Looking Back on the Nov. 11, 2025 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting; Plus Report from Harmony, Inc. Convention
This week’s meeting was at the Fairlington Presbyterian Church, 3846 King Street in Alexandria. Singers were asked to enter right at 7:30 pm so that an earlier church event would not be interrupted. A crew set up risers in the front of the sanctuary.
The Harmonizers and Metro Voices continued their hard work in preparation for the chapter’s holiday show weekend, Friday December 12 at 8 pm, and December 13 at 7:30 pm, both also at the church. Call time for both shows is 5:30 pm for all AACC singers. Uniform for both ensembles for the holiday show will be all black dressy with red and/or green accents. If there is a question, contact Becca Williams.
Thanks to Catherine LaValley for her announcement via Slack about a shuttle service for both holiday shows from and to Episcopal High School’s parking lot starting at 5 pm. She suggests everyone alert their friends and family about this plan, since parking at the church is very limited.
Tickets for the shows, “Follow the Season,” are now available via Eventbrite.
Metro Voices gathered in the sanctuary for warm up and rehearsal with assistant director, Maggie McAlexander, leading their work this week. Part of their evening they also worked in sectionals on their music.
The Harmonizers met with artistic director, Joe Cerutti, and our coach and arranger, Steve Armstrong (here from Toronto), to learn about the plans for the contest package for the International contest in July. Joe share lots of details about previous work and research and creativity to tell the story of the Comedian Harmonists whose story of close harmony success in 1935 (they were as popular as the Beatles were in the USA) was the theme of a recent Broadway musical titled, “Harmony.” During World War II, the group was forced to stop performing by the Nazi regime and all their recordings and movies were trashed.
Joe encouraged members to watch or search for info about the group to learn more. Alex Chen will be helping the chapter explain the package and why the performance goal is to share this important close harmony success with the large audience of fellow close harmony performers such as Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) singers.
Music is nearly ready to release to members to start learning. Auditions for members to be the six Harmonists have been held.
At this point in the evening, both ensembles gathered in the sanctuary to sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” with Joe directing. Chapter executive director, Stan Quick, managed the chapter business meeting that included reminders about the busy end-of-year activities.
On Tuesday, Nov. 18, AACC will sing in Old Town to promote attendance at the holiday shows – meet at Market Square at 7 pm. Prepare for the weather. On Nov. 25 and Dec. 2 the meetings will be back at AlexRenew. Sunday, Dec. 7 some members will sing holiday music for Blue Star Families in Falls Church. Then the Dec. 9 meeting will be back at Fairlington Presbyterian prior to the shows.
AACC will have their traditional holiday carol sing again in Old Town on Tues. Dec. 16. There will be no rehearsals on Dec. 23 and 30. The Jan. 6 meeting will be the traditional kickoff session for the 2026 year and also the chapter’s next Put Together Quartet Contest – as the name implies, members are encouraged to “put together” a quartet and enter the fun. Usually some BHS friends are the judges. Rules and details to come soon.
Joe spoke to all about Giving Tuesday on Dec. 2 (a national day for donations to not-for-profits). He suggests that members might consider making small donations (like under $25) themselves and encourage friends and families to make small donations too. Then chapter community board member, Carolyn Griffin, spoke to the chapter. She was a recipient of the Chapter’s Award of Harmony several years ago and has served on the chapter board since. She is artistic director of Metro Stage. She shared her thoughts with members about making significant donations for the end-of-year campaign for AACC. She explained the philosophy that since the chapter does not charge membership dues, it was felt members might find it possible to make donations to the campaign that would equal dues and more. She also suggested members consider the value of the vocal training they receive and the relaxation and enjoyment from singing in the chorus when considering how they might step up to the challenge of the campaign.
Chapter secretary, Cy Shuster, presented membership renewal cards for two AACC members: Antony Takahashi for 23 years, and Bob Blair for 25 years who also received his 25-year pin.
Membership director, Jacob Broude, welcomed two new chapter members this week – Susan Friel and Cooper Schwartz. He welcomed five returning guests: Billy Ermlick, Logan Glauser, Devante Lucas, Jerry Condrilli III, and Todd Minners. Three first-time guests were Jordyn Best, Tameria Macari and Illaina Macari. Some former active Harmonizers were on hand this week – Adam Afifi, Stephen Gudauskas, Jim Kirkland, and Troy Hillier. The chapter welcome song was directed by Jason Lee, assistant director of the Harmonizers.
During the separate rehearsal period for Metro Voices, they bid farewell to Callie Cirillo, who is moving from the Metro Area.
Associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo, led their work session on their holiday music. They met on the risers in the sanctuary.
The two ensembles gathered for the close of the evening’s activities and for AACC to sing the chapter’s signature tag, “A Lifetime’s Not Too Long to Live as Friends” for Callie. Then Steve Armstrong directed “Keep the Whole World Singing” before the riser crew took things down and folks adjourned to the afterglow.
The afterglows continue each Tuesday night at Joe’s home, 3916 Stevens St, Alexandria 22311, right after the chapter meeting. It’s fun and there is a space for tag singing, and goodies like pizza and chips and drinks. All AACC members are welcome. There is plenty of street parking too.
In other AACC news, reports from the leadership crew of Capital Force – all is good, attendance still strong, and much progress is being made on their songs.
Also, many thanks to Carey Fagerstrom for her thorough report from the Harmony, Inc. contest and convention in Hershey, PA, Nov. 5-8. Great to learn about all of the AACC members and chapter friends and coaches who were part of that event.
AACC at Harmony Incorporated's (HI) 2025 International Contest and Convention (IC&C) Report
Wednesday November 5th
At the opening ceremony for the convention, Tessa Walker Sifuentes was acknowledged for her work as the HI Youth Programs Coordinator. She also made two presentations in that role: the first for the renaming of the HI Youth Program to HYPE or Harmony for Youth Performance and Engagement; the second for the presentation of the HI Youth Member of the Year. Both Parkside Harmony and Parkside Melody were special performing guests at the ceremony and the two ensembles also performed together with a surprise appearance of Samantha Tramack featured in the opening and closing quartet of their last song “Parting Glass.” And finally, Chris Buechler was recognized for his many contributions to the HI Judging program and was gifted lifetime affiliate membership to HI.
After the opening ceremony, Tessa was seen organizing and signing up people to ‘Sing With The Queens,’ an event that raises money for the youth programs of HI.
Thursday November 6th
The day started with education classes which featured two led by AACC members and coaches: Steve Armstrong with a class on ‘Looking Inside the Music: Brother Can You Spare a Dime,’ and Samantha with a class on ‘Musicianship Gamified.’
The judging panel for the contests this week included Steve Armstrong (Musicality), Jay Butterfield (Singing), Alan Lamson (Admin), and Chris Buechler (Admin/Panel Chair). Seen volunteering backstage for the contests was John Sifuentes.
There was a new event this year: a tag contest. Seen performing was a quartet that included Tessa (tenor), Diane Reynolds (lead), Cathy DeCoste (baritone) [Both the lead and baritone are members of New England Voices in Harmony], and John (bass) singing “Sunshine is Bidding the Day Goodbye.”
Friday November 7th
The day started with the chorus contest and saw Tessa performing with the mic tester chorus, Northern Blend (2024 Chorus Champions). Singing 2nd in the contest was Diane Morrical in Bella Nova Chorus under the direction of Richard Lewellen. Singing 8th in the contest was Samantha and Carey Fagerstrom in New England Voices in Harmony under the direction of Renee Tramack. Bella Nova and Diane won fourth place medals while New England Voices In Harmony, Carey and Samantha, won second place medals.
In the evening was the Parade of Champions, which was produced this year by Tessa and Samantha. Seen performing in this show were Tessa, Samantha and Maggie McAlexander with the Association of Harmony Queens Chorus. Tessa also performed with outgoing chorus champions Northern Blend. Maggie performed with her quartet SPOT ON (2013 Quartet Champions), while Samantha performed with SHOWCASE (2009 Quartet Champions) and her quartet TAKEN 4 GRANITE (2016 Quartet Champions). ROULETTE (2024 Quartet Champions) had a shout out to Maggiebefore performing her arrangement of “I'm Coming Back As A Man.” Spotted in the crowd were Patricia Chow andDavid Breen.
Saturday November 8th
Like Thursday. this day also started with education classes. Bill Colosimo talked about ‘The Joy of Mixed Barbershop Singing,’ while BROUHAHA taught a master class with a special appearance by LAZY SUSAN quartet: Kim Newcombe (tenor), Ali Hauger (lead), Melody Hine (baritone), Samantha (bass).
After the quartet finals contest, Tessa was seen directing Northern Blend chorus during ROULETTE’S swan song set; the first song was an eight part arrangement featuring the quartet. During the song the chorus was joined on stage by many of the coaches and friends of ROULETTE including Richard Lewellen, John, Samantha, Renee, Steve Tramack, and David Wright. After the song Tessa returned to the stage to present ROULETTE's tenor, Morgan LaCroix, her permanent crown.
After the presentation of awards and medals, and the medalist fanfare, Tessa, Samantha and Maggie were part of the Association of Harmony Queens who welcomed the new HI Queens, SYNERGY, into the group.
In the evening there was the Showcase of Champions. Tessa was the emcee for the show. Diane performed with Bella Nova as the fourth place chorus, while Samantha and Carey performed with New England Voices in Harmony as the second place chorus. During the performance by the new HI Queens, SYNERGY, Joe Cerutti was thanked as one of their coaches this year.
Following the showcase there was an afterglow that spanned multiple rooms and hallways with lots of singing including performances by LAZY SUSAN. Julian LaFlore was spotted teaching and singing tags in one such hallway.
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 77th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)
The Chapter Mission Statement: Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.
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