Looking Back on the June 27, 2023 Alexandria Hybrid Chapter Meeting
Summer weather has hit and Tuesday night was humid and there was a hard rain just prior to the 7 pm start time - like most summer nights in the DMV.
Early arrivals had fun chatting with two members from Barbershop in Germany (BinG) – director of the Heavy Medal Chorus, Norbert Hammes, and Manfred Adams, founder of BinG and director of Ladies First chorus in BinG. They preceded the other BinG members who will arrive over the July 1 weekend in the DC area for a coaching session on Saturday, July 1, at SRT at 11 am, a show with the two Alexandria ensembles at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial (101 Callahan Drive, Alexandria) Saturday evening, and some touring and social times on Sunday, July 2. The BinG members will stay in homes of Alexandria chapter members before departing for the chorus competition in Louisville the next week.
But despite the weather, there was a good crowd of singers from both ensembles at Scottish Rite Temple (SRT) for the warm ups taught by associate director Tony Colosimo. The 50/50 crew took a break this week and volunteers set up risers and sound equipment. Cy Shuster was tech guy this week (Dennis Ritchey, who often does that, and Steve White are on one of their long-distance fishing trips – this time in Canada.)
Reminder that there won’t be a chapter meeting July 4th because of the holiday and because a good contingent will be in Louisville, KY, for the 2023 International contest and convention. President Noah Van Gilder recognized quartets competing with Alexandria members in them. PRAXIS has Lance Fisher and David Breen; SWEET & SOUR has Samantha Tramack; FIRST TAKE has Tony Colosimo and Andrew Havens; WILDFIRE has Kevin Mendez; and LEGACY has Rick Taylor. Maggie McAlexander will be singing with her quartet, ADRENALINE in the quartet and chorus festival event during the convention. The chapter wished them all well for their performances and gave them a financial gift to help cover expenses for the trip.
For chapter members in town, there will be optional “office hours” on Thursday, July 6 at SRT to work on the new songs and visuals. Watch for more details.
The chapter celebrated the June birthdays this week too: Jeff Ashford, Edgar Blancas, Bob Bowman, Tim Cash, Michael Gilmore, Keith Jones, Dave Kohls, Steve Murane, Josh Myers, Sean O’Brien, Walter Page, Duncan Peacock, Mickey Robertson, and Mick Stamps in the Harmonizers ensemble. There were none in Metro Voices present. Cake was served at this week’s afterglow.
Artistic director Joe Cerutti welcomed our BinG guests, welcomed Connor Goss in town from Boulder, CO; and congratulated Zak Sandler for his successful gig at Signature Theater in Arlington. On behalf of all members, Joethanked Kathy and Carl Kauffmann for their extra efforts in planning, organizing and setting up our anniversary party on June 20.
He also announced the call time for the Saturday, July 1 show to be 5:30 pm for warm up and sound check. Attire is black shirts and jeans for Metro Voices, and black camp shirts and jeans for the Harmonizers. Both ensembles will sing plus the Heavy Medal chorus for the one-hour free concert that starts at 7 pm. The free tickets are going fast, so reserve for your family and friends. There will be an afterglow at the Harmo House after the show for singers.
“At this point in the evening, Metro Voices went to rehearse in the cafeteria. Their ensemble welcomed two first-time guests to their rehearsal this week - Mirelle and Gloria. The group worked “On The Wayside” for the first time. It is an original song especially commissioned for Metro Voices by the chapter as part of the 75th anniversary. Both music and lyrics were written by local composer Aaron Gage. Singers who were riser ready worked on “If I Were a Bell.” The full group sang “I See the Light,” with director Tessa Walker experimenting with the emotional interpretation of the song.” – submitted by Metro Voices reporter Elaine Cooper.
The Harmonizers rehearsed on the risers in the auditorium beginning with choreography for “Somethings’ Comin” with training support from Turner Arndt. He has prepared a video and a written plan so members can work on the presentation plan at home. The chorus did a run of the first half of the song they had worked on two weeks ago, then he helped them recall the plan for the second half of the song that coach David McEachern had taught at the retreat.
Next, they worked on “Sit Down You’re Rockin the Boat” – Joe directed and Tony coached. Joe also announced that Cy Wood would be at the July 18th meeting to teach a visual plan for this song – thus the need to finish learning the song.
Then the chorus worked on “Impossible Dream” which will be sung with a quartet doing the verse.
Terry Reynolds conducted the chapter business meeting for the entire chapter. Jack Pitzer reported that there were copies of the recently published 75th Anniversary booklet available in the lobby for those who did not get one yet. These booklets have an errata sheet to indicate errors missed in proofing. Extra copies of the errata sheets are also available for those who already got a copy of the booklet. An edited version of the booklet will be available on the chapter website soon.
Chapter shows director, Doug White, launched discussion about ticket sales for the September 9, 2023, 75thanniversary show, 7 pm, at Schlesinger. He passed out handfuls of business-like cards with show info that members could use to stimulate sales. Randy Lazear will be ticket sales ‘wrangler.’ Guest quartets for the show will be MAX Q and RINGMASTERS!
An advertising sales team of Frank Fedarko and Adam Afifi is working to create a profitable 75th anniversary printed show program. Income from advertising sales will allow the chapter to make the printed program special for the occasion. Frank explained that members of both ensembles are asked to sell or get at least one advertisement from companies and firms they use frequently – dentist, dealerships, restaurants. There is a form to use in getting the copy for the advertisement – it should be in your inbox according to Frank. The deadline to submit an advertisement is August 1. There will be a contest among the sections of the choruses for the most sales and each section has been challenged to buy an ad to salute their members – create the ad and collect monies to cover the cost. Full page ads are $125, half page ads are $75. Quartets are also prime candidates for having an ad. For information about this project, help in selling ads, or other questions, respond to ads@harmonizers.com. Those messages will go to Frank, Adam, Randall Eliason and Susan Fitzpatrick. Frank will also take calls at 703-850-6342.
Tessa Walker announced that Metro Voices has their first gig on Wednesday, June 28. The ticketed show is at The Anthenaem on Prince Street in Old Town. Monies raised at the Alexandria Celebrates Women (ACW) event support the Alexandria Domestic Violence Safe House. ACW recognizes the accomplishments and contributions of Alexandria, VA, women of the past, present and future.
President Noah reported that Rob Barnovsky was in emergency surgery for a heart issue this week and is recovering. Get well wishes from all his buddies on the risers!
Also, word came to the chapter this past week that former member and quartet singer, Steve Guy, passed away from his battle with blood cancer. He sang with a fun quartet, 50 % OFF, with Geoff Berman, Doug Smith and Mick Stamps. He joined the chapter in 1988 and left in 1996, then returned one year in 2009. Most recently he has sung with the Dundalk, MD chapter.
Chapter secretary David DesPortes presented membership renewal cards to Zak Sandler for 2 years and Howard Nestlerode for 48 years.
After the business meeting, the two ensembles worked on more music – the Harmonizers on “San Francisco” and “Calling Dreams” which Joe hopes to use on the July 1 show.
At the recent 75th anniversary celebration, six members were honored and presented a special 75th anniversary Diamond Award. These awards recognize their contributions to the chapter’s success as an organization both today and for the next 75 years.
Here are their award descriptions as presented by president Noah Van Gilder at the June 20 event (and recorded here for the history of the chapter):
“Liz Birnbaum: Your visionary efforts to create Alexandria Harmonizers, Inc. as a stand-alone nonprofit and our first Alexandria Harmonizers Strategic Plan have helped us become a modern organization capable of real development, leading to our raising $70,000 for our 70th anniversary and enabling us to raise over $75,000 this year for our 75thanniversary. We’ve come a long way from selling cheese! We also want to recognize your role as a trailblazer for women in leadership in the Barbershop Harmony Society, becoming the first-ever female board member in the history of the Alexandria chapter and of the Society as a whole, years before “Everyone in Harmony” became a part of our strategic vision.”
“Ken Fess: We recognize your successful work in starting up our independent nonprofit, Alexandria Harmonizers, Inc., as its first president, setting the groundwork for our success in development and ensuring our future. We are also grateful for your leadership during a difficult transitional period, and your facilitation in bringing a young, new director to the DC metro area. Lastly, we are immensely appreciative of your producing first-class, crowd-pleasing shows for us with top choruses and quartets--all while wearing a bandana. We honor you today for all your hard work, forward-thinking, and sheer tenacity to ensure the Harmonizers will live well into the future, benefiting others who seek close harmony and artistic excellence.”
“Randall Eliason: We recognize your enormous accomplishments as our Executive Director, leading us through our evolution from a barbershop chapter to an arts organization with a new organizational structure. You oversaw critical organizational improvements by targeting funds for and on-boarding our first general manager and improving our fundraising, patron identification, and show management through modern customer relations practices. We also recognize your visionary leadership in development, with participation in Alexandria’s Spring2Action as our number one fundraiser over the last several years. We honor you today for all you have done to move us forward and streamline operations as a successful nonprofit all the while enabling us to meet future Harmonizer needs.”
“Terry Reynolds: Your tireless work as “Mr. Harmonizer,” involved in every aspect of the chorus from administration to music and performance, is simply amazing. Without these efforts, it might have been impossible to have achieve the level of success we have, yet you do it week-to-week with no signs of slowing down. We are eternally grateful for all you do, both behind the scenes and out in front, and for being a standard bearer for diversity and inclusion within the Barbershop Harmony Society.”
“Jack Pitzer: We recognize your decades of dedicated service as the quintessential Harmonizer, and your willingness to do whatever it takes to make the Harmonizer story real and alive for our chapter and countless enthusiasts around the world, while keeping us firmly rooted in our rich history, traditions, and customs. You have always set the bar high for what it means to be a Harmonizer in all its richness, inclusiveness, and standard setting. We honor you today for all that you do for us as a chapter, a singing organization, and ultimately, a family. You are a living legend.”
“Joe Cerutti, Jr.: We recognize your charismatic leadership of the chorus in a direction that has achieved show-stopping performances, success in competition, and countless other “Breathless Moments” and memories from around the globe. Your vision of our organization as a place where any singer can find a home enabled us to endure a pandemic and succeed into the future. You said it best: the world would be a much better place if we all just went to chorus practice. We are immensely proud that you are not only “the director,” but our director. We honor you today for all that you do for us as a chapter and to maintain that sense of family while moving us forward to new heights in singing and performing as true professionals and artists.”
In other news about Harmonizers, about a dozen members from the chapter attended the Mid Atlantic District Harmony College East at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD, June 16-17. Bill Colosimo and Sheryl Berlin were deans of the school. Tony, Joe and Mike Wallen were there as coaches for quartets and choruses.
The Tuesday June 27 meeting ended after the two ensembles sang “Keep the Whole World Singing” together directed by Manfred Adams. Joe took the pizza count for the afterglow and a riser crew put things away. The afterglow was well attended for the birthday cake event, lots of visiting (and some speculation about the results of the up-coming International contests), and the usual tag singing.
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 75th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)
The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.
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