Looking Back on the March 5, 2024 Alexandria Hybrid Chapter Meeting
The Alexandria A Cappella Collective (AACC) met at The Bike Club in Alexandria this week for their rehearsal. Their regular meeting place was being used as a polling place in the city.
Some members attended the burial service for Al Herman on Monday, March 4 at Arlington Cemetery. Al served as finance committee chair for years even after he stopped singing regularly. The chapter singers joined other barbershop singers from the DC Metro area who came to honor Al and to sing at the service.
Associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo, conducted warm ups in the theater portion of The Bike Club space.
Artistic director of AACC, Joe Cerutti, expressed his appreciation for all who worked so hard to make the Gala a success. It was a good start to a likely annual event for the chapter.
Joe reports that 89 individual interviews were completed with members of AACC. Statistics and information about the results will be shared later. He thanked Samantha Tramack for help with Metro Voices interviews, Harmonizer section leaders for their help, and Terry Reynolds for overall coordination.
Late breaking news about the youth outreach project the chapter has with DC Public Schools: school administrators have asked if they could bring more students and so the number of participating singers is up to 140! Tony will be dean of the event and Tessa Walker will be clinician. Gold medal Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) quartet, SIGNATURE, from Florida, will be guest coaches and mentors for the student singers. The event is on Friday, March 8, and concludes with a one hour show at 4 pm at Capital Turnaround at Navy Yard. Chapter members are encouraged to attend and support the youth singers and enjoy the performances. There will be an afterglow nearby at Ugly Mug about 5:30 pm for those interested.
April 24 is the date for our major fundraising event, Spring2ACTion. At the end of that day, there will be a cabaret at The Bike Club that will also be a watch party to see how we are doing in reaching our goal of donations. AACC members are invited to audition any kind of act – with friends or members. Auditions deadline will be April 1 in person or for submitting a tape. Best to let Joe know you are thinking of throwing your hat in the ring. Last year’s cabaret was really fun. Hopefully several new members will try.
Next week, March 12, we are back at AlexRenew for our meeting – Joe will be returning from Europe for the rehearsal. March 19 we will sing in Old Town, and March 26 we are at AlexRenew.
Joe launched the rehearsal of “Why We Sing” with the combined ensembles with news that we will perform that song at the Northeastern District (NED) barbershop convention at Lake George, NY. All NED members are getting the song in advance and will be invited to join us on the risers as the finale for the show.
He also prompted the Harmonizers to get started working on their second contest song, “I’m Still Standing,” which is up on Groupanizer.
Before rehearsing “Defying Gravity,” Joe shared that for the chorus performance at Wolf Trap, AACC will be one of six Metro Area choral groups to sing on the show. Many other groups will sit in the audience and sing. AACC will sing this song with Samantha as soloist.
The chapter business session was managed by Terry Reynolds. He reports that there will be a memorial service at Arlington Cemetery for Bill Sowers on May 8.
President Noah Van Gilder thanked those who coordinated the GALA. He also thanked the team who got the new name tags produced for Metro Voices – Tyler Carpenter, Adam Afifi and Tessa Walker. Metro Voices members were issued their name tags.
Ben Watsky welcomed guests and reported that three recent guests were back – Jared Lescinsky, Callie Cirillo, andCharley Rothermel. Two first time guests attended this week – Matt, who sang barbershop in St. Louis and is in town for a few weeks for a training class; and David, an Air Force member who found us on Google. Maggie McAlexander, assistant director of Metro Voices, led the chapter’s “Welcome Song.”
This week, the Harmonizers worked on “Lullaby” and “New York New York,” and Metro Voices worked “After You Who,” and “Fight Song.”
The evening wrapped up about 9 pm with an invitation to guests and members to come to the Harmo House for an afterglow, and then David Breen directed “Keep the Whole World Singing.” The tag singers were glad to have Chuck Hunter at the afterglow to join in the fun!
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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