Looking Back on the July 14, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
There was a full-house for this week-after-International meeting with both the Harmonizers and Metro Voices together much of the evening to celebrate and make more great music! Dean Rust was sporting a “We Are Proud of You” balloon tied to his name tag, and Samantha Tramack was sporting a blue ribbon with a shiny gold medal around her neck. When she arrived, the hall burst into cheers.
Jason Lee, assistant director of the Harmonizers, led a good warm up session for the singers in chairs in the board room at AlexRenew.
Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, welcomed everyone back after such a wonderful experience in St. Louis. Then he shared news from the recent AACC music team meeting that the fall show will be cancelled. Finding a venue is one reason. The plan is to find a more informal venue or setting for something in the fall.
He confirmed that next week the July 21 AACC meeting will be at Fairlington Presbyterian Church and then July 28 will be back at AlexRenew.
Joe alerted members that they need to sign up for appearances ASAP on Groupanizer – especially the Aug. 20 show at Nottaway Park, and then the Thursday, Feb. 4, appearance at the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) Midwinter convention in Virginia Beach. The music team needs to know who will be doing those shows before officially committing to the appearances. Members should stay tuned about possible bus transportation to Virginia Beach.
Then it was time to sing! Joe had the AACC chorus sing through “Parting Glass” three or four times. And then the two ensembles went to separate rehearsal spaces to work on songs for the upcoming shows. The Harmonizers worked on “The Barber of Seville” and Joe used sectional duets to rehearse the music and then invited guys to volunteer to sing it in an octet. Metro Voices worked on some of their show music too.
Joe presented 2026 gold medals to Randy Lazear, Joel Golden and Antony Takahashi who had to leave St. Louis before the ceremony there. It was great to see Chuck Powell back on the risers with the Harmonizers. Mark Klostermeyer presented a framed replica of a poster promoting the original Comedian Harmonists to Joe for his collection.
President Craig Kujawa reported some extra thank yous for International: for Ken Rub and Patrick Horne who drove the Harmo truck there and back; to Maggie McAlexander who created the Jumbotron ads for the chapter; and to the 30 members of AACC who bought gift cards to pay for hotel costs and earned nearly $3500 for the chapter. Joe paid tribute to Craig who served as convention/contest coordinator on top of being president.
Jacob Broude welcomed a long list of guests and alerted members that there will be a guest night on Tuesday, Aug. 25. The goal is for each member to bring a singing guest. This week’s guests included Jonathon Meyers, Patrick Lawson, Elizabeth Halford, Ruth Catlett, Andy Budzinski, Matthew Dacanay, Serena Davis and David Strasser, plus the CHEF’S KISS quartet from Montgomery County – Mark Magpantay, Isaac Teheren, Danny Ameduite and Ivan Diehl - that sang a couple songs for the chapter.
There was a break about 8:30 pm and everyone enjoyed the various treats and lemonade some members brought in to share to celebrate the chapter’s success at International.
Following the break, Terry Reynolds did his traditional statistical review of the scores and history markers for the chapter and its ensembles (there were some new things to report with a second ensemble these days). There were laughs when he referred to all the “Geeks” who like this sort of thing! Just a few notes from his presentation: the performance score for the Harmonizers was a record. Samantha is the only gold medal quartet winner in Harmonizer or Metro Voices history. Steve White is the only Harmonizer to have sung in every one of their International contest appearances. Finally, the Harmonizers are tied with Cincinnati for the most medals ever. When he was done, the gang cheered “Terry!, Terry!, Terry!”
As is the tradition, Joe invited any first timers who sang on the stage in either ensemble to share their thoughts and reactions and perspectives. There were about ten who raised their hand to share very personal thoughts. The common themes included the joy to be included and welcomed so warmly; the pride of the quality and work ethic; a discovery of the administrative and musical leadership that makes the chapter run at such a high level; understanding the ranking of the chapter in the BHS community; and developing an appreciation for what barbershop harmony can be!
Joe ended the comments with his thanks to all and his challenges to keep the ball-in-the-air. One challenge is the need to find ways to fund the chapter operation with grants and fundraising. Certainly there is a need to continue to grow the size of each ensemble. And finally, the unwritten magic is the volunteer leadership service members will need to contribute to the operation of a great barbershop chapter.
Before this week’s 50/50 drawing led by Alan Wile, Joe thanked Kathy Kauffmann for the mementos she created for each ensemble and presented to each member before taking the stage at the contest.
Joe added to things in his part of the room, challenging YeEd to make a note of every detail for this report. Samantha Tramack directed “Keep the Whole World Singing,”
Before leaving the hall, members took advantage of the service from Tyler Carpenter to have their medal engraved or to have a replacement name tag created. A big crowd made it to the afterglow at the Harmo House for pizza and lots of story-telling from St. Louis.
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 78th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)
The Chapter Mission Statement Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.
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