Heather Havens.
Director Joe spoke about the importance of
our singing and thanked the members and their families.
After Joe’s last pep talk in the Friday
contest day rehearsal session, the chorus adjourned to get into uniforms for
the contest package – black suits, shoes, and a new orange-ish tie and pocket
stuffer. There was extra help from Robyn Murane to fix, iron, and solve
uniform challenges. Last event was the annual building of the contest chorus by
class beginning with the 1978 contest singers concluding when the Class of 2018
took their spaces on the risers. As in
the past, the class tossed their bandanas to the floor!
Tribute goes also to this year’s front row with
Ken Rub, Carlos Barillo, Randall Eliason, Dennis Ritchey, Johan Westberg, Chuck
Hunter, Steve White, Reed Livergood, Bruce Roehm, and Craig Kujawa.
The chorus headed to the Orange County Convention
Center for the contest with former member Harold Nance as our guide. Chorus
manager Mark Klostermeyer helped get us lined up for the travel. Greg Tepe
came with us to work with the contest stage video crew to call the cues for our
performance. The chorus members got to hear nearly all of the
choruses since we sang early – in fifth time slot.
Finally we got the contest results and cheered and
applauded the other choruses for their successes. We had no time to waste and
returned to the Hyatt to hear from our director and musical leaders before
heading to the HideAway.
The chorus gold was won by the Dallas Vocal Majority
having scored 97.1% over the Westminster Chorus from CA who scored 95.7%. Our
friends from M-AD, Hershey Parkside Harmony, captured third place with a score
of 92.2%. Fourth place was won by Denver Sound of the Rockies. The fifth place
medal was earned by Nashville Music City Chorus. The other M-AD chorus, Brothers in Harmony
from NJ, placed 16th.
Interesting note on scores for the chorus contest –
the top nine choruses all scored over 90%!
The quartet gold was won by AFTER HOURS from
Bloomington, IL. SIGNATURE quartet from
FL, who has been here in Alexandria a couple times to help us promote singing
for youth, place second again this year. Third was THROWBACK from FL and PA
with former Harmonizer, Sean Devine, singing lead. Fourth was QUORUM and
fifth was STOCKHOLM SYNDROME with our uptune arranger, Rasmus Krigstrom, singing
tenor.
The contest venue was huge but once we all got used
to it, there was plenty of space with some food spots. One major venue change
this year was the use of a smaller theater within the Center for the quarter
finals rounds for the quartet contest.
The judging panel included our former director, Richard
Lewellen, and past president Gary Plaag. Richard’s wife, Christina,
was emcee for one of the quartet contest sessions.
Former members who sang in quartets, and not
mentioned above, include David Ellis in THE HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER 4 and Ed
Schubel in PRATT STREET POWER.
Several of our members taught a Harmony University class
during the week including John Santora, Joe Cerutti, Tony Colosimo, Bill
Colosimo, and Cy Wood.
Early in the week, Dick Powell from M-AD was elected
as Society president. John Santora attended board meetings as treasurer
of the board. Dennis Ritchey participated in district president meetings.
Chris Buechler attended contest and judging committee meetings and
worked with former Harmonizer, Dave Binetti, on the new scoring software
that produced the new, more detailed score sheets this year. Rick Taylor
is now on the staff of Harmony Foundation International (HFI) as is Sean
Devine. Joe Cerutti was busy
all week as a BHS staffer in charge of the Next Generation Varsity Quartet
Contest. Tony Colosimo judged the
singing category for that contest. Shawn
Tallant represented us at a chapter presidents’ reception hosted by BHS CEO Marty
Monson.
There were several former and current Harmonizers
who sang with other choruses in the contest: Jim Gammon in the mic
tester chorus, THX from FL; Bill Conway in Big Orange, FL Chorus; Mike
Louque in Fog City Singers from CA; John Adams in Carolina Vocal
Express; Kevin Kaiser and TJ Donahue in Denver Sound of the
Rockies; Johan Westberg in The Entertainmen; Lynn Hineman and Joe
Kane in Harolds of Harmony from FL; Jack Stevens in The Marcsmen
from TX; and Ed Schubel, Jay Butterfield, Sean Devine, Michael Vlcej, Fred
Womer in Hershey Parkside Harmony.
There were a lot of Harmonizers who were not in this
year’s competition chorus we saw during the week and not mentioned earlier in
this article (here’s hoping we got everyone’s name!). Many of them were frequent visitors at
rehearsals. The list includes Darryl
Flinn, Tom Gannon, Al Herman, Ross Johnson, Alan Lamson, Tom Griffith, Lew
Klinge, Jim McConnell, Alan Wile, Martin Banks, Dave Barton, Chuck Botts, Dan
Cook, Bruce Minnick, Bill Ward, TJ Jones, Ross Johnson, Geri and Royal Geis,
John Rettenmayer, Art Medici, Steve Tramack, Ryan Killeen, Glenn Williamson, and
Jorge Acevedo.
Thanks to Dixie Kennett, Keith Jones, Randall
Eliason, Steve Murane and Alan Wile
for contributing additional info for this report and for Dixie’s work on our Harmo convention handbook.
It is Great to Be a Harmonizer!
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 during the70th
year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)