Looking Back on the March 23rd 2021 Virtual Chapter Meeting
At 7 pm, artistic director Joe Cerutti started the Harmonizer meeting with hearty welcomes to guests and guys on the call we haven’t see in a while such as Greg Tepe from Amsterdam, Bob Thames from FL, Rick Taylor, Jon Frank,Bruce Sherk from Ottawa, Canada, and Julian Le Flore.
Later in the meeting Joe shared he had good news and bad news. The good news was that the music team has auditioned and welcomed two guests for membership – Josh Myers who is friends with Devin Gerzof and Duncan Peacock and sang with them in Georgetown Chimes; and Vinny Capaccio who is a friend of Scott Beach and sings in a. quartet with him.
The bad news was word that Jon Frank will be moving to Seattle for a work promotion and will leave already on March 27th. As is our tradition, we sang “There Will Always Be a Place on the Risers for You” and guys wished his best wishes via the chat feature of our Zoom meeting.
Other new info from Joe included an announcement about a Jamulus night on March 29th at 7:30 pm starting on Zoom. Then about 8 pm those on the call will move to Jamulus and do some tag singing. Joe shared that a lot of members have asked to be connected via Jamulus so the music team is organizing this for everyone.
Also Joe shared that he was happy that 29 men had submitted self-recordings of “Help from My Friends” as part of the new self-recording program being instituted in the chapter. Other singers are still welcome to submit for that song, and then everyone is welcome to start on recordings of “Chorus Line.” The music team again reminds members not to stress out on making their recordings – use the helps on Groupanizer.
Members can also find a new song for the chapter on our Groupanizer site – “Sing” from Sesame Street and The Carpenters. It was arranged by Steve Delehanty and the learning tracks created by Tony DeRosa.
Associate director Tony Colosimo did a brief warm up session this week to help singers get their voices ready to sing.
Joe worked with a quartet on Jamulus for “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.” This week’s quartet was Doug White, Tony, Jacob Broude, and Steve White, but all other members were encouraged to sing on Zoom. Joe coached the quartet with the understanding that chorus members would take note and apply his coaching to their work.
Next there was work with singers on special rhythm spots in “Something’s Coming” followed by work with Tony andJoe on “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Small groups were formed to work on “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.” Music team hosts for each of those groups called for volunteers to sing a part of the song and invited others in the group to offer positive comments on specific points like intonation, words, facials.
This week we had discussion groups based on length of chapter membership so they could offer ideas and suggestions and thoughts about celebrating the chapter’s 75th anniversary in 2023. It’s past time to get started on the planning, so chapter leaders used this session to gather member input. Each age group was asked to select someone to record ideas shared and then that person was to submit them to Joe and Terry Reynolds. After the session, each group shared one idea from their group – there were some terrific ideas for the planning team.
Communications chairman Matt Doniger conducted a brief business meeting for this week. Executive director Randall Eliason recognized Steve White for his terrific work on our chapter’s annual report. Stay tuned for release of the report for all.
Our elective tonight was presented by Joe and Tony – Chorus Directing 101. It was well received and a high percentage of men stayed on the call until the end. Joe showed in his home the number of bookshelves he has filled with text books, manuals and information about directing. They shared many details and concepts, techniques and aspects of a director’s job. For many of us it was an eye-opening session.
Our next Harmonizer Tuesday meeting will be via Zoom again at 7 pm on March 30th, 2021.
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 for the great things going on each week during the 72nd year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. - YeEd)
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