Looking Back on the August 18, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
The outdoor sing in Old Towne Alexandria on Tuesday, Aug. 18, continued a long-standing summer tradition for the chapter. This year there were some changes since the City Hall and adjacent Market Square are closed for construction. So the gathering point at 7 pm was at the corner of Union and King Streets – an entrance into the Torpedo Factory. The AACC chorus was well attended for both the Harmonizers and Metro Voices. Associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo, led a warm session in a nearby alley before the AACC chorus took the stairs (stage) at the Torpedo Factory. Attire was AACC t-shirts or a plain black t-shirt.
Large crowds assembled to listen to the music and applauded with vigor after every song! Chapter leaders had a huge supply of business cards and passed them out to folks as they gathered for the show. Special guests in the audience were Josh Heit, president of the Alexandria Arts Alliance, and AACC community board member, Carolyn Griffin.
The AACC chorus kicked off the show with “I’m Still Standing,” directed by Samantha Tramack. Zak Sandlerdirected “We Will Be One” which he wrote and Lance Fisher arranged for AACC.
Then Tony stepped up to direct the Harmonizers in “Hey Jude” with Matt Ambler doing the solo. That was followed by a first-time performance of “Barber of Seville.”
Metro Voices took the stage with Samantha Tramack directing “Yes I Can,” and their first-time performance of “Preamble.”
A youth quartet, CHEF’S KISS, sang “After You’re Gone” with Ezekiel Ramirez performing the first time with them.
To wrap up the performance, the AACC chorus sang “Parting Glass” with Joe Cerutti directing. The song began with an intro sung by Lance Fisher, Robert Stark and Christine Pan. The. final song was “Defying Gravity” with Christine as soloist.
Songs and soloists were introduced with great enthusiasm by Tony and Joe throughout the evening and included frequent reminders to use welovetosing,org as the way to find out more about the group.
The singers moved to the patio facing the Potomac and did another complete set but interchanged some other songs. The Harmonizers did “Africa” and “I’m Just a Bill” with Zak, Tony Reynolds and Joe adding the comedic narration; Metro Voices did “Somewhere” and “Preamble” with Hannah Drobac as narrator.
The ensemble did one more run of the songs back on the entry stairs before many members headed to Chadwicks for an afterglow. Unlike some years, the weather was terrific this time for the singers and the listeners.
Here are important announcements about the upcoming schedule for AACC.
There was particular importance in the reminder about the Thursday, Aug. 20, outdoor performance at Nottaway Park, 9537 Courthouse Rd., Vienna, VA 22181. It will start at 7:30 pm. Arrival time will be about 6 pm. Uniform will be the AACC t-shirt or any black t-shirt. Sometimes folks have organized picnic dinners or gatherings in the area before report time. NOTE: here again, chapter leadership will issue a call to cancel by 4:30 pm that afternoon.
The celebration for GQ is Monday, Aug. 24, 7 pm, at Towson University.
Looking ahead, the chapter guest night and rehearsal will be on Aug. 25 at AlexRenew. Meetings for the first two Tuesdays of September on the 1st and 8th will also be at AlexRenew. Then for Sept. 15, the meeting will be at Fairlington Presbyterian Church.
As a reminder, the chapter has accepted the invitation to sing Thursday, Feb. 4, at the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) Midwinter convention in Virginia Beach. Members should stay tuned about possible bus transportation to Virginia Beach, and other details.
Also looking ahead, the music team announced that work on holiday music will begin in September.
Terry Reynolds announced the need for “Facebook streamers” for Tuesday nights – members who bring their laptops or such to connect meetings with Facebook users who could not attend in person. Volunteer to Terry if you can help.
In other news related to the AACC: it is time to start recruiting for the new season for the Capital Force youth chorus in the Alexandria A Cappella Collective. To launch the new season, Tessa Walker submitted a call (in announcements in Slack recently) for someone to fulfill a volunteer administrative role for Capital Force youth chorus. Chat with Tessa if you or someone you know might be interested.
Other members of AACC ensembles are encouraged to share information about Capital Force with youth in the area (or their parents) about joining. The first meeting for the 2026-27 season will be on Sunday, Oct. 18 – location to be announced soon as well as the meeting schedule for the new season.
PLUS there is exciting news that Capital Force will take part in the Youth Chorus Festival at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s (BHS) Midwinter convention in Virginia Beach in February 2027!
Tyler Carpenter will continue to engrave new Harmonizer medals or to make a replacement name tag at chapter meetings. Members can bring their medals and give them to Tyler as early as possible at the meeting place so he can do them all. There is a small fee for the engraving.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment