Looking Back on the September 22, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
Both the Harmonizers and Metro Voices had a full slate of music to work on this week at their meetings at Fairlington Presbyterian Church. Many of the songs are for the Dec. 12 holiday shows – 3:30 pm and 7 pm at Fairlington United Methodist Church (across the street from our weekly meeting place). ALERT: Singers will need to make plans to stay at the church between the two shows – the chapter will order in some dinner foods. Then everyone will need to be out of the church by 9:30 pm.
Warm ups this week were led by associate director of the Harmonizers, Tony Colosimo. Samantha Tramack, music director of Metro Voices, led the AACC singers in several rounds of “Once Upon a Dream;” and then Tony had the chorus sing a tag a couple times.
After the warm up work, artistic director, Joe Cerutti, led work on a new song, “Tribute to World Peace” which will be the finale for the holiday show. That was followed with work on “Welcome Christmas. Then Joe had the singers regroup to stand in the 8-part sections for “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”
Here are calendar notes: on Sept. 29, Metro Voices will meet at Fairlington Presbyterian while the Harmonizers will be singing in Old Towne that night. On Oct. 6 both ensembles will meet at the church. And then on Oct. 13, the Harmonizers will rehearse at the church and Metro Voices will sing in Old Towne.
There will not be a sing-out on Oct. 14.
The fellowship event with the Harmonizers and the Alfred Street Baptist Men’s Gospel Choir will be held at the Fairlington Methodist Church and fellowship hall on Oct. 20. Call time is 6:30 pm. Black t-shirts for attire. The Harmonizers will sing their recent contest package songs “Harmony” and “Stars in the Night.” Metro Voices will meet at Fairlington Presbyterian Church that night.
AACC chorus members will be singing a welcoming to Veterans arriving on Honor flights at National Airport this fall. There are two flights each day - Oct. 10 between 7-10 am, and Nov. 7 between 8-11 am. Sign-ups are needed to boost the number of singers. E.J. Herold organizes these service projects to welcome military veterans to the Nation’s Capital. All AACC singers are welcome to attend as there is printed music available for the basic patriotic songs that will be sung in a comfortable key for all. Learning tracks are also available on Groupanizer for most of the music. Attire will be the black t-shirts.
The Culture Team has organized a social event at Cox Farm on Sunday, Nov. 1 from 11 am to 4 pm. Members interested in attending should contact Culture Team members and make a reservation/payment of $30 by Sept. 30!. Don’t pay or register with Cox but with a Culture Team member – Becca Williams, Kellen Hertz or Matt Darouse. The chapter will have the pavilion there as part of the fall festival for friends and family of AACC - at 15621 Braddock Rd., Centreville, VA 20120, at the corner of Braddock Rd., and Pleasant Valley Rd.
AACC singers are asked to encourage youth singers to attend the opening meeting of Capital Force for the 2026-27 season which runs from October to March. Fee is $30 for the season – scholarships are available. One way to do that is to contact families of singers in 7th -12th grades to sign up and bring their youth to the rehearsal Sunday, Oct. 18, from 2:30 – 4:30 pm with Tessa Walker as music director. Another way to help if to print flyers for the Oct. 18 event from Slack and bring them to the up-coming sing-outs in Old Town to pass out.
The Culture leadership team recognized quartets that will be competing in the Mid-Atlantic District convention and contest Oct. 2-3 at the Middle Township Performing Arts Center in Cape May, NJ. Quartets with AACC members will sing in the following order in the Friday night contest session that starts at 5 pm: SUPERNOVA with Maggie McAlexander and Tessa Walker sings second; SIDE HUSTLE with Tanner Perdue, Matt Darouse, Ian Trent andCooper Schwartz sings eighth; BREAKTHROUGH with Mike Fasano, Jordan Zimmerman, Jason Lee and Ken White sings ninth; FANTASTIC 4 with Susan Friel, Heidi Brown, and Paul Grimes sings tenth; and BETTER TOGETHER with Elizabeth Colosimo, Heather Havens, Tony Colosimo and Andrew Havens sings sixteenth. Good luck to all of our quartets! GQ, 2026 International Gold Medal Quartet with Samantha Tramack, will appear during the convention as well.
Devin Turner, from the Membership Triad, recognized the most recent AACC member added to the roster – Jamie Bazen.
Then he welcomed retuning guests who were back this week: Ben Bugajski, Ethan Hattingh, Brianna Hara, Heather Blackhurst, John Ferri, and Carl Pankin. There were also two first-time guests this week: Matt Balfour and Holly Faust. Maggie McAlexander directed the chapter welcome song.
New members to the chapter were invited to an orientation session in the library at the church with Joe Cerutti as presenter.
After the AACC rehearsal, Tony led Harmonizers rehearsal until Joe was finished with the orientation. The men’s ensemble worked on holiday songs, a sing though of the recent contest package as it will be used frequently in the months ahead (such as at the Alfred Street event); and worked on “Barber of Seville” which Joe wants to use in the months ahead as well. He also shared the fun news that the creative team of Cy Wood, Steve Armstrong and David McEachern have been at work to recommend the contest package for the Harmonizers for 2028. Joe promised to share their plan soon!
Likewise, Patricia Chow reports that Leah Musico led Metro Voices in a physical warm up session this week. Then the ensemble worked on "Christmastime Is Here" and "Stop the World." The last song of the evening was the "Queen Anointed / Vuelie" medley where we worked in sectionals and brought it together at the end of the rehearsal.
At 9:30 pm, the two ensembles regrouped as AACC chorus and Joe directed “Keep the Whole World Singing” and invited folks to the HarmoHouse for afterglow. Even though it was a rainy cold night, there was a good crowd at the house to visit, to sing tags and to enjoy pizza.
Good news to hear that CHEF’S KISS quartet competed in the second annual Parkside, PA, chapter’s novice quartet contest Sept. 19 in Lancaster. They placed fifth in a close scored contest. The quartet includes Ivan Diehl, tenor; John Mark Magpantay, lead; Zeke Ramirez, baritone, and Danny Ameduiet, bass. Maggie McAlexander and Kevin Mendez were on the judging panel.
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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