Looking Back on the May 9 One Voice Appearance and the May 13, 2025 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
The combined chorus from the Alexandria A Cappella Collective sang and gave a great appearance as part of the Alexandria choral festival “One Voice” on May 9th at Schlesinger Concert Hall. This was the first appearance with the informal black attire with teal accents.
Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, directed the combined Harmonizers and Metro Voices when they did their songs, “I’m Still Standing” and “Defying Gravity” with Samantha Tramack and Tony Colosimo as soloists. The massed chorus of about 400 singers performed “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “Unified Prayer,” and “Thank You for the Music.” Alexandria mayor, Alyia Gaskins, was the emcee for the performance.
The other groups from the greater Alexandria area included George Washington Middle School Combined Choir, NOVA Community Chorus Chamber Ensemble, The Alexandria Children’s Chorus, Choristers of Westminster Presbyterian Church, The Alexandria Singers, Alexandria City High School Titans Choir, and The Alexandria Choral Society who organized and hosted this first-time festival which was sold out.
After the final run of the show on Friday night, there was a “pizza feed,” with water bottles and other snacks also provided. The weather cooperated and folks enjoyed socializing outside. After the show, chapter members and friends went to the Harmo House for afterglow.
The Collective met Tuesday, May 13, at AlexRenew. Mostly it was a work session on new music for both ensembles. Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, did celebrate the successful performance for the choral festival.
He also stressed that all singers of The Collective should mark their calendars and plan to attend the annual retreat scheduled for July 18-20 at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. The annual event is a great opportunity for serious work on the music, plus a chance for members to meet and socialize with each other and get to know more names to go with the faces we see each week. The two coaches for the weekend will be Darin Drown from Denver, CO, and Cy Wood, our frequent performance coach from Ohio. There will also be a ceremony to present the 2024 distinguished service awards for the chapter.
Great food, relaxing housing on campus close to the meeting space, casual dress, a modest drive up into MD, and always fun. Stay tuned for signing up – talk up car pools and plans for that weekend. Plus expect a few team building surprises from the music team and chapter leadership.
In other news about the chapter, here is a friendly reminder that registration for Harmony College East 2025 is still open! And the weekend is closer than you think!! Get your calendars out and reserve June 12-15, 2025, for the best District barbershop school ANYWHERE! Briefly, here are the particulars: WHAT: Harmony College East 2025; WHERE: The beautiful campus of McDaniel College, Westminster, MD; WHEN: Thursday, June 12 through Sunday, June 15, 2025.
The AACC black t-shirts are available for pick up if you ordered one, or for purchase if you still need one.
Just $10 each. Get your shirt soon for the Harmony College East event or the chapter retreat in July.
The DC Barbershop Chapter, Singing Capital Chorus, has invited other barbershoppers to join them for a gig at Nationals Park on June 8 (Nats vs Texas Rangers). Uniform will be red polo shirt and black slacks and black shoes. Songs will be “Star Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America.” Rehearsal – attend just one Monday night rehearsal before June 8 (except Memorial Day). See http://singingcapitalchorus.org/sing-at-nationals-park/ for details.
To start this week’s rehearsal, associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo, conducted a thorough warm up session. Thanks to operations manager for the chapter, Gary Cregan, and all the members who willingly hauled chairs into the meeting spaces at AlexRenew for this week (and then took them all back to leave the space as we found it).
At this point, chapter admin leader, Terry Reynolds, conducted an orientation session for newer members – focused on contests for the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), judging and related topics. While they met in a separate room, the AACC chorus worked on “Parting Glass” with Joe. At the end of that work, he invited each singer to make a recording to submit.
During the business session, chapter leaders announced a plan to report via Slack, on the takeaways from the annual surveys and interviews of members with chapter leaders (versus taking time for it tonight).
Tyler Carpenter filling in for membership director, Jacob Broude, welcomed guests. First timers were Dana Gupta, AJ’s Mom; Diane Morrical; and Nick Taber. Returning guests were Leah Bernstein; Maumen Alsheakj; Jack Reitwiser; Heather Hilko; and Devin Turner. A new member announced this week was Shira Perlmutter who was given her name tag. Harmonizer assistant director, Jason Lee, directed the chapter “Welcome Song.”
The two AACC ensembles then held their separate rehearsal time. Metro Voices members were excited about a new competition number their leaders played for all to hear – “How Far I’ll Go” arranged by Melody Hine. The Harmonizers were well prepared for a choreography review for “The World Goes Round.” They also worked in sectionals on “Africa” with Lance Fisher helping the tenors, Tony and Matt Ambler helping the leads, Jason helping the baritones, and Calvin Schnure helping basses.
Nick Taber from the Voices of Gotham, directed “Keep the Whole World Singing” before the meeting was adjourned. A good crowd of members made it to the Harmo House for the Tuesday night afterglow and pizza feed.
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.
