Looking Back on the March 24th, 2020 Chapter News
The chapter suspension of in-person meetings of the
chorus, boards and committees continues until further notice as well as any
small group gatherings. This is in recognition of recent mandates by officials
and leaders of the BHS and in cooperation with local health authorities.
Thus there was not a meeting of the
Alexandria Harmonizers on March 24th 2020. Instead, director Joe Cerutti hosted a Harmonizer Chat at
7 pm via Facebook Live that was purposely morphed into a Zoom video meeting at 7:15 pm
There were about 45-50 participants in the event
which lasted until about 9 pm.
Joe
was eager to use this method to keep everyone informed, to help guys be in touch with each
other, to encourage and help singers continue their personal preparation on
music – and even choreography.
The music team is eager to receive feedback on the
videos created for the chorus and posted on Facebook Live.
Work is about to expand to include “Goodbye” from The Producers. Associate director Tony Colosimo will be getting out the annotated copy.
Joe
reports that choreo coach Cy Wood
has created a plan for “42nd Street” and there will be videos to
help members prepare themselves to perform it when the Harmonizers get to
reconvene as a chorus on risers. This
work will lead to a method of visual recordings of the singers’ performance.
Joe was also excited that David Wright has just sent the new contest ballad arrangement of
“Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma
to our music team. As soon as they
have reviewed it they will contract to have the learning tracks produced, and then post them on Groupanizer.
At this point in the evening, members asked
questions or entered in the discussion.
There were many points made about submitting
recordings to appointed listeners. A
detailed chart of those matters and other music releases was previously sent to
all members. It was reported that listeners have continued to refine their
procedures and schedules and services
.
There was a brief chapter meeting period. Executive
director Randall Eliason reminded
all that Spring2ACTion is coming up soon.
He wanted all members to have it on their calendar – even if we can’t
meet in person since that event is our chapter’s largest income producing event
of the year.
President Stan
Quick encouraged all members to submit their Census form they received
recently.
Then Joe
and the guys tried some singing – but it didn’t work too well. So there will be more experimentation before
next week’s gathering via Zoom at 7 pm.
Chapter
secretary Chris Buechler reported
the follow men had renewed their membership recently: Bob Bowman for 66 years, Terry
Jordan for 56 years, Chuck Hunter for
48 years, Tom Hansen for 44 years, Andy Smith for 44 years, Bede Bender for 44 years, Will Cox for 42 years, Dean Rust for 40 years, Rick Wagner for 39 years, Bill Sowers for 38 years, Al Hanenbaum for 34 years, Jim Lucey for 31 years, Chris Huber for 28 years, Brad Jones for 28 years, Peter Frank for 27 years, Tom Frederick for 27 years, Calvin Schnure for 25 years, Bob Rhome for 19 years, Joe Cerutti for 19 years, Dave Branstetter
for 15 years, Andrew Havens for 11
years, and Chris Odell for 11 years.
In
other news, the M-AD has decided to cancel Harmony College East this year. Everyone who has registered thus
far will be reimbursed in full. According to Glenn Phillips, the district
education leaders are planning a huge HCE comeback in 2021 where all members
can safely gather in fellowship and song. To that end, they intend to resurrect
the HCE Facebook page (which has been dormant for several years) in order to
provide members, on a regular basis, with educational snippets and
instructional segments to glimpse what we have planned for next year.
Harmonizers, let’s stay in touch with each other
during this period of no meeting or no singing together. Before the meeting was
closed, Steve White shared that from
his prospective as an employee at the National Institute of Health – “this
pandemic situation is gonna last a long while. Please be safe, sensible and in
touch.”
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 71st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd
