Looking Back on the July 19th 2022 Virtual Harmonizer Chapter Meeting
As previously announced, the chapter did not meet on the Tuesday after the International convention on July 12th; and then because of the COVID outbreak among the members, this week’s meeting was held via Zoom.
Over 70 members attended this virtual meeting to celebrate in the joy of a successful contest performance and to launch the next push for success at shows this summer and fall. There is no waiting for things to pop up on the Harmonizer calendar.
Artistic director Joe Cerutti welcomed the whole Harmo family onto the call this week. Lots of smiles!! And an eagerness to share stories. But first there were some announcements.
There were details and a song list presented for the important summer show, Wed. Aug. 10th, at Lee District Park on Telegraph Rd. (just north of Hayfield High School where we have done shows). It is an open-air stage with plenty of bench seating, lots of convenient parking, and even picnic tables for those who might want to come early with family and friends. This concert is part of the Fairfax County summer series – each of the county supervisors hosts a concert series in their District.
The important fall show song list has also been announced – although Joe hints that we might add “42nd Street” to that show and have reached out to the guys from 17th Street Dance to join us.
Wed Aug 10 Show - Lee District Park Performance 7:30pm
- 6601 Telegraph Road, Franconia, VA
- Tentative Chorus Call 6:15pm
- Planned Song List:
- Beautiful Morning
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
- Chorus Line Medley
- Circle of Life
- Forty- Second Street
- God Bless America
- Help From My Friends
- I’ll Be Seeing You
- Impossible Dream (Tag)
- Never Fully Dressed
- Sing (Carpenters)
- Something’s Coming
- There Must Be a City
Sat Sept 10, Fall Show - “A Beautiful Morning”
Planned Song List:
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
- Circle of Life
- Forty Second Street
- Help From My Friends
- Impossible Dream
- Oh, What A Beautiful Morning
- Remember Me
- Sing (Carpenters)
- Something’s Coming
- You’re Never Fully Dressed
- Chorus Line Medley
With these shows on the immediate horizon, the rehearsal on July 26th will include significant time for sectionals on some of the major songs that need “catch up” time such as “Something’s Coming” and “Chorus Line Medley.” NOTE – Joe stressed that no singer needs to sing every one of these songs to be on the shows. Pick the ones you can learn and not take time on the others. Therefore, everyone should make plans to be on those shows – that might mean some of the members need to work on getting a chorus uniform lined up.
Music team admin Terry Reynolds alerts all members to be on the lookout for a Pulse Survey soon. Please respond.
Joe announced that Riptide, the rock and roll band with many of our members in it, will appear Sat. night at The Village Brauhaus in Old Town at 10 pm at 710 King Street.
Doug White was on the call this week - from the cab of the Hamro truck. As reported earlier, a lady hit our truck outside the hotel in Charlotte and the repairs took more than a week to be finished. Doug was driving it back on Tuesday. Many thanks for his extra efforts to get the truck repaired and back in VA.
Before the meeting ended, Ike Evans announced that he has arranged a service to engrave each member’s new medal with the Harmo logo, name, part, date and city of contest. The cost will be $10.50 each. Terry pledged to get out the details on how a member should prepare his medal and submit it for engraving – likely as early as next week. Ikethanked former member Bruce Lauther for reconnecting us with the same engraving firm Bruce used for this project in years past.
At this point, Joe proclaimed it was time to CELEBRATE!
He began the remarks: “It was an incredible experience! I knew, when we came off the stage, that we had made a great hit. It was the first time I experienced bringing it ‘all’ to the stage and leaving nothing in the dressing room. I was so proud. And as you can tell from some of the pictures of the finale on stage, I was sobbing with joy – honestly thinking of all the men who have gone before us and those we have lost as we have returned to this level of performance!”
“We do contests to raise the bar for ourselves as singers/performers. We aim ourselves toward excellence. Congratulations to each member of the chorus and in fact, all Harmonizers!”
As a surprise, the music team had invited some friends to join the call this week. The first was Kevin Keller who arranged “42nd Street” and been with us months ago to tell us how and why he had arranged it to be a major performance number. Kevin encouraged the Harmonizers to “be proud of your chorus and chapter – you are the role model for chapters in BHS for diversity and inclusion, reaching out to the community, building bridges, fund raising, and being willing to try new things.”
Our next guest was our own Chuck Hunter from Chicago who came on the last few weeks and the final day to bring sincere and helpful messages to the singers about the important messages in the songs – both in notes and in words. (Some men have recently dubbed Chuck the “Harmonizer Whisperer.”) Chuck said on the call this week, “You gave me a gift in Charlotte from the stage – you were wonderful, artistic and moving. I’m forever grateful!”
After a few members offered their thoughts, our choreographer and coach, Cy Wood, spoke and thanked the chorus for trusting the whole process from the visual leadership team. “The medals you earned represent the hard work you all put into the effort all through COVID and extra sessions. I am humbled and thrilled to be a part of the Harmonizer family!”
At this point the chapter guys cheered for Cy and his quartet, HALF AND HALF, who were the first mixed quartet to make it into the top twenty of a BHS quartet contest.
Some men in the chorus spoke about the retreat we had in June and how Joe was willing to let the coaches suggest new ways and new interpretation and new style into his musical leadership methods. Those coaches were on the call too this week.
First Jim Henry spoke to the chapter, congratulating FIRST TAKE quartet for their fifth place medal, and then thanking the chapter and “all the guys” for adopting him into the Harmonizer family. “We all celebrated the thrill and joy of singing together in Charlotte. It was not about medals, but fellowship that the music brings.”
Second, David McEachern joined us from Toronto and shared his happiness “that you men accepted the ideas and even the crazy laughing, to be ready to go on stage and perform the messages of the songs!”
The following men of the Harmonizers spoke during the call too: Chris Huber paid tribute to the Class of 2022 for their contributions of energy and talent on stage; Bob Rhome missed the stage after 14 years; Dave Wilt, a former member but long-time friend of many, said “this package is as memorable as the gold medal 1986 performance with the gold umbrellas!; Frank Shipp (self-labeled as the oldest and grayest of the Class of 2022) said we should get FIRST TAKE on our show; Michael Pugh, president of the Class of 2022 shared the new-guy discovery – “it went by soooo fast on stage” and “I hope to be a Harmonizer for the rest of my life.”
Associate director Tony Colosimo remarked that he was proud of the journey we took, and proud in how the chorus showed their faith in the music team and administrative teams. “It is amazing how much work the individual singers did to be ready – each week.” And by the way, “thanks so much to the incredible support from our fellow Harmonizers for the support of the quartets at the convention. It was well noted by all of us!”
Frank Fedarko also thanked “the young blood” who brought so much talent to the chorus.” Don Thompson said, “I missed Chuck McKeever and called to tell him so. And it was so neat to see Tessa Walker wearing her medal on stage when her quartet sang Saturday night.”
President Noah Van Gilder thanked the many Harmo family members who contribute. “It takes a village, yes. But we have a ‘darn good village’ here!” Mick Stamps says “I’m coming back” after having to miss the convention. Ken Iveswas happy to be able to watch “my brothers on stage.” Jack Cameron shared his joy at “being allowed to work from home in SC to be able to prepare and sing with the chorus at convention.” Zak Sandler thanked those who welcomed him into the chapter even though he had to miss it in the end. Jason Lee reflected on “the great week it was at convention and the many connections we all had sitting and eating and cheering together in the audience.”
Speaking of the audience, several men mentioned the great support of our family, friends and Mid Atlantic District folks with loud support, cheers, two standing ovations and even a big cheer in the middle of one song!
Good news - Mike Kelly is recovering from emergency surgery while on his vacation in Florida while we were in NC. He is on the mend and he and his family headed back to MD – AND he was on the Zoom call to say hello!
The evening ended with the traditional statistics dump by Terry Reynolds. It is for all the “geeks” – and there are a lot of them in our midst. Some highlights: this is the first time ever that every score we got in a contest was 90 or higher. This third place medal is the seventh time we took third and we are setting a record there! The Harmonizers have earned 20 medals in International competition. Terry will send out his report to all.
We ended the official part of the call with “IT’S GREAT TO BE A HARMONIZER?” cheer. And then adjourned to a virtual afterglow. During that time, Joe shared that he had gotten a nice note from former chorus director Scott Werner with congratulations to all. Scott directed the four times we earned a gold medal – 1986 in Salt Lake, 1989 in Kansas City, in 1995 in Miami Beach, and in 1998 in Atlanta.
In other news, former member Cecil Ashford died on June 26th. He had been an active singer in the gold medal years. Two of his sons, Jeff and Phil, became Harmonizers as well. Cecil was 95.
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 74th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. - YeEd)
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