Looking Back on the April 21, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the April 21, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting 

A good number of AACC singers were on hand for this week to work on music for contest and shows. To kick things off, Tony Colosimo, associate director of the Harmonizers, led the warm up session for all.  He continued the work on “A Place on the Risers for You,” the song used when a person is leaving the AACC. He had the singers get into sections on the risers and then each section sang the song with words whole the other three sections hummed.

 

Artistic director, Joe Cerutti, congratulated FANTASTIC 4 for their success at the recent Northern Division contest.  

 

He reminded everyone that for the next three weeks, the chapter meetings will be at AlexRenew.  Chad Rosscoordinated the take down and movement of risers to our truck this week, so they can be used for those meetings. 

 

A major show opportunity has come to the chapter for Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.  It will be to sing at a major banquet event for  the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). Sign up response will be conducted via Groupanizer to confirm there are enough singers available. The combined AACC chorus will fill this 20 minute time slot.  (The Harmonizers sang for the group in 2020.)

 

To get started singing, Samantha Tramack, director of Metro Voices, worked with the AACC chorus on one of the newer songs in the repertoire, “We Will Be One.”

 

There was a brief business meeting period: Sheryl Berlin promoted registration/attendance at Harmony College East (HCE) – a weekend barbershop educational opportunity organized by the Mid Atlantic District (M-AD). It will be June 18-21 at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD.  A number of AACC musical leaders will help staff and teach at the event; plus typically, several of our quartets that are headed to the International contest in July will go to HCE for one last chance to tighten their performances with help from coaches at HCE. Individual singers are encouraged to attend too, maybe take voice lessons, or attend as a quartet with three other singers. Registration can be managed at midatlanticdistrict.com. 

 

Ken Rub talked about Spring-2-ACTion, our Spring Giving Awareness Event. Our goal as an organization is $30,000. There is a power hour from 3-4 pm on Wednesday, April 22 – the chapter concentrates on this hour to make donations – for example, there are prizes for the non-profit that turns in the most donations from the most different email addresses.

 

Cy Schuster gave out membership renewal cards to Jason Lee for 24 years and Jerry Candrilli for 25 years.  

 

Jacob Broude introduced three returning guests, Sarah Lott, Dana Wooster and Mike Zelno. First time guests wereEllie Gonzalez and Jacob Bankston in town for a conference. He is director of the Austin, TX, barbershop chapter.

 

The CHEF’S KISS quartet of college students from MD came to visit again and sang “Georgia On My Mind” for the chapter. Quartet members are John Mark Magpantay, Isaac Teberen, Danny Amednite and Ivan Diehl. 

 

Maggie McAlexander lead the AACC in singing the chapter welcome song for all the guests. 

 

On Memorial Day Saturday, the main coaches for the Harmonizer contest set will be here to coach the “Harmonists” and other characters for the Harmonizer’s contest package. The morning session is closed to just those players. Then, later - although it is not a mandatory event - chorus members are encouraged to attend mid-afternoon to observe, give feedback and understand the vision. 

 

Regarding the work on choreography for the package, Harmonizers should work to get up to snuff in that area. They are required to video themselves by May 9^th and upload it to Harmonizer recordings. Since videos are such large files, chapter leaders will work out a system, maybe Dropbox, to share the video. Also all members may “like and share” videos about the contest set on social media. The full mix and script for the contest set is posted on Slack under Harmo Performing Chorus. 

 

After announcements, the Harmonizers and Metro Voices moved into separate rehearsal rooms. Both ensembles posted riser charts for members to note in lining up for rehearsal this week. 

 

Joe with help from Turner Arndt coached and reviewed/drilled choreography with the Harmonizers for “Harmony.” When the two ensembles switched rooms, they worked on “Stars in the Night.” To round out the singing, they worked more on the show song, “I’m Just a Bill.” 

 

Annie Ermlick reported that Metro Voices worked on their contest song “Yes I Can” starting in sections with Samantha Tramack and Maggie McAlexander coaching and helping with corrections and choreography. After switching rooms, this ensemble worked on their other contest song, “Me and the Sky.”  

 

To wrap up the evening, the ensembles met back on the risers for any final announcements, a count for pizza slices for the afterglow at the Harmo House, and then the usual 50/50 drawing before “Keep the Whole World Singing.”

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 77^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

The Chapter Mission Statement: Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.

 

 

 

Looking Back on the April 14, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting .

 Looking Back on the April 14, 2026 Alexandria A Cappella Collective Chapter Meeting 

(Dave Ermlick prepared this week’s report because Jack Pitzer was celebrating their 60^th wedding anniversary with his family. Congratulations.)

 

Joe Cerutti led the warm-ups for the AACC singers at AlexRenew in Old Towne Alexandria. He moved on to focus on A Place on the Risers for You, the song used when a person is leaving the AACC. Great news - we made it all the way through! We will use this song for warm-ups the next few weeks and then put it aside.

 

Joe announced two Honors Flights on May 16^th and May 30^th. Please sign up on Groupanizer.

Next week’s rehearsal is at Fairlington Presbyterian, then back at Alex Renew.

 

Joe and Ken Rub talked about Spring-2-ACTion, our Spring Giving Awareness Event. Our goal as an organization is $20,000 in donations, and members are encouraged to set their own goals. As we have done in the past, there is a competition between the voice parts for “a new car, a trip to Hawaii, or bragging rights- actual prize to be determined later.” Ken talked about how to set up your Giving Page, and he actually role-played how to ask friends and relatives to donate. 

 

Jacob Broude introduced two returning guests, Sarah Lott and Brie Hebron.

 

Cy Schuster gave out membership renewal cards to Rob Santini (3 yrs.), Calvin Schnure (31 yrs.), and Dean Rust (46 yrs.). There was also word via email that Scott Werner, former chorus director and retired now in FL, received his 63-year card recently at his new chapter. 

 

On Memorial Day Saturday, the main coaches for the Harmonizer contest set, Steve Armstrong and Cy Wood, will be here to coach the “Harmonists” and other characters for the Harmonizer’s contest package. The morning session is closed to just those players. Then, later - although it is not a mandatory event - chorus members are encouraged to attend mid-afternoon to observe, give feedback and understand the vision. More details to come. 

 

Regarding the work on choreography for the package, Harmonizers should work to get up to snuff in that area. They are required to video themselves by May 9^th and upload it to Harmonizer recordings. Since videos are such large files, chapter leaders will work out a system, maybe Dropbox, to share the video. Also all members may “like and share” videos about the contest set on social media. The full mix and script for the contest set is posted on Slack under Harmo Performing Chorus. 

 

After announcements, the Harmonizers and Metro Voices moved into separate rehearsal rooms. Starting in the non-riser room, the Harmonizers focused on the music for Stars in the Night, We Will Be One, and I’m Just a Bill. After switching to the riser room, they focused on the choreography for Harmony. Turner Arndt coached some rough areas. Next week, they will run the entire song with choreography.

 

Annie Ermlick reported that Metro Voices worked on their songs with Samantha Tramack and Maggie McAlexander coaching and helping with corrections and choreography. They also helped the ensemble be sure to incorporate the changes offered during their recent coaching session with Peter Cunningham. Part of their evening included sectional work on their songs. 

 

To wrap up the evening, the usual 50/50 drawing was held.  Patrick Horne won this week and led the AACC singers in Keep the Whole World Singing.

There were a couple AACC members singing at the Mid-Atlantic District (M-AD) Northern Division contest in NJ, April 17-18. FANTATIC 4 with Heidi Brown as lead and Paul Grimes as baritone sang in the finals round and placed seventh. Other AACC members and chapter friends were also working at the convention – Maggie McAlexander was a music judge, coach Peter Cunningham was a singing judge and former member Sean Devine was a performance judge.  Ken Rub and the stage crew worked all weekend to keep the contest sessions running smoothly along with help from Mike Fasano, who is M-AD executive vice president. Julian LeFlore directed a Dream Chorus for the weekend. 

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 77^th year of the Alexandria Chapter. - YeEd)

The Chapter Mission Statement: Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.