Looking Back on the May 2, 2023 Alexandria Hybrid Chapter Meeting
The Alexandria Chapter meeting this week was for the Harmonizers and Metro Voices (MV) at Scottish Rite Temple (SRT). Artistic director Joe Cerutti did vocal warm ups for the combined ensembles on the full eleven sections of risers. (Thanks to the crew who came early to set up risers for both groups in the meeting place.) Associate director Tony Colosimo was coaching in Germany this week.
Both ensembles will meet next week too, and then on Tuesday, May 16, the whole chapter will gather at Market Square in Old Town and sing at the Square and at the Torpedo Factory and wherever else there are folks who would enjoy the music. The evening will end with a social time in one of the spots in that part of town.
Joe was ecstatic about the successful Spring2ACTion and the $80,000 raised by all the members and their patrons – far exceeding the $75,000 goal. The best part of the story is that the members all worked together on this project. He also was happy about the fun and successful Cabaret – what talent!
Members were also alerted about a June 13th appearance at the Alexandria City Hall at 7 pm. The singers will report there sharply at 7 and sing for the Council and accept the Proclamation for our 75th anniversary from the Mayor. The singers will depart City Hall and reassemble at SRT.
Then on June 9-10, both ensembles will have a retreat at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. Coaches for this year’s retreat will be David McEachern from Toronto, and Rick Spencer from Nashville. Members should be signing up for this important weekend. Arrival is Friday evening and departure is Sunday noon. Housing and meals will be in the student housing area.
On Tuesday May 30th, the chapter will hold its always-fun Put Together Quartet contest. Be on the lookout for details from Tyler Carpenter coordinator of the event. Members of both ensembles are encouraged to “put together” quartets for that night of fun. Trophies will be awarded to the top places for a traditional barbershop song and the top places for a comedy number. All a cappella. Surprise judges to be announced.
At this point Metro Voices adjourned to the cafeteria to work on “Why We Sing” in small groups and their other songs.
Joe thanked the Harmonizers for a terrific show in Newport News – the music was so consistently well sung. And the fellowship for the trip out-of-town was good too.
The Harmonizers began work on the new song commissioned for the Harmonizer’s 75th anniversary, in memory of Sandy Stamps -“Calling Dreams.” It is composed by fellow Harmonizer and noted barbershop arranger, Rasmus Krigstrom. The section leaders met with their guys and after 20-minutes or so, the guys returned to the risers where Joe worked with the chorus on this challenging new song. He expressed his pleasure with the way the chorus was doing already on the song.
The chapter business session was moderated by communications director Steve Murane. Michael Berkson presented the upcoming plan for the whole chapter to switch to SLAK as a new communications platform. Michael will help instruct and guide the transition. Many members are already familiar with SLAK from their work place. He can be reached at maberkson@gmail.com.
Ken Rub thanked everyone for the team effort for our fundraising push on Spring2ACTion. He saluted the members who had created their own fundraising accounts, and the five members who raised more the $1,000 – Frank Fedarko, Ken Rub, Stan Quick, Joe Cerutti and Randall Eliason.
President Noah Van Gilder also recognized the successful event and particularly thanked development director Ken Rub for his leadership.
Chapter operations manager Gary Cregan announced the chapter is planning to consolidate the storage units we now rent into one and move to a new location at a lower cost. Work teams are needed for May 20th. Stay tuned for details to sign up.
Ben Watsky substituted for membership director Jacob Broude and welcomed guests – Lana Jawdat and Stephanie Litt for Metro Voices, plus Nadiv Kaspi and Rocco Visconti for the Harmonizers. Recent guest John Taber was back this week from a trip to New Zealand. Edris Qarghah stopped in to see us – he lives in the Boston area now. Jamie Patricia was visiting again. It was great to have Joel Golden back on the risers this week. Will Cox directed the “Harmonizer Welcome Song.”
In other Harmonizer family news, Steve White’s mother, Susan, died suddenly April 26th in Elizabethtown, PA. The family had just been with her the night before to celebrate her 92nd birthday. Our thoughts go to Steve and his family.
Ken Rub also announced the plans for this year’s Coronation Crawfish Boil, Saturday May 6, that all members may attend. If the member raises at least $250 during S2A, it is free. If not, it is just $10 per person. It will be at the Harmo House with lots of singing, cold beer and sodas, There will be other choices than crawfish – quiche like will be served in England for the Coronation! Attendees are encouraged to bring goodies to share. Last year was great fun. Scott Kahler, who started the tradition a few years ago, will be coming up from New Orleans to help prepare the crawfish boil.
After the rehearsal break, the two ensembles combined and met in small groups to work on “Why We Sing.” It is an original piece by prolific song writer Greg Gilpin and arranged for mixed voices by David Wright. It also comes to the chapter as a commissioned piece for our 75th anniversary. The groups were conducted by Tessa Walker, Jason Lee, Ben Watsky, Lance Fisher and David Breen. Following the small group work, Joe worked with the combined chorus. There were some members of both ensembles singing in all four of the SATB sections.
After the 50/50 drawing and the usual count for the pizza order at the afterglow, the chorus sang “Keep the Whole World Singing.”
There were a couple octets that sang after adjournment so members could record and submit their recordings for evaluation and then be riser ready next week for “Why We Sing.”
There was a good crowd at the afterglow from both ensembles.
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 Chapter. - YeEd)
The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.
