Looking Back on the May 27, 2025 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
This week’s meeting was back at AlexRenew after a fun evening in Old Town last week.
Warm up sessions for the Harmonizers and for Metro Voices were conducted separately before each ensemble began their work session on repertoire. Associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo, conducted the warm ups for that group. Then artistic director, Joe Cerutti, explained some details about upcoming Harmonizer events. First off, the chorus will not sing at the Joyce Garrett tribute at Alfred Street Baptist but instead meet with their men’s choir in the fall for a sing and social event.
Second, Joe explained that in preparation for a performance coaching session June 10 (note this change in date) withCy Wood, there would be visual assessments (starting tonight) conducted by Turner Arndt and Bruce Roehm to help prepare for riser placements before the coaching session. Joe also took a minute to tell the many new members about Cy as the frequent performance coach for the chorus. Individuals left the rehearsal for five to seven minutes to meet with Bruce and Turner in the nearby breakout room.
Third, Joe reported on the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) UnConvention recently in Nashville. He was there as a BHS staff member, and FIRST TAKE quartet with Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo and Andrew Havens, was there as part of the major show event.
The song run-down for the Harmonizers work this week included “Parting Glass,” “Come Follow The Band” in order to be ready for performance coaching, “Africa,” and then a quick sing-through of “Calling Dreams” and “Sit Down You’re Rockin the Boat.”
For Metro Voices, director, Samantha Tramack, conducted a fun warm up session for that group, according to reporter, Annie Ermlick. After that, they worked in sectionals on specific measures in the new contest ballad, “How Far I’ll Go.” Samantha brought all singers back together to run the song so they could record it. After the business session, Metro Voices worked on “Parting Glass,” ”Somewhere” and their new medley arranged by Maggie McAlexander “Where You Lead/Together We Can.” Their rehearsal time ended with a sing-through of their contest uptune “World Here I Am.”
The two ensembles combined for a business session with announcements from Joe. He thanked all the singers who participated in the Old Town Alexandria walk and sing performance. It was a great night and fun to have such enthusiasm from the singers and the audience.
Joe also encouraged all singers of the Collective to 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 Collective. 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.
He also reiterated the importance of the self-recording process – not as a punitive device but a learning and skills growing method for all singers.
Then Joe invited comments and questions about the recent video messages released by he, Samantha and Terry Reynolds regarding take away notes from this year’s member interviews. There were some good points and questions including a brief discussion on the deficient volunteer numbers among the singers in the Collective understanding that the group is composed of highly professional, extremely busy and involved singers. Some of the newer members also thanked Terry for the statistical input.
Those members intending to sing for the military Honors Flights on Saturday, May 31, were asked to stay after tonight’s meeting to go over the songs. Terry had copies of music for all singers and black folders for them to carry the music in for the appearance at National Airport. He will be directing the group for an assortment of patriotic songs for the 8, 9, 10 and 11 am flights. Dress will be AACC t-shirts and jeans.
Membership director, Jacob Broude, welcomed back members Jeff Burkey, Jim Kirkland, and Mick Stamps who have been away. Then he welcomed seven returning guests: Devin Turner, Diane Morrical, Heather Hilko, Muaman Alsheakh, Carl Parkin, Brigit Gilvary, and Jack Reitwiser. Terry directed the chapter “Welcome Song.”
Here is a reminder that registration for Harmony College East 2025 closes on June 5! 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 from Terry Reynolds for the Harmony College East event or the chapter retreat in July.
After the business session, Jack Pitzer and Don Harrington, representing the AACC history committee, visited with Metro Voices to give them each one of the new 75th anniversary brochures and to ask for representatives of their ensemble to join the committee. Heidi Brown stepped up and offered to help get a start on collecting history of this new ensemble. Anyone who needs a history book should contact Jack
There was another orientation session this week for new members – this one hosted by Stan Quick.
In other chapter news, chapter leaders have confirmed that the Collective will receive another significant grant ($10,000) from the City of Alexandria for FY2025. Dean Rust and Craig Kujawa get credit for making sure it happened again this year. Ken Rub joined Dean at the Tuesday night meeting of the grant issuing body on May 20 in Alexandria.
Also, members are encouraged to offer their input for new songs for the year ahead as we honor and recognize the 250thanniversary of the United States and the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Brad Jones, chair of the repertoire committee, issued guidelines for making suggestions via Slack.
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 tan slacks (note this color change from last week’s message) 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.
Ooops – the tenor in INSTAGRAMPS quartet is Rick Taylor – not Rick Savage as reported last week. Still congrats are in order for their ranking for the senior quartet contest at Midwinter in January 2026.
Congratulations to Ike Evans who has played tuba in the Virginia Grand Military Band concerts for many years. Last Saturday was the last concert for the band composed of about 100 former and current military band members. The finale was due to retirements of administrative leadership and costs for concert venues. The band was founded in 1995 to promote and preserve the tradition of live performances of traditional, concert, symphonic, and marching band music. Ike played at their concerts starting in 1997.
After the 50/50 drawing at this week’s Collective meeting, Lance Fisher directed “Keep the Whole World Singing” before members adjourned for tags and refreshments at the Harmo House. Chuck Hunter was in town from Chicago and made it to the afterglow for his passion of tag singing.
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.
