Looking Back on the September 25^th Chapter Meeting 

This week’s meeting was another busy nite to work on our music for upcoming shows.

Associate director Tony Colosimo was maestro this week. He did vocal warm ups and then launched the work sessions on holiday songs.  Like last week, we had sectionals for 15 minutes on each song the first time we worked on it.  

We also worked on the song for the “Bark Ball” fund raising event on Oct. 20^th.  We are singing an original Steve Tramack arrangement of Shania Twain’s “From This Moment On” at the Washington Hilton.

Early in the evening, president Shawn Tallant welcomed Rick Taylor, a fellow Harmonizer, who was with us as a representative from Harmony Foundation International.  Rick thanked the chapter for its many efforts in leadership, inclusion, musical excellence and support of the Foundation.  (He also enthusiastically applauded our 70^th anniversary show!).  Rick offered to help any member sign up as a supporter of the Foundation.  He also invited current supporters to increase any support that can as there are more and more youth choruses that need support from the Foundation.  He also reminded us that donors to the Foundation can designate a percentage of their gift to come back to the Harmonizers.  (Alan Wile offers to help any members with their support to or membership in the Foundation.)  

Next quartet promotion chair Clavin Schnure welcomed SILVER ALERT quartet to sing for the chapter.  They are singing at the M-AD contest in Reading, PA, Oct. 5-6 as an entry in the senior’s contest. Calvin also presented them a  financial support gift of convention registrations.  Quartet includes Rick Savage, Mike Edison, Will Cox, and Steve Murane.

Steve Murane changed hats to his communications director position and conducted this week’s chapter meeting.

A quick reminder of the full schedule in Oct. for the chorus:
* sing at the wedding for Joia  Hertz, Kellen’s sister Sat. Sept. 29^th.
* fall M-AD contests in Reading PA Oct. 5-6 – chorus will not sing, but many members will be attending as administrators, fans of the quartet and ops team helpers.
* Arts on the Avenue – the chorus sings in Del Ray Sun Oct. 6^th from 1-1:45 pm.  Report time is noon.  Likely will wear black camp shirts and sing a long list of songs.
* Men’s Choral Fellowship event at Alfred Street Baptist Church, Oct. 17
* Bark Ball Oct. 2 in DC – uniform will be tails.
* Our holiday show at TC Williams Hi School, 7:30 pm Dec. 8^th.

President Shawn thanked Rick for his presentation. And Shawn told us that the chapter is involved with the Arts on the Avenue event to expand our community involvement.

Craig Kujawa made a terrific presentation explaining our chapter SCRIP program of fund raising.  He used our screen and his laptop to coach guys to use their cell phones to participate. Hopefully more guys will jump into this program and help the chapter increase our income from this source.

Secretary Chris Buechler reminded members again of the official chapter meeting and election on Tues., Oct. 2, at the usual 7 pm at Scottish Rite Temple.  Officially there can be no nominations from the floor at the election, but if anyone wishes to nominate himself or another member in opposition to the slate presented, they needed to alert Chris before the end of the meeting.

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.

Chris also presented membership renewals to Mike Kelly for 38 years, and Jack Cameron for 49 years.

Membership chair Calvin Schnure welcomed guest Dylan and Mike, and also introduced newest member Adam Shepherd.  Last week, Jim and Ruthanne Lucy were here from Colorado Springs to see everyone.

After a break, it was back to work on the holiday music.

A crew of guys went to Ramparts for an afterglow and they found a place there to do some tag singing!

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

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