Looking Back on the Feb. 17, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting
Weather was not a factor for the Feb. 17 AACC meeting at Fairlington Presbyterian Church starting at 7 pm.
Jason Lee, assistant director of the Harmonizers, conducted the warm up session for the nearly 65 AACC singers present. After the warm up exercises, he helped them learn “Place on the Risers for You.” He teased them though, and didn’t let them sing the tag, with a promise to do that next week.
Stan Quick presided over a business meeting for all before they concentrated on new music.
Next week the meeting, Feb. 24, will be at AlexRenew, 1800 Limerick St., Alexandria, VA 22314. Steve Armstrong, the arranger for the two Harmonizer contest songs for this summer, will be on hand to add his suggestions and notes to their contest plan. Luckily, the men are really making fast progress on those songs and will be eager to have him share what he had in mind for the arrangements. Steve is a noted coach, judge and director - and friend of the chapter.
Looking ahead: The Wilbur Sparks Memorial Put Together Quartet Contest has been rescheduled for the March 3 chapter meeting at Fairlington Presbyterian. 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.
Stan thanked the members who sang on Feb. 14 in the Alexandria community for Valentine’s Day.
Dean Rustprovided this copy about the day: Brian Ammerman, Jeff Burkey, Ken Rub and Dean Rust represented AACC on this community outreach project. These men were the only signups on Slack but with Ken reverting to bari and Jeff singing lead – they had four parts. Dean arranged visits to five Alexandria senior facilities: Goodwin House, Cogir of Alexandria Fillmore, The View, Woodbine Rehab and Healthcare, and Sunrise of Alexandria. They sang for 140 residents and staff with many breaking into smiles and singing along on the well-known love songs. After singing, the quartet socialized briefly with residents and heard many requests to come back. The quartet left behind specially designed Valentine cards from AACC.
President Craig Kujawa thanked the membership of AACC for their many nominations for 2025 chapter distinguished service awards. The task force appointed by Craig has completed their
considerations and now Craig is interested in any suggestions as to when/where the awards ceremony should be held.
Recently, Terry Reynolds shared a run down on the upcoming activities of the chapter’s youth ensemble.
Sunday, 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 a 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 also 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.
Chapter secretary, Cy Shuster, presented Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) membership renewal cards to the following members: Chad Ross for 4 years; Jeff Berkey for 8 years; Frank Fedarko for 24 years; and Frank Shippfor 24 years.
Membership director, Jacob Broude, reminded members to be sure they have added their photo to Slack. He also showed everyone the new name tags for a member of each ensemble who didn’t remember to wear their name tag – 5x6-inch signs that say, “Oops I forgot my name tag!” (Thanks to Tyler for making the fun tags.) This continues a long-time tradition in the chapter that goes back at least 60 years!
Jacob welcomed two returning guests Todd Miners and Owen Lyons; and three first time guests Joe Drack, Annabel Waggoner, and Dana Wooster. Assistant director of Metro Voices, Maggie McAlexander, led the chapter welcome song.
At this point, the two ensembles moved to work on their music in separate spaces in the church.
Reporter Annie Ermlick, shared that Metro Voices worked on their contest songs, held sectionals to work on “Yes I Can” – a new uptune arranged by Steve Tramack, and then worked on “Preamble.” The Harmonizers worked with their associate director, Tony Colosimo, to iron out more parts of “Harmony” and then progressed to singing it without music. They were preparing for their session next week with arranger Steve Armstrong. The Harmonizers held sectionals on their other contest song, “Stars in the Night.”
The two ensembles regrouped as one to wrap up the work for the night. Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, led them in “Keep the Whole World Singing.” He invited everyone to the HarmoHouse for an afterglow, now that the snow had melted and there was plenty of street parking. A large crowd attended this week including several new dads who were comparing notes about the fun and challenges of raising little ones.
In other chapter news, Dean Rust keeps track of how many people the chapter sings for during the year. He uses the info when he is submitting applications for grants that the chapter might earn. The total for 2025 was 6,044 including over 1,300 for veterans.
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.
