Looking Back on the September 20th 2022 Harmonizer Hybrid Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the September 20^th 2022 Harmonizer Hybrid Chapter Meeting

 

Chapter members were really excited about the experience at Wolf Trap this past Sunday.  The audience reaction to both “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Circle of Life” was terrific. 

 

Artistic director Joe Cerutti was proud of and pleased with the performance and was especially glad to have sung for such a diverse audience. He invited members to share stories or reactions and several did.

 

He conducted  the warm up this week and as the first few minutes unfolded, he welcomed former members who arrived to sing or to visit and see old friends.

 

He also invited bass singer David Breen to teach the chorus a tag – “My Michelle.” The guys loved ringing the chords!

 

Joe asked the guys to respond and submit their Pulse Survey that was sent to everyone recently from musical leadership.

 

He also reported on an ensemble sing-out for Marie Muscella’s wedding over the weekend.  She served on our chapter board as a community member and was a major contributor in the strategic planning efforts in recent years.  The singers were Carl Kauffmann, Dean Rust, David Welter, Bob Blair, Frank Fedarko, Bruce Roehm, Lance Fisher, Joe Cerutti and Michael Schwartz.

 

There was confirmation about the plans for the first meeting of METRO VOICES treble chorus that will be next Tuesday, September 27^th at 7 pm at Scottish Rite Temple.  Those singers will meet in another room at the facility.  This project based chorus will work on two songs – one likely to be sung on the Harmonizer holiday show  in December, and one that will become the audition song for METRO VOICES in January. 

 

Singing got underway with sectionals  to dust off “Carol of the Bells,” “Let It Snow,” and “White Christmas.” The chorus returned to the risers to sing those songs. Singers were also encouraged to bring their music the next couple weeks to “mark up and add notations.” 

 

The business portion of the meeting started with chapter secretary David DesPortes presenting a five year membership renewal to Jacob Broude. 

 

Then as membership director, Jacob welcomed guests – former members Kevin Kaiser and Jim Gammon, who were in town for a bit; Jonathan Rogas, son-in-law of Ike Evans; and Norbert Hammes, director of the Heavy Medal Chorus from BinG (Barbershopping in Germany) who is in the USA as a candidate contest judge for BHS. Ben Roberts was on the risers too – first time in a long time since we have sung with him. Assistant director emeritus Will Cox directed the “Harmonizer Welcome Song.”

 

Dean Rust announced that ALIVE Inc, a charity comprised of 50 faith communities that serves the poor in Alexandria, has asked if the Harmonizers could provide a quartet to assist in a walkathon fundraiser on Sunday October 16.  The event starts at 2 pm, but they are asking if Harmonizers could stop by during the registration period from 1:15 – 1:45 and add some musical flavor to the occasion (e.g., “Help From My Friends,” “Sing a Song,” “Never Fully Dressed”).  It would be very informal and a good opportunity to expand our reach and for a worthy cause. Location is the parking lot of First Christian Church, 2723 King St.  Let Dean  (drust1@cox.net)  know by next Tuesday, September 27 if you are interested.  We will try to put together a quartet or octet.  

 

Chapter leaders did speak some about our participation/duties at the M-AD fall contest in Lancaster, PA.  We will sing on the Saturday night show, October 8^th – “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Never Fully Dressed,” and “Circle of Life.”  The chorus will be needed to demonstrate during a Master Class with “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” and “Somethings Comin.”   And we will be singing as a demonstration chorus for a workshop for training directors with “Never Fully Dressed” or “Bridge Over Troubled Water” or “Heart of My Heart” or “Sweet and Lovely.”  

 

Convention details will come from chapter leaders – but everyone that attends should be managing their travel, housing, uniform, and ticketing as needed. For most chorus members, this will be a up and back day on Saturday.  However, there will be three or four quartets with Harmonizers singing in the Friday night quartet contest – and likely some in the finals on Saturday night. 

 

Next there was more sectional work on “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night” followed by the whole chorus singing and working on those same numbers.

 

The meeting ended after the 50/50 was won by Steve White and Norbert directed “Heart of My Heart” to sing out the night.

 

Joe welcomed all to the afterglow at the Hamro House which was well attended.  Besides the good eats and drinks, it was fun to learn more from Norbert about barbershop activities in Europe.

 

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 74^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. - YeEd)

 

 

Looking Back on the September 18th 2022 Harmonizers Sing at Wolf Trap

 Looking Back on the September 18^th 2022 Harmonizers  Sing at Wolf Trap

 

(Thanks to Steve White who served as reporter for YeEd back stage with the chorus at the Wolf Trap event on Sun. Sept. 18^th.)

 

This event was labeled “a community-powered singing celebration” titled Joyfully Together. 

The Harmonizers shared the program with seven other groups:  Children’s Chorus of 

Washington, Duke Ellington School of the Arts Concert Chorale, Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and GenOUT, The Heritage Signature Chorale, Towson University Singers, The Washington Chorus, and the Washington Performing Arts Gospel Chorus. All of these singers combined to perform two numbers as a group – “We Are Love” and “United in Purpose. ” 

 

The concert opened with all singers on stage for the first group song – YeEd guesses there were about 200 singers – from little kids to some 80-yesar-old signers.  Emcee for the concert was Eugene Roberts, artistic director of The Washington Chorus.  He also directed the combined choruses. When he introduced the Harmonizers he saluted our coming 75^th anniversary – which drew an applause from the audience. And he mentioned our formation of Metro Voices. 

 

The audience loved the Harmonizers!!  When the chorus swelled to the final cord of the tag for “Bridge Over Troubled Water” they cheered and applauded wildly.  Then when Tony Colosimo started “Circle of Life,” the audience cheered and screamed! Especially the younger generations. We had our rhythm group for this song and lots of color and staging!

 

Here is the back stage report from Steve: “The Harmonizers, just 38 strong, gathered in the Filene Center’s newly renovated artist’s rehearsal/dressing room space in at 1:00.

Tony ran a quick 10-minute physical and vocal warm/up followed by 10-minutes with Joe who provided some rah-rah and a brief run-through of the two songs, “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” and “Circle of Life.” The sound from this —  the smallest in many years —  was incredible thanks in part to our many new guys and the focus of everyone in the room. Artistic director Joe Cerutti was ecstatic!  

We were then called to stage for a 20-minute sound check. Wow, what an impressive venue, one we’ve performed on twice before … the 25th Wolf Trap Anniversary Gala and the 80th Birthday Celebration for Victor Borge.

We then went back to the dressing room where there was food and drink available and the men finalized their uniform preparation. 

Shortly thereafter we were called to the stage with the other choral artists and an incredible Metropolitan Opera singer to run through one of the two commissioned choral pieces, “United in Purpose” (music by Rollo Dilworth). 

We then went back to the dressing room. Joe assembled an impromptu put-together quartet with Tony Colosimo, Steve White, Jason Lee, and Mario Sengco  to sing for the group of youth that Mario, coordinates called GenOUT.  It didn’t take long for a large crowd to gather around them from the Washington Gay Men’s Chorus and several other choruses in the hallways and a rousing applause. 

At 4:30 we were called back to the stage to run through the other commissioned piece, “We Are Love”.  We stayed onstage until the start of the event at 5:00.”

 

Our chorus wore the blue suit pants and vests and orange tie. No medals.  Singers from other groups wore bright colored t-shirts or outfits and even tennis shows.  Our friends from 17^th Street Dance appeared with the Washington Gay Men’s Chorus. 

 

For those of us in the audience, it was a great show!!  And it worked great to get the free tickets when we asked for those seats saved for Alexandria Harmonizers.

 

At the end of the show, all of the directors of the eight ensembles were recognized and each was given a large bouquet of flowers.

 

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 74^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. - YeEd)