Looking Back on the June 30th, 2020 Virtual Chapter
Meeting
Again the chapter has suspended in-person meetings
of the chorus, boards and committees until further notice as well as for any
small group, quartet, or ensemble gatherings. Chapter leaders are discussing
and considering how to move into the next phase of openings for groups –
especially singing groups. The operations team has also started to budget
planning for the next fiscal year trying to guess how it will unfold!
However, there was not a regular
in-person meeting of the Alexandria Harmonizers on June 30th 2020.
Director Joe
Cerutti hosted the gathering at 7 pm via Zoom video meeting this week to
continue learning more about our chapter and our fellow members, learning about
the barbershop hobby in general and meeting guests from around the Society.
Plus we continue to work on our music.
Joe
reported that the chapter leadership team had continued work on our chapter’s
diversity and inclusion statement that was discussed in last week’s meeting as
it relates to current events in our
Nation. Dave DesPortes was added to the working team. Joe expressed his appreciation to the many members who were willing
to offer their comments and insights. The statement was approved by both the
BHS Chapter board and the AH Inc. board.
Plus Joe
was eager to share the good news that the chapter is a finalist in two of the new
BHS Award Categories! We are a finalist in the “ensemble of the year” award
program, and a finalist in the “ambassador of the year” award program. Here are
links to the YouTube announcement of finalists.
In the Ambassador category, we are
nominated in combination with the Alexandria Singers for our New Zealand tribute
show. Our friend Dr. Joyce Garrett from Alfred Street Baptist was also named an
ambassador finalist for her leadership in getting more men to sing in our
community.
The chapter appreciates all those who
worked on submitting the nominations.
It was great to have
some Harmonizers with us this week we haven’t seen for a while including John Santora, Kevin Kaiser, Keith Jones, and John Rettenmayer. There were two other
guests on the call this week – Brian Richard from the Manassas Chapter, and
Yuhan Roh a barbershop singer who has moved to Alexandria recently.
Joe
reported news from the recent music committee meeting with plans for guest
presenters during the weeks ahead. Next week, July 7th, our guest
will be Tony DeRosa – a fun
Harmonizer coach and gold medal lead with MAIN STREET QUARTET in 2017.
Other future guests
will be VINTAGE MIX quartet from Wisconsin (quadruplets that sang on our
holiday show a few years ago); Clay Hine
(one of our arrangers and the baritone of the popular comedy quartet FRED); Chad Bennett (currently a staffer at
BHS and former performer with Disney Dapper Dans); Steve Tramack and his family (an arranger of many Harmonizer songs
singing with other members of his family); Cindy
Hansen (our successful performance coach during the last several years);
and Charlotte Murray (director of
Vocal DX chorus from New Zealand) .
Associate director Tony Colosimo was leader of our warm up time and took the men
through some physical exercises (including some dancing) and then concentrated
on vocal matters to warm up the voice for the nite.
Then all the singers at home in their own spaces worked
on sections of the uptune and ballad we are preparing for future contests. Tony sang and Joe coached him so the members could see what Joe wanted. At one point Joe
asked every singer to get out his cell phone and record himself and then hit
send to give it to the section leader.
Alan
Wile
conducted the fifth interview of chapter members who have submitted a Harmo
Heroes form for inclusion in the chapter info section of Groupanizer. This week’s interviewee was Reed Livergood. He grew up in the St.
Louis area and during grad school sang in a group directed by Jim Henry. He was not able to resist the pull to
eventually sing with the Ambassadors of Harmony.
Besides a youthful interest in sports with his
family, Reed majored in music and
eventually taught in Russia and Korea.
He came to the DC area for work. At that point Reed was eager to find another performance opportunity and came to
the Harmonizers. He has been both
baritone and lead section leader; director of our in-house a cappella group,
TBD; and has accepted a variety of leadership assignments in the chapter. No
wonder he does well on the front row – he studied tap and also has done a lot
of clogging. Another musical interest of
Reed’s is to be in cover bands.
There were 60 attendees
again this week. Terry Reynolds used
the Zoom system to randomly divide all attendees on the call into a small group
of five to share “what’s the most beautiful place you have seen on the planet?
And what’s on your bucket list to go see? ” Amazing that men in this chapter have
been all over the world. Not too many of
us who haven’t been to another country. Dean
Sherick rode his motorcycle to Alaska. Guys have been to Tibet, cities in
Viet Nam and China and New Zealand. Bruce Roehm hopes to take a safari some
day.
The chapter’s business meeting was brief with no major
announcements. Steve Murane reminded
men to take note of the recent email message about ordering new uniforms and accessories
and then respond to his wife Robyn,
the uniform chair.
President Stan Quick suggested members reach out
to Sandy and Mick Stamps during this difficult time for them. You can also
visit Sandy's CaringBridge site at:
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sandystamps
Stan
also thanked Dean Rust for his work
in submitting grant requests for the chapter.
We have received two more lately from the Virginia Commission for the
Arts. One is in recognition for our work on the tribute show for New Zealand
and one is for our on-going project with Alfred Street Baptist Men’s Choir. Thanks as always, Dean.
Rob
Barnovsky was on the call from his mother’s home in Ohio where
Rob is helping his family cope with
the situation while his 87-year-old
father is fighting Covid 19.
To wrap up the evening, we welcomed long time friend
of many of us and fellow Harmonizer, Darryl
Flinn from his home in Canton, OH. Great to see him and hear him share
stories about his work with us as a coach and mentor to sing better. He came to
us first as a judge at a contest and when he offered suggestions, the music
team asked him to come visit us. He
shared the fun story about working to build up the bass sound of the chorus to
include his admonition that “basses are animals” and are the foundation for the
great chorus sound.
He worked in the gold medal years with us. One of his fond memories was when our chapter
went to Canton to sing on their show.
At some point, Darryl
decided to expand his leadership in the Society to the administrative side
having been at the helm of the judging side of things for years. He became president of the Society. Then filled the Executive Director slot from
1996-2004 when the headquarters was still in Kenosha, WI. Later he was president of Harmony Foundation,
International.
He had a lot of fun as a quartet singer and competed
on the international stage. One of his quartets, CHORD DUSTERS, traveled with a USO show and Bob
Hope. Darryl is a 65-year member of
BHS having been encouraged by a high school music teacher to sing in their
school quartet.
We credit him for using the term “breathless
moments” which we adopted as the title of our chapter’s 50th
anniversary book. It was great to have
him with us again and enjoyed his ability to recall Harmonizer history and
names of many of the men.
Next
week’s meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm.
Watch for email details.
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
