Looking Back on the Feb. 10, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
On Feb.10, weather was less of a problem, but roads were still a challenge in some areas where the snow piles took up half of the right hand lanes or piles of ice were in turn lanes of intersections.
But the chapter moved on and held its first guest night for 2026 for AACC. Membership director, Jacob Broude, had organized a great evening at Fairlington Presbyterian Church starting at 7 pm for prospective members for both ensembles of AACC.
There were 11 guests who attended at the invitation of members or who attended because of virtual invites from the chapter. Guests were Brie Hebron, Naz Siddeeq, Lisa Stevenson, Bruce Stevenson, Bob Mills, Jamie Brazen, Todd Minners, Robert Van Horn, Alaina Forte, Mary LaBorie, and Brennen Martin.
The evening’s program launched about 7:30 after members and guests visited and got to know each other and guests could get the lay-of-the-land. Early arriving members had set up chairs in the social hall of the church and all singers took seats to prepare for the warm up session followed by singing “whose pigs are these” in a round. Both were conducted by assistant director of Metro Voices, Maggie McAlexander. She also taught a tag to the combined singers – “Tho I’m Gone for a Long, Long Time.”
Chapter admin leader, Terry Reynolds conducted a brief business meeting for the chapter. First he reported on the successful appearance of an octet of AACC members who sang at the Danish embassy at the invitation of the Princess to celebrate her birthday. The octet included Matt Ambler, Rob Stark, Lance Fisher, Kellen Hertz, Ben Raja, Jacob Broude, Ken Rub, and Terry Reynolds.
Terry included a run down on the upcoming activities of the chapter’s youth ensemble. March 1 they will celebrate Youth Harmony Day at the Lee Center from 2-6 pm. Other groups invited to participate include the Children’s Chorus of Washington, Alexandria Children’s Chorus, and the GenOUT Youth Chorus from the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.
On March 19, the AACC chapter will support another day-long choral festival for schools in DC. This is a major event for the chapter in cooperation with music educators in the DC School system.
Sheryl Berlin, admin for Capital Force, announced that AACC members will be needed to manage admin and support activities for both events such as providing bottled waters and snacks and set-up duties. Stay tuned for signup opportunities.
Finally, Capital Force will have their wrap-up concert for this season, on Sunday, March 22. Both Metro Voices and the Harmonizers will sing on that concert.
Terry emphasized the need for AACC members to submit their pre-interview survey in advance of their assigned interview time. Check schedules for interviews published in Slack and posted at the chapter meeting. Members are asked to contact Terry directly if it turns out they can’t make the interview on the date assigned. This is all part of the chapter’s major effort to interview all singers each year to get a pulse on their needs, concerns, ideas or suggestions. Interviews will be done by musical directors and/or section leaders.
Jacob formally welcomed all guests and thanked them for attending. He spoke some about the chapter and the plans for the rest of the meeting. He also presented a name tag to the newest member, Josh Frakes.
At this point, the two ensembles moved to work on their music in separate spaces in the church. Both of the groups took time during their rehearsal to offer explanations about barbershop, about typical activities of a chapter meeting such as tag singing, and some starting points for new members.
Next, it was time for a short break, to regroup, maybe sing the tag, and take seats in the hall for guests to hear each ensemble sing for them. Samantha Tramack led Metro Voices sing their medley of “When You Leave” and “Together We Can” arranged by Maggie McAlexander. Terry Reynolds led the Harmonizers to sing “Wonderful World.” The combined AACC chorus, directed by Samantha, sang the new song “We Are One” that was written by Zak Sandlerand arranged by Lance Fisher.
Final event for the night was a fun time using the tag again so Maggie reviewed it with the singers. Then Becca Williams and Devin Gerzof organized all attendees into six groups around the room with the assignment to include one or two of the guests and create new words to the same tag that would share something about the guest. Some examples of the tags include “his name is Brennen, and he needs a job,” or “Sheryl taught me in high school,” or “Mary has a beagle and the beagle died.”
Looking ahead: The Wilbur Sparks Memorial Put Together Quartet Contest has been rescheduled for the March 3 chapter meeting. Members still looking for fellow singers to form a quartet can get help from music team leaders. Quartets can be mixed genders, guests can sing in the contest, quartets can sing a whole song or just a tag, costumes and comedy have always been a popular part of the event and in fact, there are awards for the best comedy group.
Good wishes to fellow members who will accept the call for singers for Valentine’s Day in the DMV. Frank Fedarko and Dean Rust coordinate this project.
The meeting ended with a few farewell remarks from Johan Westberg who is relocating permanently to Sweden. He was invited to direct “Keep the Whole World Singing.”
In other chapter news, just discovered that one of our members, Muamen Alsheakh, sang with his youth quartet, BOYSEN BLUE, on the Friday show during the BHS MidWinter convention.
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 77th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)
The Chapter Mission Statement: Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.
