Looking Back on the March 25-26th 2022 Southern Division and Spring Prelims
What a great weekend for barbershopping in M-AD. And terrific to see so many Harmonizers in quartets in the competitions that were held in Wilmington, DE, over the March 25-26th weekend.
This event was a combined Southern Division/Central Division and International Quartet Prelims contest.
When we arrived on Friday afternoon, there were a lot of our fellow chapter members at work setting up the stage and registration area and posting signs to mark warm up rooms. They are all part of the district Events Team or were there to help – Dennis Ritchey, Sam Whiteoak, Mike Fasano, Carl Kauffmann (who by the way had a bad fall during the set up time and did some damage to his right shoulder – he will get a Dr. visit back at his home this week), and David Welter. Our chapter rented our risers to the district for the weekend. Chapter friends Rob Langston, Krissi Folson and Rebecca Connor helped all weekend too. Mike Kelly was on hand to provide technical support of lights and photos and sound for the contest weekend.
There were over a dozen other Harmonizers who came to support our buddies in quartets, see old friends and do some tag singing. Past district presidents from our chapter including Bill Colosimo, Alan Wile, Bob Eckman and Dennis Ritchey were there. Several new guys from our chapter were there too including David Breen and Jake Fry. Recent guests at our chapter who were at the contest included Julian LaFlore, and Harry Bickford who sang in a quartet in the contest. As usual, a good number of family friends were there to support their singers.
The weekend was fun and a great reunion. The Doubletree in downtown Wilmington had lots of lobby spaces for tag singers and groups of friends to gather and celebrate til dawn on Sunday. The two-hour drive up and back was easy enough, and some guys, Ken Rub for one, took the train from DC directly to within a couple blocks of the venue.
Chris Buechler was on the contest panel for the weekend and Erin Odell Cook served on the practice panel (she had the honor of directing “Keep the Whole World Singing” to wrap up the weekend on Saturday night). The singing on stage began with a wonderful performance as mic testers by BETTER TOGETHER – Anthony and Elizabeth Colosimo with Andrew and Heather Havens.
At the end of the two-round quartet contest, there were three quartets with Harmonizers that qualified to go to the International quartet contest this summer in Charlotte. They are B&B with John Sifuentes, Francesco Logozzo, Lance Fisher, Al Mazzoni; SECRET BEST FRIENDS – although technically not currently a Harmonizer – the bass for this quartet sang with us at two Internationals and we were all surprised to see him after a bunch of years – Will Daniel Simmons; and FIRST TAKE with Alex Corson, Anthony Colosimo, Drew Wheaton, Andrew Havens. They will be joined by RULE # 1 and GQ to represent M-AD in Charlotte plus any other quartets that score at the required level during the second M-AD prelims contest on April 8-9.
Results of the Southern Division contest had four Harmo quartets in the top four slots: FIRST TAKE, FANTASTIC 4 with Susan Shields, Chris Susalka, Heidi Brown, Dale Bird; BREAKTHROUGH with Mike Fasano, Jordan Zimmerman, Jason Lee, Ken White; and BREAKFAST BLEND with Mike Geipel, Scott Beach, Jerry Candrilli, Vinny Capaccio. Mike Wallen sang in THE ELDERLY BROTHERS quartet also in the Southern Division contest and Lance Fisher sang in JEFFERSON PLAID TIE quartet who competed for evaluation/score only – they were recently named to the list of quartets to sing in the Varsity Next Gen contest in Charlotte.
Results of the Central Division contest had two Harmo quartets in the top five: B&B, and TAYLOR MADE with Rick Taylor, Tom Halley, Douglas Beach, Steve Kirsch.
There was a chorus contest on Saturday morning and there were some current Harmonizers on stage for that event singing with other chapters from Southern Division. Co-director for the Patapsco Valley, MD, chorus was John Santora with Tim Buell in the chorus. The Virginians from Richmond, directed by Erin Cook, with Harmonizers Mike Wallen, Mike Geipel, Scott Beach, Jim McConnell and Vinny Capaccio on the risers won the Southern Division Chorus contest.
Mike Fasano sang with the Queen Anne Co., MD, chorus in the Central Division contest. The relatively new PARKSIDE MELODY treble chorus was the top scoring chorus for Central division and reportedly will go to Charlotte this summer based on their qualifying score.
These first M-AD contests since COVID were a great success – good sized crowd, good contestants, venue was easy for attendees, Harmonizers were very much involved all weekend, and it was so fun to see fellow barbershoppers from other chapters.
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 that Harmonizers do as leaders and singers. - YeEd)
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