Looking Back on the March 8th 2022 Harmonizer Hybrid Chapter Meeting
The Harmonizers sang on risers with a full chorus of men again this week without masks. There was lots of excitement it seemed since the chorus is working toward a couple shows for this month.
Associate director Tony Colosimo took early minutes of the meeting for a thorough warm up session.
The total attendance was again at the 60-man level combining Zoom and in-person. Terry Reynolds was on Zoom and in-person at Scottish Rite Temple (SRT) to make sure both groups of attendees were connected and hearing and seeing everything. Chris Huber and Will Cox and their wives were on a tropical island someplace warm and checked in via Zoom. Great to have shows chairman Doug White back in person, as well as Dixie and Chris Buechler.
Artistic director Joe Cerutti shared another Harmonizer Hero Factoid about one of the members on the riser. This week he shared that Carl Kauffmann served in the Navy for 24 years and during his military service discovered barbershop harmony in Guam.
Joe was happy to announce that Jake Fry passed his audition last week – so welcome aboard.
And Joe encouraged members to support Tessa Walker and the concert by her students this week. Similarly he shared that Parkside is having their show this weekend and Tessa’s quartet HOT PURSUIT will sing as will BETTER TOGETHER with the Colosimos and Havens.
YeEd noted in the announcement by BHS for Harmony University this summer, four of our crew will be faculty – Joe, Tony, Terry and Tessa.
To kick off the singing for the night, the chorus sang “There Must Be a City” with Frank Fedarko doing his usual great solo on it.
Next there was a choreography review with Turner Arndt on “Help from My Friends.” It went great and Turnerhelped the chorus recall the plan and get back their performance of the tune.
That work was followed by a run through of “42nd Street.”
Some details about the upcoming shows were announced: we are hosting the Yale Wiffenpoofs again on Fri. March 18th at 6:30 pm at the Scottish Rite in DC -2800 16th St. NW. A 5 pm call for the chorus – prepare for parking or ride Metro. Uniform is black camp shirt, jeans and black shoes. Masks will be optional.
For the Rappahannock show, much of the information for members is on Groupanizer. There is a need for VLQ to sing a couple songs – they will rehearse on Tuesday nights. Let Terry know if you are available.
Reminder: coach Steve Scott will be with the chapter next week.
Then it was time to sing “Circle of Life” with Bob Blair on the drums, and even time for “ribbon training with choreo.” Turner helped again with this review. Bruce Roehm took the front row to another room for review of their part of this presentation.
For “Impossible Dream” there will be a quartet to start the song.
The chapter business session conducted by communications chairman Sam Whiteoak was brief. Big news was the launch of a new Harmonizer website. Thanks to Donell Torres for his work on making these improvements – theharmonizers.org.
Secretary David DesPortes presented membership renewals to Tyler Carpenter for 10 years; Brad Jones for 30 years; and Dean Rust for 42 years.
Membership chair Jacob Broude introduced three guests this week: second time for Michael Pugh and Zak Sandler; and first time for Cy Schuster who sang in NM and Gary Kratz a friend visiting Ike Evans. Speaking of Ike – great to see him on stage last Saturday night in the tuba section for the Virginia Grand Military Band concert.
Past president Stan Quick presented the chapter memorial awards for 2021. Since some recipients were not present, a full report will come in a subsequent Looking Back report.
Current president Noah Van Gilder thanked Stan for his two years of service as president and presented him a retiring officer plaque. Joe offered his appreciation to Stan too for his work in keeping a strong chapter operation going during the pandemic.
The final sing for “Sing A Song” was also the final step in the new learning process the music team has implemented – this time to perform the song as a chorus.
An invite was extended for an at the Harmo House at 3916 Stevens Street in Alexandria, and the guys enjoyed tag singing or just visiting and talking barbershop.
Just so you know, quartet singing is still alive in the Harmonizer family. Here is the list of quartets with Harmonizer singers in them that will compete in the Southern Division/International Prelims contest in Wilmington DE March 24-25. (In Singing Order) Also note that the quartet contest starts at 4:57 pm on Fri. March 24th.
1st – B & B
John Sifuentes – tenor
Francesco Logozzo – lead
Lance Fisher – bari
Al Mazzoni – bass
7th – TAYLOR MADE
Rick Taylor – tenor
Tom Halley – lead
Douglas Beach – bari
Steve Kirsch – bass
16th – BREAKTHROUGH
Mike Fasano – tenor
Jordan Zimmerman – lead
Jason Lee – bari
Ken White – bass
17th – BREAKFAST BREAK
Mike Geipel – tenor
Scott Beach – lead
Jerry Candrilli – bari
Vinny Capaccio – bass
20th – JEFFERSON PLAID TIE
Lance Fisher – tenor
Francesco Logozzo – lead
Nick Ruiz – bari
Cay Outterbridge – bass
23rd – FANTASTIC 4
Susan Fields – tenor
Chris Susalka– lead
Heidi Brown – bari
Dale Bird – bass
24th – FIRST TAKE
Alex Corson – tenor
Anthony Colosimo – lead
Drew Wheaton – bari
Andrew Havens – bass
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 73rd year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. - YeEd)
