Looking Back on the Oct. 22, 2024 Alexandria Hybrid Chapter Meeting
The Alexandria A Capella Collective meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 22 was back at AlexRenew. There were also three special chapter events this past week – all reported here: men’s fellowship with Alfred Street Baptist Men’s choir, sing for an Honor Flight of Veterans at National Airport; and a second Capital Force meeting.
Artistic director of AACC, Joe Cerutti, was pleased with the turn out and good singing at the Alfred Street Baptist Men’s Choir fellowship event on Wed. Oct. 16. Traffic was a bear that night but a good representation made it in time to sing. Alfred Street Men’s Gospel choir of about 30 men sang first, directed by Melvin Bryandt, Jr. He has been a part of this event since it was begun years ago. The Alfred Street folks invited another great men’s gospel choir to join in the fellowship this year from First Baptist in Glenarden, MD. They brought about 40 singers and were directed by Mike McCoy. Both Melvin and Mike accompanied their choirs on piano.
The directors had a lot of fun teasing each other during the evening and dubbed Joe – Awesome Joe Cerutti. He shared how the sing-together got started. Over 40 Harmonizers made it to downtown Alexandria to sing.
Each ensemble sang two songs and then taught all the others a third song. The Harmonizers sang “Sit Down You’re Rockin the Boat” with Tony Colosimo doing the solo spot, and “Calling Dreams.” Joe taught the group “Keep The Whole World Singing” in the spirit of this kind of fellowship.
After the great singing, the Alfred Street folks invited everyone to their fellowship hall for a great spread of fried chicken, meat balls, desserts and veggies. Great to see all the singers visiting and talking with guys from the other groups. Each choir wore a different shirt (our guys wore their AACC t-shirt) so it was easy to spot the fellowship in action!
On Saturday, October 19, a group of Alexandria Harmonizers (28 strong!) made their way to Gate 38 at Reagan National Airport to welcome American veterans from Newburgh, NY, to our nation’s capital. Minor challenges with parking, metro, and authorization lists meant that the Harmonizers exercised “just in time” singing, arriving in time to meet the first to deplane. (Thanks to the use of SLACK, many members got tips how to get there on time even with traffic and parking issues.)
The Honor Flight organization brings veterans to Washington to tour the monuments to their service and receive recognition for their uniformed service from a grateful nation. The veterans are invited by their local organizations and provided a day in Washington to be recognized and saluted. The day begins with a chartered American Airlines flight (a co-production of American Airlines and travelers who donate their frequent flyer miles to make the flights possible) from their home location directly to Reagan National. The flights are met by musicians (e.g. the Harmonizers), local business, families, and other groups. An announcement is made in the terminal inviting those travelers nearby to come to the gate and cheer the arrival of these veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam as they deplane for their day in DC.
The Harmonizers entertained the deplaning veterans with the “Armed Forces Medley” and “God Bless America.” Many veterans were seen singing along as they recognized their service songs. A few of the Harmonizers choked up as they recognized the vets from conflicts where their own family members had served.
Taken by bus to the Mall, the veterans visited many of the memorials and other locations before they came back to the airport for return flights at the end of the day. Upon arrival at their home airport, they also received cheering crowds to welcome them back home.
It has been some time since the Harmonizers have sung for an Honor Flight, so this was a heart-warming return to service to this community. (Years ago, we sang a similar gig when Bob Wachter was coordinator and we welcomed his barbershop friend and BHS icon, Jim Miller, long-time director of the Louisville Thoroughbreds Chorus.)
With Terry Reynolds providing adept direction, the current singers were repeatedly applauded by veterans and passers-by for the quality of our music. Now that the Harmonizers have renewed their acquaintance with this important local observance, we can look forward to additional opportunities to perform for these arrivals in spring 2025. (Thanks to E J Herold for this report about the Honor Flight.)
The second meeting of Capital Force youth chorus was held on Sunday, Oct. 20, at Fairview Presbyterian Church from 2:30-4:30 pm. There were a dozen youth singers present and a few parents. AACC team members on hand to coordinate and lead the singing were Sheryl Berlin, Elisabeth Cosh, and Tessa Walker. The youth chorus has almost completely learned one song and the energy is great as the group builds for their first season.
The AACC weekly meeting on Oct. 22 was a busy one with both the Harmonizers and Metro Voices working on songs for the holiday show coming up in December. Tony Colosimo did the warm up session for the combined ensembles. He taught them a fun new round exercise.
Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, thanked everyone for supporting the special events and invited comments from members. He asked for more guys to sign up for the Asbury Methodist Village show, Sunday, Oct. 27, 201 Russell Ave. in Gaithersburg. He particularly invited new members to come sing as many songs as they know. Riser crew is due at 11 am. Harmonizers call time is 12 noon. Metro Voices call time is 12:40 pm. Show is at 3 pm and ends at 4:50 pm
He also encouraged participation in the chapter’s MAD TAGS event set for Saturday, Oct. 26, starting at 3 pm and ending when the tag singers fade! It will be at Honey’s Harvest Farm in Lothian MD. There will be a food truck. Cost is $35 per person. Organizers of this fun singing event include Bob Bates, David Wilt, David Breen, Steve White, andTony and Elizabeth Colosimo. It is also possible to get a room at the event.
Next week’s meeting will be at AlexRenew. Note a new location for the Tues., Nov. 5 meeting (election night) – the meeting will be at Heritage Presbyterian Church near Mount Vernon, 8503 Fort Hunt Road, Alexandria 22308.
Singing started after all these announcements with work on “Gloria.”
Executive director, Stan Quick, hosted the chapter meeting. Membership director, Jacob Broude, announced that Davie Breen’s mom is in the hospital in Ohio. Jacob gave name tags to the two newest members Josh Berenhaus and Rob Santine. Doug White was back with us this week too. Maggie McAlexander directed the “Welcome Song.”
For the rest of the evening, both ensembles worked on the holiday show songs.
Chapter president, Noah Van Gilder, conducted the Alexandria BHS Chapter’s annual meeting with one item on the agenda: to elect the 2025 Chapter Board of Directors. The slate, as selected by the nominating committee, was elected by unanimous vote. The new board members are
- President: Craig Kujawa
- Vice President: Ashley Merryman
- Secretary: Cy Shuster
- Treasurer: Terry Reynolds
- Member at large: Carolyn Griffin
- Member at large: Mary Cooper
- Member at large: Michael Berkson
- Member at large: Betsy Mullins
- Member at large: Cody Leihgeber-Carpenter
Noah was thanked for his terms of service and appreciation was expressed for those members leaving the board – Dave Kohls and Charlyne Miller. The nominating committee chair was Bruce Roehm with Charley Rothermel, Sheryl Berlin, Ashley Merryman, and Terry Reynolds.
Reed Livergood directed “Keep the Whole World Singing” to end the evening.
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 76th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)
The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.
