Looking Back on the July 18, 2023 Alexandria Hybrid Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the July 18, 2023 Alexandria Hybrid Chapter Meeting 

First off – here are more names of Harmonizers who were on the scene at the contest in Louisville in early July:  Rasmus Krigstrom directed the Northern Stars chorus from Sweden. He has arranged several songs for us over the years including the new song for our 75^th anniversary, “Calling Dreams” Others friends of the chapter were on stage with the Ambassadors of Harmony including arranger David Wright and coach Jim Henry. Former coach Tony DeRosa was in the fourth-place quartet with his son Joseph. Our recent retreat coaches David McEachern and Rick Spencer were there.  Johan Westberg sang with Sound of the Rockies. Chris Buechler and Keven Keller were involved with the judging panel for the contest. Thanks to Dixie Kennett and Keith Jones for serving as reporters for YeEd. 

 

A good crowd of members made it to the Tuesday night meeting at Scottish Rite Temple (SRT) during a really hot summer spell. After associate director Tony Colosimo conducted the warm up session for the combined Metro Voices and Harmonizers on the risers, he gave an official welcome to Samantha Tramack, and her husband Mert, who have moved to Reston in recent days. She will be the new director of Metro Voices. Tony congratulated them also for their quartet success in Louisville. SWEET & SOUR was the highest scoring mixed quartet. 

 

Then Tony welcomed Cy Wood for work session on a presentation plan for “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat.”

 

Artistic director Joe Cerutti was already in New Orleans for this summer’s Harmony University. 

 

Music team admin coordinator Terry Reynolds welcomed members Ian Poulin, Chuck Powell, Rob Barnovsky, Doug Smith and Johan Westberg who were with us this week. 

 

A major schedule change for the chapter – the meeting on July 25 will be at SRT (and not in Old Town Alexandria as previously announced).

 

Terry also announced the July Birthdays: Matt Ambler, Bob Blair, Jacob Broude, Tyler Carpenter, Elisabeth Cosh, Bill DePuy, Ike Evans, Kellen Hertz, Ken Ives, Jerry Jayjohn, Ross Johnson, Mike Kelly, Reed Livergood, Sam McFarland, Kevin McKenzie, John Santora, John Sifuentes, Dylan Smith, Gene Swartz, Greg Tepe and Cy Wood. Marianne Reisssig, Dennis Ritchey’s Mom who attends most of our meetings and watches from the front row of the auditorium, was also recognized for her July birthday. 

 

Then the two ensembles went to work on their music. The Harmonizers worked on “Wee Small Hours” while Cyworked with the front row in the lobby.

 

All the singers gathered for the business meeting conducted by communications director Steve Murane.  Chapter secretary David DesPortes presented membership renewal cards to Lance Fisher for 7 years; Troy Hillier for 32 years; and Dave Ermlick for 43 years.

 

Chapter executive director Randall Eliason passed out business cards with the fall show information on them for members to use in selling tickets.  He also explained the importance of all members selling show ads. The deadline for sales and program copy is August 1^st. See Frank Fedarko or Adam Afifi if you want help with those sales. He also suggested that the sections of the ensembles might buy ads.

 

There will be a need for ushers and other volunteers for the show as well, so Randall or shows director Doug Whitewill collect names of family or friends who might help in that capacity.

 

Tesssa Walker helped welcome several singing visitors with Metro Voices. Ben Watsky welcomed Harmonizer guests including Elaine Cozzie and Ellen Dellert. Assistant director emeritus Will Cox directed the chapter welcome song.

 

The ensembles worked on their music with the Harmonizers concentrating on learning the choreo plan for “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat.”  It is fantastic and will be a big crowd pleaser. Cy left the plan in the hands of the chapter team, and specifically Turner Arndt, to help everyone learn it. 

 

The meeting ended with everyone together for “Keep the Whole World Singing.”  The afterglow this week was at Rampart’s.

 

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 75^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

 

The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.

 

 

 

 Looking Back on the July 2-9, 2023 Alexandria Chapter at Louisville International

Even though the Alexandria chorus did not compete at the Louisville, KY, International contest and convention, a good number of members did compete and earned high marks for their work and talent.

 

FIRST TAKE with Alex Corson, Tony Colosimo, Drew Wheaton and Andrew Havens captured a third-place bronze medal out of the 60 quartets that started the quarterfinals contest.  They scored a 92.8% average for all six songs they sang during the contest.  Their performances of “Santa Fe” and “Not While I’m Around” were powerful!

 

Two other quartets with Alexandria members were in the semi-finals round of the contest. SWEET & SOUR with Christina Tramack, Samantha Tramack, Mert Tramack, and Josh Tramack placed 18^th. Samantha is incoming director of Metro Voices.

 

Placing 19^th was WILDFIRE with Andrew Lujan, Stephen Goldman, Kevin Mendez, and Harrison Cooke. Kevin is a new Harmonizer.

 

PRAXIS with Francesco Logozzo, Kevin Clark, Lance Fisher and David Breen placed 35^th.  Lance and David are an important part of the chapter’s music team and they were credited with arranging the songs their quartet sang in the contest. Cy Wood, our choreographer, sang in MIXTAPE and placed 45^th. Rick Taylor sang in LEGACY and placed 43^rd.

 

Other singers who have been part of the Harmonizer family and sang in the quartet contest included Sean Devine in THROWBACK that placed 5^th; Ed Schubel in PRATT STREET POWER that placed 9^th; Will Daniel Simmons in SECRET BEST FRIENDS that placed 12^th; and Spencer Wight in MADHATTEN that placed 49^th.

 

MIDTOWN quartet from Mid Atlantic District (M-AD) placed first with a 94.5% score which included 100% performance scores on their uptune in the finals – a very fun combination of “Spider-Man” with “Old McDonald’s Farm” with lots of comedic exchanges and even with the lead on the floor portraying a spider with restless leg syndrome. 

 

Former members Steve Tramack and Jay Butterfield were on the official judging panel for the quartet contest and the chorus contest. Chris Buechler and Kevin Keller were also involved with the panel. 

 

Maggie McAlexander sang with ADRENALINE in the quartet and chorus festival and earned a superior ranking.  Bill Colosimo and John Santora sang in a chorus representing the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) board in the Festival too.  Bill is currently chairman of the BHS nominating committee and John is president of BHS. Joe Cerutti (artistic director of the Alexandria chapter) and Chris Buechler (a member of the Society Contest and Judging Committee) were on the judging panel for the festival. 

 

Joe is also coordinator of the Next Generation Varsity Quartet Contest. Former member Donell Torres sang in TOFU CONCERN in that event.  THE QUINN-TONES, who have often been on our chapter shows, sang in that contest too. 

 

There were several Alexandria singers in the chorus contest: Lance Fisher and Chris Yates in Parkside Harmony with Sean Devine directing.  The Hershey chorus placed second.

 

Lance and Josh Myers sang with East Coast Sound chorus. Donelle Torres sang with The Recruits. TJ Donahue andJohan Westberg sang with the Sound of the Rockies. Lynn Hineman sang with Heralds of Harmony. Sophie Clarksang with Parkside Melody. Lou Bergner sang with Harbourtown Sound.  Donelle Torres and Dan Cook sang with the Ambassadors of Harmony who took first place in the contest. Longtime Harmonizer family friends, David Wright,who arranged their contest songs, and Jim Henry, their director, should be listed here too. Johan Westberg also sang in Northern Stars chorus from Sweden representing the Society of Nordic Barbershop Singers (SNOBS) – he was in their front row! Their director was Rasmus Krigstrum. Paul Wietlesbach sang with the Nashville chorus in their swan song set. 

 

Our friends from Barbershop in Germany (BinG) placed 12^th in the chorus contest.  They visited in Alexandria before going to KY and did a show with the chapter at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. 

 

Earlier in the week, four members of the chapter were announced as 50-year members: David Wilt, Carl Kauffman, Jay Butterfield and John Rettenmayer. Other Harmonizer family members at the convention included Alan Lamson, Terry Reynolds, Keith Jones, Glenn Williamson, Mike Wallen, Ken Rub, Tom Gannon, Greg Tepe, Jim Shoenhard, Jack Pitzer, Craig Kujawa, and Scott Beach. 

 

Both of this year’s Society Hall of Fame recipients had strong ties to the chapter too.  Renee Craig was a major arranger in the early years of the chapter and we sang her charts, and we did a show with her Ramapo Valley Spotlight Chorus. VOCAL SPECTRUM quartet was on our shows including the Holiday Show at Music Center Strathmore.

 

The chapter did have an advertisement on the contest venue show screen to promote the 75^th anniversary show. 

 

To wrap up the week, Joe Cerutti and Rick Taylor were hosts for Live Stream show Saturday night.

 

(Thanks to Dixie Kennett and Keith Jones for inputs for this article. YeEd)

 

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 75^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

 

The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.