Looking Back on the October 2-3, 2009 District Contest and Convention
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
This was another great weekend of success for the chapter up in Lancaster, PA. Steve White reports the chorus has won the M-AD contest ten times in a row and a total of 22 times. Wow! So the 114 point victory was a good one for the record books.
And then you gotta extend congrats to FULL TILT (Cazenas, Aiuto, Frank, S White) for their second place finish and CRUNCH TIME (M Wallen and E Wallen - note that Mike filled in for Brett Thomas who was on his honeymoon this past weekend) for their third place finish. We are proud of you guys for pushing the bar high in this year’s district quartet contest. ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT won that contest. (They are the quartet who helped with our spring youth festival.)
Our other chapter quartets did us proud too. DOWN A FOURTH (Sawyer, Cerutti, W Adams, Kelly) came in 11th and so they were named mic testers for the Saturday nite finals round. And if you weren’t there, you should have seen them test the mics!!! They scooted over to the podium, then grabbed the head set off the back stage guy, then went over to the riser area of the stage and focused their voices up toward the mics used for the chorus contest. It was a crazy bit “enhanced” by their outfits – a perfect copy of ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT clothes, such as the argyle sweater of the tenor, hat on the lead with a purple shirt, colorful golf cap on the bari, and shades on the bass [plus a crazy wig to add hair for our guy to sort of look like their guy].
FRiDAYS! came in 14th and DOWNTOWN came in 19th in the contest. YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT and SURPRISE! sang in the contest as senior quartets ranking second and fifth respectively in that concurrent contest. HIT PARADE with some long-time district quartet champ guys combined to take top seniors quartet and a right to go the mid winter in Tampa.
YeEd noticed the great cheering and support from the chapter members and FRIENDS for our quartets when they were about to go on stage.
This was the first time for the M-AD convention to be in Lancaster at the new convention center. It worked pretty well as a venue – always some little things to work on for next year. Thanks to our guys who are in leadership positions with the district for their hard work to make this change such as president Gary Plaag, treasurer Bob Eckman, secretary Keith Jones, board member Dennis Ritchey and their operations team.
MC for the quartet semi-finals was Sean Devine, lead of OC TIMES. Craig Odell had MC duties for the quartet finals round (taking over duties from daughter Erin who has been MC often at contests lately). Bill Colosimo, Tony’s Dad, was MC for the four hours of the chorus contest. The judging panel included former director Richard Lewellen as singing judge, and former member and a current coach Steve Tramack as music judge. Chuck Harner had many responsibilities as district vp for contest and judging matters. Dixie Kennett was lighting coordinator. Mike Kelly managed the video recording operation for the contest.
The Saturday chorus contest was a busy one for all. First story of the morning was that President Brad had forgotten the chorus contest trophy. So he woke up his wife back in Maryland and talked her into meeting him half way with the big wooden trophy box. Thanks Adele!! Guess we didn’t need to present it to ourselves but that might have been a little over confident; and the trophy is used in the chorus pixs!!!
The Harmonizers had their own bus to get us into town from Willow Valley Resort. Great idea and very helpful. Next year we will all know where the heck they will allow the bus to park and wait! Thanks to our chapter leaders, tho, for planning ahead. Bob Rhome was the logistics guy for the weekend and he did a ton of work that made it easy for all to “get into” this new convention location. He produced a great booklet full of info we all needed to navigate. Bill Depuy was Harmo truck driver!
YeEd noticed the Harmo banner up front by the stage! Good work guys!!!
The chorus contest started mighty early on Saturday – luckily the Harmonizers sang last at about 2 pm. It was great to see Kellen Hertz, Edris Qarghah and Pete Frank back on the risers to sing “Clap Yo Hands” and “You Tell Me Your Dream” with the chorus for the contest after their recent departures to college and new job. Also it was neat that the new venue included rehearsal space for all contestants and so our guys were plenty visible in the chapter’s teal blue shirts.
The first place finish in the district chorus contest means the Harmonizers will be the district representatives in the International chorus contest in Philly on July 4th, 2010. Second place chorus was Hamilton Square, NJ, (formerly Easton). Dundalk was third. Manhattan was fourth.
It is always fun to try to spot former members or even current members who sang with other choruses in the contest: Fred Womer in Harrisburg; John Knight with Westchester; Paul Lynch, Mike Geipel and David Wilt with Mike Wallen in Richmond; Paul Laurenz, Bob Wilson and Brian Chopp in James River; Steve Plumb and Joe’s Dad in Manhattan; and then McFarland, Yates, Griffith and Hirsh with Rick Taylor in Dundalk.
The chapter got a couple plugs for their upcoming shows from MCs during the weekend. And then Joe gave the July show with Westminster a plug when he spoke on Saturday nite during the show of champions. We also had some colorful flyers scattered all around the venue promoting our show line up for the months ahead. Again, good work by our chapter leaders.
During the show of champs, the chorus sang “Great Day” and “Ave Maria” and then ended with our classy production of “New York, New York.” Newest member Ken Henderson managed to slip onto stage for one song of the set. Congrats. Gary Plaag was MC for the show part of Saturday nite.
A major honor was bestowed one our guys this weekend. Chuck Harner was named to the M-AD Hall of Honor in recognition for his years of contribution to district matters. He is joined by 15 other of his brother Harmonizers on that list – see page 40 of the recent chapter directory.
Alan Wile, as chair of the district Endowment Fund drive, organized a dinner between Saturday events in the Freedom Center. Over four hundred dollars was collected. Attendees got to hear OLD SCHOOL, second place International quartet sing, as well as our chapter friends, FOUR ACES, back together to sing for us. Ed and Nick were in the contest of course and Richard was a judge. And Scott Risley made it back and they sounded great.
During the chorus evaluation session, all 80 of our guys were there relaxing on the risers to hear judge Joe Connelly say how thrilled he was to speak to men of the Society’s most prestigious chapter! How true!!
Until next time – editorjack!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Looking Back on the September 29th Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on the September 29th Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Including a report in this week’s column from the package show last week -- (Thanks again to Alan Wile for taking these notes at the package show Thursday, Sept. 24th -- YeEd. I was greeted by Tom Berkey when I entered the Ritz Carlton at about 6:15 this evening. Tom had driven the Harmo-truck and had it positioned at the loading dock. Tom led me to the "Diplomat Room," which was our rehearsal and dressing space on the first floor. There Chuck McKeever was coaching new member Ken Henderson in his up-tune moves ... as only Chuck can and does! To be on the loading dock, we were supposed to get badges (in exchange for our driver licenses) but a lot of guys who came later didn't bother. The riser crew was large and while I may not have captured all who were there, I did see the following: Tom Berkey (of course), Max Keiba, Ken Fess, Ken Rub, Craig Kujawa, Dean Rust, Austin Cotton, Scipio Garling, Chris Huber, and Terry Reynolds (my apologies to those who pitched in but escaped my note taking). We had to set up risers on the first floor for us and a second set on the second floor for the show. Scott Kahler was working sound with the hotel folks. Producer Greg Tepe was there early, working mainly with the hotel staff. Austin Cotton arranged the song board and Tony Colosimo began warm-ups at about 7:30. Director Joe worked on contest prep then til about 8:40 when it was time to change into tux outfits for the show. Some guys forgot black slacks, so there were two sources for replacements – one was from our host for the show, Eric Jackson [he is a long time friend of the chapter and had hired us to help his clients understand another form of team work] who loaned someone a pair of black slacks; and the hotel staff who went into the waiter uniform closet and got some more!!! The chorus sang realllllllly well and the audience gave them a standing O in the middle of the show. The other audience response that was unique was the long silence after “Music of the Night” when the audience was afraid to break the spell and applaud. So cool! Great hit by a little bit smaller chorus of good singers and great Harmonizers!)
Tuesday the 29th the hall was really jumpin at about 6:15 – the usual sales crews , the guest sign in crew, riser crew, training crews.
After a good solid warm up session, the singing work began. Director Joe worked on the new songs being sung with the POB chorus on the Nov. 8th Fall Show. The chorus also worked on the fun stage presence package for “It Don’t Mean A Thing” with Gary Plaag doing the review.
And just to start guys thinking about the Holiday Show(s), the chorus ran thru “Jingle Bell Rock.”
Before the break, Mark Klostermeyer conducted the business meeting. Secretary Buechler presented a 9-year renewal card to Max Kieba. The chorus has returned to a hearty congrats cheer for each guy who renews.
Dan O presented the newest member to be signed up for the chapter – Robb Topolski who came to us from OR where he was a chorus director. Then Dan introduced another line up of guests who all seemed to be in the grove toward membership!
After coffee break and the usual business items and networking, it was back to formal announcements. Bob Rhome invited each man to pickup their district contest booklet which he had prepared and labeled with guy’s names. It was packed with all the info a guy would need for the weekend – uniform list, maps, schedule, contestant list, housing and bus shuttle info. Great job. He made some last minute reminders at the mic tho – especially regarding to the parking challenges expected in Lancaster.
Jeremy Knobel is producer of the Holiday Shows and invited the guys to dig out their costumes from last year. And he announced that tickets are ready to be sold – stay tuned.
President Brad Jones reported on continued sales of fall show tickets. And he presented a You Make A Difference pin to John Pence for coordinating MCs for shows, and to John Hohl, our resident arranger and former director of the chorus.
Joe Cerutti coached the chorus on the importance of cheering and supporting chapter quartets at convention. He invited all of us to come to quartet contest Friday nite (it starts at 6 pm at the Convention Center adjacent to the Marriott).
So we could practice, DOWN A FOURTH sang for the chapter. Good to hear them ready to hit the boards this weekend. Eric Wallen, quartet promo guy, called up for recognition the really long list of guys who will be representing the chapter in the fall district quartet contest. (For new guys, this contest winner earns the right to be named District Champ – take a look in our chapter directory to see all the guys in our chapter are past district champs!) Alexandria guys in quartets this weekend include:
FULL TILT – Ed Casenas, Nick Aiuto, Pete Frank, Steve White
FRiDAYS! – Bob Caldwell, Ken Ives, Steve Murane
YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT – Mike Wallen
SURPRISE! – Bob Hirsch, Bruce Minnick
DOWNTOWN – Drew Fuller, Frank Fedarko, Kevin Flynn
CRUNCH TIME – Eric Wallen, Mike Wallen
DOWN A FOURTH – Joe Sawyer, Joe Cerutti, Wayne Adams, Mike Kelly
Then it was back to work for the chorus and the finished the nite working on the contest package and the songs for the show of champions in Lancaster. They worked hard and did many reps of the songs or at least sections of the song. (It got funny how many times the front row guys had to move the benches!)
A little after 10, Joe told the guys he would see them in Lancaster. And everyone pitched in on loading the truck for the trip to PA.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Including a report in this week’s column from the package show last week -- (Thanks again to Alan Wile for taking these notes at the package show Thursday, Sept. 24th -- YeEd. I was greeted by Tom Berkey when I entered the Ritz Carlton at about 6:15 this evening. Tom had driven the Harmo-truck and had it positioned at the loading dock. Tom led me to the "Diplomat Room," which was our rehearsal and dressing space on the first floor. There Chuck McKeever was coaching new member Ken Henderson in his up-tune moves ... as only Chuck can and does! To be on the loading dock, we were supposed to get badges (in exchange for our driver licenses) but a lot of guys who came later didn't bother. The riser crew was large and while I may not have captured all who were there, I did see the following: Tom Berkey (of course), Max Keiba, Ken Fess, Ken Rub, Craig Kujawa, Dean Rust, Austin Cotton, Scipio Garling, Chris Huber, and Terry Reynolds (my apologies to those who pitched in but escaped my note taking). We had to set up risers on the first floor for us and a second set on the second floor for the show. Scott Kahler was working sound with the hotel folks. Producer Greg Tepe was there early, working mainly with the hotel staff. Austin Cotton arranged the song board and Tony Colosimo began warm-ups at about 7:30. Director Joe worked on contest prep then til about 8:40 when it was time to change into tux outfits for the show. Some guys forgot black slacks, so there were two sources for replacements – one was from our host for the show, Eric Jackson [he is a long time friend of the chapter and had hired us to help his clients understand another form of team work] who loaned someone a pair of black slacks; and the hotel staff who went into the waiter uniform closet and got some more!!! The chorus sang realllllllly well and the audience gave them a standing O in the middle of the show. The other audience response that was unique was the long silence after “Music of the Night” when the audience was afraid to break the spell and applaud. So cool! Great hit by a little bit smaller chorus of good singers and great Harmonizers!)
Tuesday the 29th the hall was really jumpin at about 6:15 – the usual sales crews , the guest sign in crew, riser crew, training crews.
After a good solid warm up session, the singing work began. Director Joe worked on the new songs being sung with the POB chorus on the Nov. 8th Fall Show. The chorus also worked on the fun stage presence package for “It Don’t Mean A Thing” with Gary Plaag doing the review.
And just to start guys thinking about the Holiday Show(s), the chorus ran thru “Jingle Bell Rock.”
Before the break, Mark Klostermeyer conducted the business meeting. Secretary Buechler presented a 9-year renewal card to Max Kieba. The chorus has returned to a hearty congrats cheer for each guy who renews.
Dan O presented the newest member to be signed up for the chapter – Robb Topolski who came to us from OR where he was a chorus director. Then Dan introduced another line up of guests who all seemed to be in the grove toward membership!
After coffee break and the usual business items and networking, it was back to formal announcements. Bob Rhome invited each man to pickup their district contest booklet which he had prepared and labeled with guy’s names. It was packed with all the info a guy would need for the weekend – uniform list, maps, schedule, contestant list, housing and bus shuttle info. Great job. He made some last minute reminders at the mic tho – especially regarding to the parking challenges expected in Lancaster.
Jeremy Knobel is producer of the Holiday Shows and invited the guys to dig out their costumes from last year. And he announced that tickets are ready to be sold – stay tuned.
President Brad Jones reported on continued sales of fall show tickets. And he presented a You Make A Difference pin to John Pence for coordinating MCs for shows, and to John Hohl, our resident arranger and former director of the chorus.
Joe Cerutti coached the chorus on the importance of cheering and supporting chapter quartets at convention. He invited all of us to come to quartet contest Friday nite (it starts at 6 pm at the Convention Center adjacent to the Marriott).
So we could practice, DOWN A FOURTH sang for the chapter. Good to hear them ready to hit the boards this weekend. Eric Wallen, quartet promo guy, called up for recognition the really long list of guys who will be representing the chapter in the fall district quartet contest. (For new guys, this contest winner earns the right to be named District Champ – take a look in our chapter directory to see all the guys in our chapter are past district champs!) Alexandria guys in quartets this weekend include:
FULL TILT – Ed Casenas, Nick Aiuto, Pete Frank, Steve White
FRiDAYS! – Bob Caldwell, Ken Ives, Steve Murane
YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT – Mike Wallen
SURPRISE! – Bob Hirsch, Bruce Minnick
DOWNTOWN – Drew Fuller, Frank Fedarko, Kevin Flynn
CRUNCH TIME – Eric Wallen, Mike Wallen
DOWN A FOURTH – Joe Sawyer, Joe Cerutti, Wayne Adams, Mike Kelly
Then it was back to work for the chorus and the finished the nite working on the contest package and the songs for the show of champions in Lancaster. They worked hard and did many reps of the songs or at least sections of the song. (It got funny how many times the front row guys had to move the benches!)
A little after 10, Joe told the guys he would see them in Lancaster. And everyone pitched in on loading the truck for the trip to PA.
Until next time – editorjack!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Looking Back on the Sepember 22nd Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on the Sepember 22nd Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
(Thanks again to Alan Wile for taking notes and writing the column -- YeEd!!)
At 6:00 p.m. things are already hopping at the Durant Center. Chuck McKeever is working on the contest set choreography with guys who want to compete with us in Lancaster in a couple of weeks. Bob Blair brought the Harmo-truck and, with help from Ken Fess, Tom Kraus, TJ Jones, Tom Berkey, Phil Ferguson, Victor Hills and others, began putting up risers and mirrors. Mark Klostermeyer (K-12) was busy adding some guys to the riser chart; Terry Jordan was arranging for coffee and edible goodies; Carolyn and Dick Hall were hawking 50-50 tickets and scrip cards; Bruce Minnick, Sandy Stamps, and Chuck Harner were selling afterglow tickets, White House ornaments, and Entertainment Books, respectively; Alan Wile put out the vinyl record collection for anyone interested (to benefit the M-AD Endowment Fund), Terry Reynolds readied the projector for use during the rehearsal; Dennis Ritchey helped with mirrors and sound and, together with Craig Kujawa, arranged all the props for Lady of Spain/Ed Sullivan Show song. All this time, Dan O’Brien was setting up his membership tent and greeting guests while Dixie Kennett busied herself (as she does so well every week) taking attendance. And those are just the ones I recorded in my notes. Whew!
At 7:00 p.m. we were on the risers. Gary Plaag tried vainly to energize our brains with some mirror moves and clap/stomp sequences. Then it was up to Will Cox to conduct a vocal warm-up before turning center stage over to Director Joe Cerutti. Joe introduced “All I Ask Of You” -- a joint number we’ll be performing with the Pride of Baltimore Chorus on November 8th. Then, in turn, he spent about 10 minutes on each of the following in succession: “Scarborough Fair” (to measure 70), “There’s A Meetin’ Here Tonight,” and “In Harmony.”
Because he had difficulty containing himself, Joe let it “slip” (accidentally on purpose, as we used to say) that not only has the new contest up-tune been selected, it has a 16-bar bass solo … and the ballad has been recorded by a number of famous name performers and has never been sung by a quartet. He caught himself before revealing the name of either song, however. [“Boo! Hiss!!” I heard someone mutter.]
Next up was Gary Plaag who reviewed and drilled us on the new choreography for “It Don’t Mean A Thing.” Those who were singing with the chorus a fe years years ago may remember “Four Walls,” which bears some similarity to the moves in this song.
Just before the break, Joe asked Scott Kahler’s father, Ray Kahler, to come off the risers and direct “Silent Night.” Ray is a certified director who directs the Lamplighter Chorus in Mesa, AZ.
VP-Operations K-12 conducted the meeting both before and after the break. He announced that Lew Kling, Joe Sawyer, and Bob Wachter all have birthdays this week: on the 25th, 26th, and 28th, respectively. Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership cards to Chris Yates (10 years) and Mike Schwartz (15 years). Alan Wile invited any interested to pick up a record (or two, or …) -- free except for a generous contribution to the M-AD Endowment Fund.
VP-Membership Dan O’Brien thanked all for a very successful guest night and suggested that “Every Night Is A Membership Night!” He welcomed Pete Frank back from Erie and Ken Henderson as the newest member of the chapter (and a bass singer!). He then introduced a great group of guests. It was great to see Roger Day back for a visit, too.
K-12 introduced Chapter President Brad Jones, who presented a “You Make A Difference” pin to Alan Wile and then turned the mic over to Mick Stamps, the Chairman of the Chapter Nominating Committee, to conduct the election. Mick introduced the slate of officers for next year (which contains quite a number of returning familiar faces):
President: Dick Newton
VP-Chapter Development (Membership): Dan O’Brien
VP-Operations: Mark Klostermeyer
VP-Music & Performance: Terry Reynolds
VP-Shows: Ken Rub
VP-Marketing & Public Relations: Scipio Garling
Secretary: Chris Buechler
Treasurer: Howard Nestlerode
Member-at-Large 2010-2011: Phil Ferguson
Member-at-Large 2010-2011: Noah Van Gilder
Member-at-Large 2009-2010 (not up for election): Bob Blair
Member-at-Large 2009-2010 (not up for election): Scott Kahler
Immediate Past President (not up for election): Brad Jones
He asked the Chapter Secretary whether any additional nominations had been received; none had. That being the case, he moved to elect the slate as presented. The motion was quickly seconded and passed without a moment’s hesitation and without objection. CONTRATULATIONS to all!
Back on the risers, we drilled “Lady Of Spain/Ed Sullivan Show,” “When I Lift Up My Head,” and “Great Day.” The balance of the evening was spent on the contest set, with silent choreography drills, close eye drills, and singing drills. Joe asked Assistant Director Tony Colosimo to direct so that he could coach. By 10:00 there was a distinct odor akin to something you might find in “Stilman’s Gym” -- man, was it hot and were we sweaty!
K-12 reminded us about Thursday’s rehearsal and show at the Pentagon City Ritz Carlton; the combined rehearsal with Pride of Baltimore (in Baltimore) on October 26th; and that our own holiday show will have four performances (one on Friday night and two regular dinner-shows on Saturday followed by an extra “dessert” (only) show to accommodate the demand … and limited seating capacity of the hall.
Scott Kahler announced that information will be coming out about the Harmonizer calendar which is now on “Google Calendar,” where every detail about upcoming performances will be easily found in a single, easily updated document.
Gerry Levine was the big 50-50 winner tonight! K-12 thanked the guests for coming invited all to adjourn to Southside 812 for a bit of an afterglow, and then asked Pete Frank to lead us all in singing “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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
(Thanks again to Alan Wile for taking notes and writing the column -- YeEd!!)
At 6:00 p.m. things are already hopping at the Durant Center. Chuck McKeever is working on the contest set choreography with guys who want to compete with us in Lancaster in a couple of weeks. Bob Blair brought the Harmo-truck and, with help from Ken Fess, Tom Kraus, TJ Jones, Tom Berkey, Phil Ferguson, Victor Hills and others, began putting up risers and mirrors. Mark Klostermeyer (K-12) was busy adding some guys to the riser chart; Terry Jordan was arranging for coffee and edible goodies; Carolyn and Dick Hall were hawking 50-50 tickets and scrip cards; Bruce Minnick, Sandy Stamps, and Chuck Harner were selling afterglow tickets, White House ornaments, and Entertainment Books, respectively; Alan Wile put out the vinyl record collection for anyone interested (to benefit the M-AD Endowment Fund), Terry Reynolds readied the projector for use during the rehearsal; Dennis Ritchey helped with mirrors and sound and, together with Craig Kujawa, arranged all the props for Lady of Spain/Ed Sullivan Show song. All this time, Dan O’Brien was setting up his membership tent and greeting guests while Dixie Kennett busied herself (as she does so well every week) taking attendance. And those are just the ones I recorded in my notes. Whew!
At 7:00 p.m. we were on the risers. Gary Plaag tried vainly to energize our brains with some mirror moves and clap/stomp sequences. Then it was up to Will Cox to conduct a vocal warm-up before turning center stage over to Director Joe Cerutti. Joe introduced “All I Ask Of You” -- a joint number we’ll be performing with the Pride of Baltimore Chorus on November 8th. Then, in turn, he spent about 10 minutes on each of the following in succession: “Scarborough Fair” (to measure 70), “There’s A Meetin’ Here Tonight,” and “In Harmony.”
Because he had difficulty containing himself, Joe let it “slip” (accidentally on purpose, as we used to say) that not only has the new contest up-tune been selected, it has a 16-bar bass solo … and the ballad has been recorded by a number of famous name performers and has never been sung by a quartet. He caught himself before revealing the name of either song, however. [“Boo! Hiss!!” I heard someone mutter.]
Next up was Gary Plaag who reviewed and drilled us on the new choreography for “It Don’t Mean A Thing.” Those who were singing with the chorus a fe years years ago may remember “Four Walls,” which bears some similarity to the moves in this song.
Just before the break, Joe asked Scott Kahler’s father, Ray Kahler, to come off the risers and direct “Silent Night.” Ray is a certified director who directs the Lamplighter Chorus in Mesa, AZ.
VP-Operations K-12 conducted the meeting both before and after the break. He announced that Lew Kling, Joe Sawyer, and Bob Wachter all have birthdays this week: on the 25th, 26th, and 28th, respectively. Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership cards to Chris Yates (10 years) and Mike Schwartz (15 years). Alan Wile invited any interested to pick up a record (or two, or …) -- free except for a generous contribution to the M-AD Endowment Fund.
VP-Membership Dan O’Brien thanked all for a very successful guest night and suggested that “Every Night Is A Membership Night!” He welcomed Pete Frank back from Erie and Ken Henderson as the newest member of the chapter (and a bass singer!). He then introduced a great group of guests. It was great to see Roger Day back for a visit, too.
K-12 introduced Chapter President Brad Jones, who presented a “You Make A Difference” pin to Alan Wile and then turned the mic over to Mick Stamps, the Chairman of the Chapter Nominating Committee, to conduct the election. Mick introduced the slate of officers for next year (which contains quite a number of returning familiar faces):
President: Dick Newton
VP-Chapter Development (Membership): Dan O’Brien
VP-Operations: Mark Klostermeyer
VP-Music & Performance: Terry Reynolds
VP-Shows: Ken Rub
VP-Marketing & Public Relations: Scipio Garling
Secretary: Chris Buechler
Treasurer: Howard Nestlerode
Member-at-Large 2010-2011: Phil Ferguson
Member-at-Large 2010-2011: Noah Van Gilder
Member-at-Large 2009-2010 (not up for election): Bob Blair
Member-at-Large 2009-2010 (not up for election): Scott Kahler
Immediate Past President (not up for election): Brad Jones
He asked the Chapter Secretary whether any additional nominations had been received; none had. That being the case, he moved to elect the slate as presented. The motion was quickly seconded and passed without a moment’s hesitation and without objection. CONTRATULATIONS to all!
Back on the risers, we drilled “Lady Of Spain/Ed Sullivan Show,” “When I Lift Up My Head,” and “Great Day.” The balance of the evening was spent on the contest set, with silent choreography drills, close eye drills, and singing drills. Joe asked Assistant Director Tony Colosimo to direct so that he could coach. By 10:00 there was a distinct odor akin to something you might find in “Stilman’s Gym” -- man, was it hot and were we sweaty!
K-12 reminded us about Thursday’s rehearsal and show at the Pentagon City Ritz Carlton; the combined rehearsal with Pride of Baltimore (in Baltimore) on October 26th; and that our own holiday show will have four performances (one on Friday night and two regular dinner-shows on Saturday followed by an extra “dessert” (only) show to accommodate the demand … and limited seating capacity of the hall.
Scott Kahler announced that information will be coming out about the Harmonizer calendar which is now on “Google Calendar,” where every detail about upcoming performances will be easily found in a single, easily updated document.
Gerry Levine was the big 50-50 winner tonight! K-12 thanked the guests for coming invited all to adjourn to Southside 812 for a bit of an afterglow, and then asked Pete Frank to lead us all in singing “Keep The Whole World Singing.”
Until next time – editorjack!
Looking Back on September 17th Extra Rehearsal
Looking Back on September 17th Extra Rehearsal
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
(Many thanks again to Alan Wile for covering the Sept 17th rehearsal.)
The Harmonizers met at the Jefferson-Houston School (adjacent to the Durant Center) last night -- a special/extra rehearsal with Kirk Young as our coach. Chuck McKeever was busy helping out a few guys that wanted extra reps on the moves to the contest “up” tune and some group of guys put up the risers.
Assistant Director Tony Colosimo warmed us up before relinquishing his position “out front” to Director Joe Cerutti. Joe “kindly” worked us rapidly through the timing of “Scarborough Fair” and then drilled measures 5-27 for about 10 minutes. Next, in 10 minute segments we rehearsed “In Harmony” and “There’s a Meeting Here Tonight.” His conclusion: all need individual attention on words and notes!
Then it was up to Kirk -- also a kindly, gentle sort. He began by exercising our brains, which proved to be a challenge, by having us move our arms/hands in mirror image to his. That didn’t last long and very soon we were immersed in an examination of bits and pieces of the contest ballad. He stressed the constant movement of the song, the “connecting tissue” between phrases, the need for a constant “push” (forward motion and destination), whether breaths are reflective or moving forward, where breaths taken after certain phrases could cause the flow to disconnect, and the need to transition to new thoughts before singing (i.e., we think of something to say before we say it and this needs to be apparent in our singing, as well).
We took a short 10-minute break. VP Ops Mark Klostermeyer reminded us about the rehearsal and show next Thursday at the Pentagon City Ritz Carlton (and Terry Reynolds pleaded for those who had not done so, to indicate whether or not they intended to participate). Bruce Minnick sold tickets to the afterglow that will follow our show with Pride of Baltimore (members were urged to buy them as early as possible against the expectation that they will sell out). It was also announced that the Vienna Falls SAI Chorus is having a guest night next Tuesday at the Kena Temple Anek (9001 Arlington Blvd., Fairfax) in hopes that some of the members’ wives might be interested in attending.
Joe C. noted that our position at the upcoming district fall contest in Lancaster is dead last and believes we have the ability for our performance to create a sense of awe for those in the audience. He also announced that a “dessert show” will follow our last regular performance of our holiday dinner show on Saturday night. If there are any comments about this plan, he asked that they be addressed to President Brad Jones (what a chicken, huh?).
He also gave us a “teaser” (i.e., not a lot of specific information) about the ballad that’s been selected for us to sing at the international contest in Philadelphia next July. He’ll give us more information on Tuesday.
Chuck McKeever highlighted and we drilled three or four specific “eye-catching” moves in “Clap Yo Hands” that need to be executed with precision if they are to be effective. In a word or two: we just gotta do it!
Then it was back to work on bits and pieces of the ballad … and then we worked the ballad … and the ballad….. Yes, we also performed the “up” tune and tweaked it a bit but, by far, the evening was devoted to making the ballad even more artistically beautiful.
Finally, Kirk took us out with a rousing rendition, at 10:10 pm, of “Keep The Whole World Singing.” The risers were loaded back in the Harmo-truck and we dispersed.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
(Many thanks again to Alan Wile for covering the Sept 17th rehearsal.)
The Harmonizers met at the Jefferson-Houston School (adjacent to the Durant Center) last night -- a special/extra rehearsal with Kirk Young as our coach. Chuck McKeever was busy helping out a few guys that wanted extra reps on the moves to the contest “up” tune and some group of guys put up the risers.
Assistant Director Tony Colosimo warmed us up before relinquishing his position “out front” to Director Joe Cerutti. Joe “kindly” worked us rapidly through the timing of “Scarborough Fair” and then drilled measures 5-27 for about 10 minutes. Next, in 10 minute segments we rehearsed “In Harmony” and “There’s a Meeting Here Tonight.” His conclusion: all need individual attention on words and notes!
Then it was up to Kirk -- also a kindly, gentle sort. He began by exercising our brains, which proved to be a challenge, by having us move our arms/hands in mirror image to his. That didn’t last long and very soon we were immersed in an examination of bits and pieces of the contest ballad. He stressed the constant movement of the song, the “connecting tissue” between phrases, the need for a constant “push” (forward motion and destination), whether breaths are reflective or moving forward, where breaths taken after certain phrases could cause the flow to disconnect, and the need to transition to new thoughts before singing (i.e., we think of something to say before we say it and this needs to be apparent in our singing, as well).
We took a short 10-minute break. VP Ops Mark Klostermeyer reminded us about the rehearsal and show next Thursday at the Pentagon City Ritz Carlton (and Terry Reynolds pleaded for those who had not done so, to indicate whether or not they intended to participate). Bruce Minnick sold tickets to the afterglow that will follow our show with Pride of Baltimore (members were urged to buy them as early as possible against the expectation that they will sell out). It was also announced that the Vienna Falls SAI Chorus is having a guest night next Tuesday at the Kena Temple Anek (9001 Arlington Blvd., Fairfax) in hopes that some of the members’ wives might be interested in attending.
Joe C. noted that our position at the upcoming district fall contest in Lancaster is dead last and believes we have the ability for our performance to create a sense of awe for those in the audience. He also announced that a “dessert show” will follow our last regular performance of our holiday dinner show on Saturday night. If there are any comments about this plan, he asked that they be addressed to President Brad Jones (what a chicken, huh?).
He also gave us a “teaser” (i.e., not a lot of specific information) about the ballad that’s been selected for us to sing at the international contest in Philadelphia next July. He’ll give us more information on Tuesday.
Chuck McKeever highlighted and we drilled three or four specific “eye-catching” moves in “Clap Yo Hands” that need to be executed with precision if they are to be effective. In a word or two: we just gotta do it!
Then it was back to work on bits and pieces of the ballad … and then we worked the ballad … and the ballad….. Yes, we also performed the “up” tune and tweaked it a bit but, by far, the evening was devoted to making the ballad even more artistically beautiful.
Finally, Kirk took us out with a rousing rendition, at 10:10 pm, of “Keep The Whole World Singing.” The risers were loaded back in the Harmo-truck and we dispersed.
Until next time – editorjack!
Looking Back on September 15th Chapter Meeting and Guest Nite
Looking Back on September 15th Chapter Meeting and Guest Nite
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
(Many thanks to Alan Wile with input from Terry Jordan for gathering the news from Tuesday nite. As many of you know, YeEd had to take off as I got a call that my Mom has passed away in IL. She went peacefully and Pat and I were in IL by Wed nite. I will tell you more later. Thanks too for Terry and Dick and others who put all the goodies away. Sounds like Tuesday was another great Harmonizer nite.)
Harmonizers began arriving and setting things up at the Durant Center at 6:00 p.m. Membership VP, Dan O’Brien put out all sorts of materials (including some attractive folders with music and informational items) in anticipation of a great guest night turnout. Jack Pitzer and others arranged an overwhelming amount of snack and drink items. John Pence and Bill Stewart attacked the risers, in an on-going attempt to make them “squeakless.” Bob Rhome and a host of others set up risers and arranged chairs. Chapter Archivist Bob Blair put together a wonderful historical display for all to enjoy. Chuck McKeever worked with a number of guys on their choreography on the stage. Dan-O and his team greeted and registered guests as they began to arrive. Scott Kahler and Dennis Ritchey set up the sound system and Terry Reynolds readied the projector and screen to display music … when needed. Whew! Durant was really buzzing with activity and good vibes!
At 7:00 or thereabouts the call went out to “take the risers.” Assistant Director Tony Colosimo conducted a vocal warm-up for the assembled members and guests, who were arranged in sections. In turn, he introduced Director Joe Cerutti. Joe welcomed all and explained that we would ALL learn a couple of new songs (rather than work songs already in the Harmonizer repertoire). Charts for the two songs (“I Love To Hear Those Songs” and “Mary Had A Little Lamb”) was passed to the Harmonizers (guests had received it already in their folders) and then we began. Joe worked notes first, then quality, and then interpretation. Truth be told, the result was pretty impressive. Before the break, Presentation guru Gary Plaag taught the moves to the “swing” portion of one of our new songs, “It Don’t Mean A Thing,” to the entire group. That the guests learned it as quickly as the old-timers was a tribute to the quality, interest, and ability of our guests! What a pleasure!! Also, at some point, Joe taught and directed the tag to “Great Day” -- which, ultimately, made the walls resound!
During the break Dan-O introduced the guests. By actual count there were 33 male guests and 10-12 women (some related to Harmonizers … some not). Included were several members of the Pride Of Baltimore SAI Chorus, Catherine Davies from Chorus America, at least six former Harmonizers (Bruce Roehm, Bob Braunstein, Pat Duffy, Barry Galloway, Lynn Dangelmaier, and Steve Guy), one guest from the St. Charles Chapter sporting a gold international champion chorus medal, Bud Arberg’s son Bob, and several guys who have visited with us over the last few weeks, for a total in the room of 125.
Chapter Secretary Chris Buechler presented three members with their renewed membership cards and a 25-year pin to Ken Fess. Catherine Davies spoke to us briefly about Chorus America. VP Ops Mark Klostermeyer (K-12) announced those members celebrating birthdays this week and reminded us all of the special/extra rehearsal on Thursday, September 17th, at the Jefferson-Houston School (next door to the Durant Center). Also, he reminded us of the rehearsal and show at the Pentagon Center Ritz Carlton next Thursday (September 24th) and urged all to sign up ASAP. Note was made that three members (Tom Kraus, Phil Ferguson, and Brian Miller) were recently married (not to each other).
Following the longer than usual break (to permit us to mingle, meet, and talk with guests) the guests were invited to move to another room where Tony Colosimo taught them a tag. During this time, Mark K-12 conducted the business part of the meeting and Will Cox rehearsed one of the songs we were to perform for our guests later in the evening. Joe Cerutti also conducted some brief drills on the other songs.
The guests returned and performed for us -- to wildly enthusiastic applause. They really did a great job. Then it was our turn, and 73 of us performed “Clap Yo Hands,” “Music Of The Night,” and “New York, New York.” In acknowledging that the official name of the Society includes the word “quartet,” “DOWN A FOURTH,” a chapter quartet with Joe Sawyer (T), Joe Cerutti (L), Wayne Adams (Ba), and Mike Kelly (Bs), was introduced and sang one song.
The guests were then invited to rejoin the chorus on the risers. Together we sang through the two new songs, learned the choreography to the “Great Day” tag (demonstrated by Chuck McKeever and Gary Plaag), and mastered another tag (taught by Joe). “Peg” took the mic and invited us and all our women friends to attend the Pride Of Baltimore Chorus guest night on Monday, November 16th. The night concluded with us all singing “Keep The Whole World Singing,” with Peg doing directing honors.
The evening was just great and didn’t vary very much from our usual routine. Joe kept things varied, interesting, fun … and nearly unpredictable.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
(Many thanks to Alan Wile with input from Terry Jordan for gathering the news from Tuesday nite. As many of you know, YeEd had to take off as I got a call that my Mom has passed away in IL. She went peacefully and Pat and I were in IL by Wed nite. I will tell you more later. Thanks too for Terry and Dick and others who put all the goodies away. Sounds like Tuesday was another great Harmonizer nite.)
Harmonizers began arriving and setting things up at the Durant Center at 6:00 p.m. Membership VP, Dan O’Brien put out all sorts of materials (including some attractive folders with music and informational items) in anticipation of a great guest night turnout. Jack Pitzer and others arranged an overwhelming amount of snack and drink items. John Pence and Bill Stewart attacked the risers, in an on-going attempt to make them “squeakless.” Bob Rhome and a host of others set up risers and arranged chairs. Chapter Archivist Bob Blair put together a wonderful historical display for all to enjoy. Chuck McKeever worked with a number of guys on their choreography on the stage. Dan-O and his team greeted and registered guests as they began to arrive. Scott Kahler and Dennis Ritchey set up the sound system and Terry Reynolds readied the projector and screen to display music … when needed. Whew! Durant was really buzzing with activity and good vibes!
At 7:00 or thereabouts the call went out to “take the risers.” Assistant Director Tony Colosimo conducted a vocal warm-up for the assembled members and guests, who were arranged in sections. In turn, he introduced Director Joe Cerutti. Joe welcomed all and explained that we would ALL learn a couple of new songs (rather than work songs already in the Harmonizer repertoire). Charts for the two songs (“I Love To Hear Those Songs” and “Mary Had A Little Lamb”) was passed to the Harmonizers (guests had received it already in their folders) and then we began. Joe worked notes first, then quality, and then interpretation. Truth be told, the result was pretty impressive. Before the break, Presentation guru Gary Plaag taught the moves to the “swing” portion of one of our new songs, “It Don’t Mean A Thing,” to the entire group. That the guests learned it as quickly as the old-timers was a tribute to the quality, interest, and ability of our guests! What a pleasure!! Also, at some point, Joe taught and directed the tag to “Great Day” -- which, ultimately, made the walls resound!
During the break Dan-O introduced the guests. By actual count there were 33 male guests and 10-12 women (some related to Harmonizers … some not). Included were several members of the Pride Of Baltimore SAI Chorus, Catherine Davies from Chorus America, at least six former Harmonizers (Bruce Roehm, Bob Braunstein, Pat Duffy, Barry Galloway, Lynn Dangelmaier, and Steve Guy), one guest from the St. Charles Chapter sporting a gold international champion chorus medal, Bud Arberg’s son Bob, and several guys who have visited with us over the last few weeks, for a total in the room of 125.
Chapter Secretary Chris Buechler presented three members with their renewed membership cards and a 25-year pin to Ken Fess. Catherine Davies spoke to us briefly about Chorus America. VP Ops Mark Klostermeyer (K-12) announced those members celebrating birthdays this week and reminded us all of the special/extra rehearsal on Thursday, September 17th, at the Jefferson-Houston School (next door to the Durant Center). Also, he reminded us of the rehearsal and show at the Pentagon Center Ritz Carlton next Thursday (September 24th) and urged all to sign up ASAP. Note was made that three members (Tom Kraus, Phil Ferguson, and Brian Miller) were recently married (not to each other).
Following the longer than usual break (to permit us to mingle, meet, and talk with guests) the guests were invited to move to another room where Tony Colosimo taught them a tag. During this time, Mark K-12 conducted the business part of the meeting and Will Cox rehearsed one of the songs we were to perform for our guests later in the evening. Joe Cerutti also conducted some brief drills on the other songs.
The guests returned and performed for us -- to wildly enthusiastic applause. They really did a great job. Then it was our turn, and 73 of us performed “Clap Yo Hands,” “Music Of The Night,” and “New York, New York.” In acknowledging that the official name of the Society includes the word “quartet,” “DOWN A FOURTH,” a chapter quartet with Joe Sawyer (T), Joe Cerutti (L), Wayne Adams (Ba), and Mike Kelly (Bs), was introduced and sang one song.
The guests were then invited to rejoin the chorus on the risers. Together we sang through the two new songs, learned the choreography to the “Great Day” tag (demonstrated by Chuck McKeever and Gary Plaag), and mastered another tag (taught by Joe). “Peg” took the mic and invited us and all our women friends to attend the Pride Of Baltimore Chorus guest night on Monday, November 16th. The night concluded with us all singing “Keep The Whole World Singing,” with Peg doing directing honors.
The evening was just great and didn’t vary very much from our usual routine. Joe kept things varied, interesting, fun … and nearly unpredictable.
Until next time – editorjack!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Looking Back on September 8th Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on September 8th Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
The hall at Durant was full of excitement starting at 6 pm with a work crew busy tightening the riser platforms. Another group of guys were learning their SP with McKeever on the stage. And guests were checking in.
After warm ups, Director Joe went to work. He was full of excitement too as he reflected on the GREAT things coming our way in the months ahead – a big guest nite, fall contest in Lancaster, the huge show with Pride of Baltimore in November, and then the gigantic show with Westminster, CA, chorus in July 2010!!!!!
He hurried thru those announcements so he had more time for singing. First out was “Ain’t Got That Swing”. Gary Plaag taught comedic gesture plans “Swing” too. (The plan reminds YeEd of our funny bit in “Four Walls” in Hartford. Guess that is another Moment in Harmo History some Tuesday nite soon!)
Next up was a solid work session on “In Harmony” that will be sung with Pride of Baltimore at our show in November. And after that, there was no break in the action and Joe had the guys singing and working on the fun new opener, “There’s a Meeting Here Tonight.” He used the screen to point out some rhythm changes and such. Terry Reynolds was back at his station as operator of the projector system.
And before break, there was a review of a couple holiday songs, and some work on “Music of the Night” that will be used on guest nite, Sept. 15th.
In case you didn’t know it, or you have a partner or friend who is interested, there is a FRIENDS support group affiliated with our chapter. They met during the first half of the evening to work on their plans for the fall contest weekend Oct. 2-3.
Secretary Buechler presented membership renewal cards: Bob Mattes for 11 years, Eric Wallen for 12, Dick Dangel for 17 and Mike Kelly for 29. He also presented a card and pin for 25 years to Tom Hutton and a pin and card to Mick Stamps for 30 years.
Before break, Operations VP Klostermeyer gave 50/50 tickets to the guys who came early to help with the riser overhaul. He encouraged everyone to get a ticket as there were three drawings planned for tonite (tickets for the DC Harmony Invitational at the Birchmere, a $50 gift certificate from Design Frames, and then the actual cash from the 50/50).
As a reminder the chapter election is Tuesday, Sept. 22. All members are encouraged to be present to vote for the slate recently announced. Good nite for some members who are not active for one reason or another to come visit and see and hear the excitement. And as usual, if any one wishes to make a nomination to add to the ballot, you must speak with the chapter secretary no later than Tuesday, Sept. 15th.
Membership VP Dan O’Brien plugged the Sept. 15th guest nite with support and much drama by our director Joe! He even demonstrated how to welcome guests using his buddy from hi school who was visiting us as a prop. It got laughs but helped all understand the importance of wearing a name tag, being enthusiastic without pushy, and being careful not to overwhelm the guest with all we do. It was also reported that we will have guests from the City Council of Alexandria, so some guys have been appointed to welcome them.
All of us were asked to bring some goodies to share with the guests (cookies, brownies, fruit).
At break time, the crowd pushed fast to buy White House ornaments from Sandy Stamps (if you have extra plastic grocery bags at home, bring some to her next week to use in filling large orders of ornaments that guys are taking to sell).
YeEd noted that Chuch Harner was not set up selling Entertainment books cause he was out at the Fairfax Chapter doing the official draw for singing order at the fall contest. That is one of his jobs as a leader in our Mid Atlantic District. We sing last in the chorus contest which is so neat cause it means the hall will be packed with barbershoppers cheering and eager to see and hear us do our “stuff” on stage.
After break, there were announcements by Eric Wallen hinting that some guys are already at work to form more than one quartet for the December 15th Harmonizer Put-Together Quartet contest. That is allowed. May even be a prize to the guy in the most quartets. (Reminds YeEd of another Harmo History moment – remember the George Azzam?) Let’s make it a wild contest and get a lot of fun new quartets formed. Who knows – a future gold medal quartet just might emerge from that nite’s event. Surprise panel of judges all lined up too!
Bill Stewart asked for a show of hands of guys who would like a behind-the-scenes tour of the fire station at BWI where Bill works. He is thinking of offering it on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 1st for our guys and their families. Stay tuned for details.
Great to see Skip Coburn at the meeting this week after a long absence while he was in training. He is organizing another chapter theater nite – this time to see “Jersey Boys” at National Theater. He just asked for a show of interest. So again, stay tuned for sign ups.
VP Shows Ken Rub, announced a show on Sept. 24th at the Ritz Carlton. A 20-minute S show at 9 pm. We will have rehearsal prior to the show since it is a Tuesday nite. Also he explained more about our fall show with Pride of Baltimore as our guests. We will be selling tickets for this show at the University of Maryland.
Terry Reynolds explained there would be an extra rehearsal Mon. Oct. 26th in prep for the fall show. There are two more songs coming out with learning tracks prepared by our own Ryan Griffith.
President Brad reported that Carl Kauffmann is making some progress and someone added that he was at home.
Brad presented Making a Difference star pins to Carolyn and Dick Hall for their weekly contribution as sale crew for 50/50 tickets and script sales.
Back to singing then, Joe helped the chorus woodshed to an old chestnut song and explained that in the past barbershop singers used their ear or listening skills to find the notes vs. reading from a printed page. It was fun.
Then there was a lengthy work session on the contest package to include a 10-minute visual review to clean up some important sections.
The guys worked hard as did our director and the nite ended with a huge buzz in the room from the energy. That excitement continued at 815 S.Washington Street.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
The hall at Durant was full of excitement starting at 6 pm with a work crew busy tightening the riser platforms. Another group of guys were learning their SP with McKeever on the stage. And guests were checking in.
After warm ups, Director Joe went to work. He was full of excitement too as he reflected on the GREAT things coming our way in the months ahead – a big guest nite, fall contest in Lancaster, the huge show with Pride of Baltimore in November, and then the gigantic show with Westminster, CA, chorus in July 2010!!!!!
He hurried thru those announcements so he had more time for singing. First out was “Ain’t Got That Swing”. Gary Plaag taught comedic gesture plans “Swing” too. (The plan reminds YeEd of our funny bit in “Four Walls” in Hartford. Guess that is another Moment in Harmo History some Tuesday nite soon!)
Next up was a solid work session on “In Harmony” that will be sung with Pride of Baltimore at our show in November. And after that, there was no break in the action and Joe had the guys singing and working on the fun new opener, “There’s a Meeting Here Tonight.” He used the screen to point out some rhythm changes and such. Terry Reynolds was back at his station as operator of the projector system.
And before break, there was a review of a couple holiday songs, and some work on “Music of the Night” that will be used on guest nite, Sept. 15th.
In case you didn’t know it, or you have a partner or friend who is interested, there is a FRIENDS support group affiliated with our chapter. They met during the first half of the evening to work on their plans for the fall contest weekend Oct. 2-3.
Secretary Buechler presented membership renewal cards: Bob Mattes for 11 years, Eric Wallen for 12, Dick Dangel for 17 and Mike Kelly for 29. He also presented a card and pin for 25 years to Tom Hutton and a pin and card to Mick Stamps for 30 years.
Before break, Operations VP Klostermeyer gave 50/50 tickets to the guys who came early to help with the riser overhaul. He encouraged everyone to get a ticket as there were three drawings planned for tonite (tickets for the DC Harmony Invitational at the Birchmere, a $50 gift certificate from Design Frames, and then the actual cash from the 50/50).
As a reminder the chapter election is Tuesday, Sept. 22. All members are encouraged to be present to vote for the slate recently announced. Good nite for some members who are not active for one reason or another to come visit and see and hear the excitement. And as usual, if any one wishes to make a nomination to add to the ballot, you must speak with the chapter secretary no later than Tuesday, Sept. 15th.
Membership VP Dan O’Brien plugged the Sept. 15th guest nite with support and much drama by our director Joe! He even demonstrated how to welcome guests using his buddy from hi school who was visiting us as a prop. It got laughs but helped all understand the importance of wearing a name tag, being enthusiastic without pushy, and being careful not to overwhelm the guest with all we do. It was also reported that we will have guests from the City Council of Alexandria, so some guys have been appointed to welcome them.
All of us were asked to bring some goodies to share with the guests (cookies, brownies, fruit).
At break time, the crowd pushed fast to buy White House ornaments from Sandy Stamps (if you have extra plastic grocery bags at home, bring some to her next week to use in filling large orders of ornaments that guys are taking to sell).
YeEd noted that Chuch Harner was not set up selling Entertainment books cause he was out at the Fairfax Chapter doing the official draw for singing order at the fall contest. That is one of his jobs as a leader in our Mid Atlantic District. We sing last in the chorus contest which is so neat cause it means the hall will be packed with barbershoppers cheering and eager to see and hear us do our “stuff” on stage.
After break, there were announcements by Eric Wallen hinting that some guys are already at work to form more than one quartet for the December 15th Harmonizer Put-Together Quartet contest. That is allowed. May even be a prize to the guy in the most quartets. (Reminds YeEd of another Harmo History moment – remember the George Azzam?) Let’s make it a wild contest and get a lot of fun new quartets formed. Who knows – a future gold medal quartet just might emerge from that nite’s event. Surprise panel of judges all lined up too!
Bill Stewart asked for a show of hands of guys who would like a behind-the-scenes tour of the fire station at BWI where Bill works. He is thinking of offering it on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 1st for our guys and their families. Stay tuned for details.
Great to see Skip Coburn at the meeting this week after a long absence while he was in training. He is organizing another chapter theater nite – this time to see “Jersey Boys” at National Theater. He just asked for a show of interest. So again, stay tuned for sign ups.
VP Shows Ken Rub, announced a show on Sept. 24th at the Ritz Carlton. A 20-minute S show at 9 pm. We will have rehearsal prior to the show since it is a Tuesday nite. Also he explained more about our fall show with Pride of Baltimore as our guests. We will be selling tickets for this show at the University of Maryland.
Terry Reynolds explained there would be an extra rehearsal Mon. Oct. 26th in prep for the fall show. There are two more songs coming out with learning tracks prepared by our own Ryan Griffith.
President Brad reported that Carl Kauffmann is making some progress and someone added that he was at home.
Brad presented Making a Difference star pins to Carolyn and Dick Hall for their weekly contribution as sale crew for 50/50 tickets and script sales.
Back to singing then, Joe helped the chorus woodshed to an old chestnut song and explained that in the past barbershop singers used their ear or listening skills to find the notes vs. reading from a printed page. It was fun.
Then there was a lengthy work session on the contest package to include a 10-minute visual review to clean up some important sections.
The guys worked hard as did our director and the nite ended with a huge buzz in the room from the energy. That excitement continued at 815 S.Washington Street.
Until next time – editorjack!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Looking Back on September 1st Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on September 1st Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
This week there was a work crew in the hall early – guys brought tools to work on the risers. Turns out they found it was a lot more work that just tightening some bolts. They managed to get one section done – after figuring out the cure. It did make a difference and stopped the noise and squeak. More sections will be done next week at 6 pm. You can help too – even non singers who can come out early.
There were also guys in the hall learning the new music and getting an SP review.
Numbers were slim at the start, but a nice crowd assembled by about 7:30 – suspect there are also a lot of folks away for preLabor Day weekend travel. We know of two of our guys have been involved with their weddings – Tom Kraus and Phil Ferguson. Congrats to both. It was great to see Roger Day back in the hall!!!
After warm ups, Director Joe told us about his fun and excitement from visiting the Dallas VM last weekend. Then he started right in on helping the guys get it together on the new music that is out. A new show opener, “There’s a Meeting Here Tonight.” Some new music for the joint show with Pride of Baltimore. And a refresher on “Ave Maria” to be used this fall, and at holiday show. Then we launched the start of polishing up holiday show songs.
Before break, Klostermeyer announced that Brad Jones had fall show tickets to sell, that Sandy Stamps had WHOs, and Chuck Harner had 2010 entertainment books. See them during break.
Secretary Buechler presented 6-year membership renewal to Wayne Adams.
Eric Wallen asked for some guys to help fill a quartet gig. And he invited guys on the “other” 10 for 10 weight loss team to enjoy the cupcakes left from Tom’s wedding!
Dan OBrien offered more marketing tools for guys to use in promoting the Sept. 15th guest nite. Joe promised a gift for each guy who brought a guest and a big prize for the guy who brought the most guest!!!
Then Dan introduced another line of guests.
During the break, the sign on the coffee pot announced that we are now serving Starbucks decaf coffee at chapter. (Thanks, Wayne.)
Announcements after the break included a push from Music VP Terry Reynolds to get in self-eval tapes.
President Brad presented a “You Make A Difference” star pin to Terry Reynolds for his behind the scenes work on music and performance matters. Brad and Dan O reported on the status of Carl Kauffmann who is having some serious complications from his operation of a few months ago.
Back to work then on music, and a good solid presentation review on contest package with Gary Plaag coaching – especially in facial involvement. A similar session was held a couple weeks ago prior to going to Dog Days and it paid off when the men took the stage in Manassas last Tues nite.
Next Joe had Tony Colosimo direct the contest package so Joe could coach. It was a terrific session and much appreciated by the men as it helped add many little, but important, nuances.
The rest of the musical time was spent in getting ready for the district contest in Lancaster, PA, Oct. 2 and 3. Everyone was reminded that this is the chance to set the level for next summer’s International chorus contest score!!! Go into the summer contest ranked as high as possible.
The chorus made their eval tapes at the end. When we sand our last song, Joe gave our collective support to Rick Savage and Ian Poulin for their recent family member losses.
The crew got the equipment put away fast and a crowd went over for the afterglow.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
This week there was a work crew in the hall early – guys brought tools to work on the risers. Turns out they found it was a lot more work that just tightening some bolts. They managed to get one section done – after figuring out the cure. It did make a difference and stopped the noise and squeak. More sections will be done next week at 6 pm. You can help too – even non singers who can come out early.
There were also guys in the hall learning the new music and getting an SP review.
Numbers were slim at the start, but a nice crowd assembled by about 7:30 – suspect there are also a lot of folks away for preLabor Day weekend travel. We know of two of our guys have been involved with their weddings – Tom Kraus and Phil Ferguson. Congrats to both. It was great to see Roger Day back in the hall!!!
After warm ups, Director Joe told us about his fun and excitement from visiting the Dallas VM last weekend. Then he started right in on helping the guys get it together on the new music that is out. A new show opener, “There’s a Meeting Here Tonight.” Some new music for the joint show with Pride of Baltimore. And a refresher on “Ave Maria” to be used this fall, and at holiday show. Then we launched the start of polishing up holiday show songs.
Before break, Klostermeyer announced that Brad Jones had fall show tickets to sell, that Sandy Stamps had WHOs, and Chuck Harner had 2010 entertainment books. See them during break.
Secretary Buechler presented 6-year membership renewal to Wayne Adams.
Eric Wallen asked for some guys to help fill a quartet gig. And he invited guys on the “other” 10 for 10 weight loss team to enjoy the cupcakes left from Tom’s wedding!
Dan OBrien offered more marketing tools for guys to use in promoting the Sept. 15th guest nite. Joe promised a gift for each guy who brought a guest and a big prize for the guy who brought the most guest!!!
Then Dan introduced another line of guests.
During the break, the sign on the coffee pot announced that we are now serving Starbucks decaf coffee at chapter. (Thanks, Wayne.)
Announcements after the break included a push from Music VP Terry Reynolds to get in self-eval tapes.
President Brad presented a “You Make A Difference” star pin to Terry Reynolds for his behind the scenes work on music and performance matters. Brad and Dan O reported on the status of Carl Kauffmann who is having some serious complications from his operation of a few months ago.
Back to work then on music, and a good solid presentation review on contest package with Gary Plaag coaching – especially in facial involvement. A similar session was held a couple weeks ago prior to going to Dog Days and it paid off when the men took the stage in Manassas last Tues nite.
Next Joe had Tony Colosimo direct the contest package so Joe could coach. It was a terrific session and much appreciated by the men as it helped add many little, but important, nuances.
The rest of the musical time was spent in getting ready for the district contest in Lancaster, PA, Oct. 2 and 3. Everyone was reminded that this is the chance to set the level for next summer’s International chorus contest score!!! Go into the summer contest ranked as high as possible.
The chorus made their eval tapes at the end. When we sand our last song, Joe gave our collective support to Rick Savage and Ian Poulin for their recent family member losses.
The crew got the equipment put away fast and a crowd went over for the afterglow.
Until next time – editorjack!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Looking Back on August 25th Dog Days Event
Looking Back on August 25th Dog Days Event
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Tuesday nite we traveled to Manassas for the annual Dog Days barbershop gathering in August hosted by the Bull Run Troubadors at Sacred Heart Church.
There was a big crowd of listeners with fans from all seven chapters who sang. The host chapter and other friends brought a lot of goodies that were spread out on both sides of the hall for all to enjoy. Folks got up from their seats and gathered some goodies all during the nite.
As usual the chapter was there to help. We brought the risers and sound equipment. Scott Kahler did his usual great job and Dennis Ritchey was helping too.
Dick Dangel was first up to warm up the assembling crowd and provide music while the first chorus, Mount Vernon, took the stage. Dick played his accordion and led the crowd in singing some old chestnut songs.
Harmony Heritage Singers from Mount Vernon, directed by Bob Wachter, did a nice package show. Their new quartet, SPECIAL BLEND, sang as did CLICHÉ. They dedicated a set of songs to Bud Arberg. He had written two of the songs and arranged them for HHS – “Barbershop Blues” and “I Love An Old Fashioned Love Song.”
An annual highlight of their performance is Bix Doughty doing his solo with the chorus of “Old Bones” -- he is 95.
Next chorus up was Warrenton directed by Glenn Williamson. Their quartet, GREAT ESCAPE, sang.
Third chorus up was Culpepper’s Minutemen chorus, directed by John Knueven. They were just chartered in June as the newest chapter in the Mid-Atlantic District. Doug Abt, one of our former members, was prominent in their back row where he made sure the bubble machine was turned on for their song, “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” Their quartet VELVET BLEND sang. Thom Faircloth, a recent guest at our chapter, was the MC for Culpepper.
Former Harmonizer front row guy who we have not seen in a while, Larry Silva, and Cathy were there for the evening. Also good to see Paul Grimes.
Fourth up to sing was Chorus of the Old Dominion in Loudon County and directed by Ray Sitter. Fifth was Fairfax Jubliares directed by Tom Meier. These two choruses sang a couple songs together before Fairfax took the risers alone. VIRGINIA GENTLEMEN sang in this segment.
Great to see some other recent Harmonizer guests at the event including Stephen Power. Paul Grimes was out to hear us sing (YeEd noted that he was singing tags with our guys afterward).
Manassas took the risers next. Glenn Williamson is their director also. Their quartet HOV FOUR got a lot of laughs with their funny song. PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND quartet sang too. The chorus did a tribute to Bob Hope including his theme song “Thanks for the Memories,” which expressed the thanks the host chapter offered to all who attended the event this year.
The Harmonizers sang last and got a great reception by all the other barbershoppers and their family and friends who were there. Director Joe got the audience’s attention right off with “Great Day” and all the terrific moves. We did our contest package and it was great!!! Some new guys in the front row tried their wings and did great too. CAMERON STATION sang two songs. Our mc team were upbeat and fun. We closed with “NY NY” and that got the audience all excited right when we snapped out to say “Yeah!” in a loud whisper voice.
To close the nite the Mount Vernon guys and the Harmonizer guys sang “Armed Forces Medley” together.
Host chapter president Al Litchfield thanked all and invited every barbershopper in the room to come up and sing “Keep The Whole World Singing” with Joe up front directing.
We loaded our truck and all headed back north. Another great barbershop interchange.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Tuesday nite we traveled to Manassas for the annual Dog Days barbershop gathering in August hosted by the Bull Run Troubadors at Sacred Heart Church.
There was a big crowd of listeners with fans from all seven chapters who sang. The host chapter and other friends brought a lot of goodies that were spread out on both sides of the hall for all to enjoy. Folks got up from their seats and gathered some goodies all during the nite.
As usual the chapter was there to help. We brought the risers and sound equipment. Scott Kahler did his usual great job and Dennis Ritchey was helping too.
Dick Dangel was first up to warm up the assembling crowd and provide music while the first chorus, Mount Vernon, took the stage. Dick played his accordion and led the crowd in singing some old chestnut songs.
Harmony Heritage Singers from Mount Vernon, directed by Bob Wachter, did a nice package show. Their new quartet, SPECIAL BLEND, sang as did CLICHÉ. They dedicated a set of songs to Bud Arberg. He had written two of the songs and arranged them for HHS – “Barbershop Blues” and “I Love An Old Fashioned Love Song.”
An annual highlight of their performance is Bix Doughty doing his solo with the chorus of “Old Bones” -- he is 95.
Next chorus up was Warrenton directed by Glenn Williamson. Their quartet, GREAT ESCAPE, sang.
Third chorus up was Culpepper’s Minutemen chorus, directed by John Knueven. They were just chartered in June as the newest chapter in the Mid-Atlantic District. Doug Abt, one of our former members, was prominent in their back row where he made sure the bubble machine was turned on for their song, “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” Their quartet VELVET BLEND sang. Thom Faircloth, a recent guest at our chapter, was the MC for Culpepper.
Former Harmonizer front row guy who we have not seen in a while, Larry Silva, and Cathy were there for the evening. Also good to see Paul Grimes.
Fourth up to sing was Chorus of the Old Dominion in Loudon County and directed by Ray Sitter. Fifth was Fairfax Jubliares directed by Tom Meier. These two choruses sang a couple songs together before Fairfax took the risers alone. VIRGINIA GENTLEMEN sang in this segment.
Great to see some other recent Harmonizer guests at the event including Stephen Power. Paul Grimes was out to hear us sing (YeEd noted that he was singing tags with our guys afterward).
Manassas took the risers next. Glenn Williamson is their director also. Their quartet HOV FOUR got a lot of laughs with their funny song. PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND quartet sang too. The chorus did a tribute to Bob Hope including his theme song “Thanks for the Memories,” which expressed the thanks the host chapter offered to all who attended the event this year.
The Harmonizers sang last and got a great reception by all the other barbershoppers and their family and friends who were there. Director Joe got the audience’s attention right off with “Great Day” and all the terrific moves. We did our contest package and it was great!!! Some new guys in the front row tried their wings and did great too. CAMERON STATION sang two songs. Our mc team were upbeat and fun. We closed with “NY NY” and that got the audience all excited right when we snapped out to say “Yeah!” in a loud whisper voice.
To close the nite the Mount Vernon guys and the Harmonizer guys sang “Armed Forces Medley” together.
Host chapter president Al Litchfield thanked all and invited every barbershopper in the room to come up and sing “Keep The Whole World Singing” with Joe up front directing.
We loaded our truck and all headed back north. Another great barbershop interchange.
Until next time – editorjack!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Looking Back on August 18th Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on August 18th Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Tuesday nite was a busy, hardworking, big crowd nite. At 6 pm, McKeever was at work teaching some newer members some moves for songs we are using in shows. A crew was at work getting risers ready and set up.
As is typical in the fall season, the line up of people selling things was full. Entertainment Books sold by Harner, script cards sold by the Halls (guys need to remember to buy them in advance when you are getting a big gift, refurbing a kitchen or room, going on vacation), 50/50 tickets by the Halls too, and the first sign that White House Ornaments were on sale again by Sandy Stamps. Our goal is to sell 4,000 of the 2009 ornament – most we have ever sold, according to Mick, is 3,750.
Also saw a crew of guys dismantling the crate that we used to ship our “benches” for contest set in Anaheim.
Will Cox lead vocal warm ups and Mike Kelly did bass warm ups. Early in the evening there was a plug for guys to make self-evaluation recordings to be turned in to their section leaders.
When Director Joe took over, he sent the chorus into 10 minute sectionals to work on “It Don’t Mean A Thing.” He surprised guys by calling them out to sing it in octets. And each guy got a gift from Joe (a CD with former REVILLE quartet).
Then he had the chorus sing it and added some visual and musical interp to make it even more fun as we prep it to become an entertaining comedic tune for our shows.
At the end of the first half, K12 announced birthdays (we sang happy birthday to Carolyn Hall) and reminded the board of their meeting. Secretary Buechler reminded members to pay their dues on time, especially if they plan to sing in the fall contest. He also offered name tag pins for those who need to repair.
Dan O’Brien plugged the guest nite on Sept. 15. There were several strong points made about the need for a large crowd that nite. Dan thanked Kujawa, Sawyer and Wallen for doing a quartet gig with him this past weekend and earning some money to use in paying for advertisements for the guest nite.
As usual we had a large line of guests including two former members: Pat Duffey and Steve Matuszewski.
CAMERON STATION sang one of their new songs for us.
Regular announcements included a final plug by Rhome for men to speak with him before next Tuesday if they don’t have a ticket or room for the fall contest in Lancaster, PA, Oct. 2 and 3. Sandy Stamps introduced the WHO sale. Terry Reynolds plugged the self-recording project.
Tom Kraus introduced a new plan to form another small group within the chapter to do contemporary a capella music. Watch for details and/or contact Tom direct. Auditions for the group will be Sept. 9th at Harmo House (in case you are new, that is Joe’s house).
A report was given to the entire chorus from the recent repertoire committee. We will now have just 15 songs in the list. One new song gets added, it replaces another. The committee has met recently and their visual report shows how some of the songs will go away and others will be added. The prospects include some great and exciting David Wright arrangements include “Stars and Stripes.” YeEd noted that “Danny Boy” will be coming back for our audience pleasure. The whole list will change over a couple years. The committee chair is Keith Jones, with Eric Wallen and Joe Sawyer.
Joe S. was thanked for his computer work in get the learning materials prepared for one of the new songs being added for the joint show with the Pride of Baltimore chorus on Nov. 8th.
President Brad Jones was pleased to announce a joint show with Westminster Chorus from CA on June 27th – on the way to the 2010 International convention!! Should be an exciting weekend since everyone will want to see them. YeEd suspects we might be called upon to host them in our homes as we have done over the years with other chapters who came to sing with us like Dallas VM, Cincinnati Western Hills, Entertainmen from Sweden, Big Apple from Manhattan.
Brad also presented more “Stars” to members – Drew Fuller for service as clearing house for quartet gigs that come to the chapter, and Jack Cameron for his every-year coordinating sales of chorus contest pictures.
Special treat was appearance by DOWN A FOURTH quartet – Sawyer, Cerutti, Kelly, Adams.
The rest of the nite was hard work including some first shots at “In Harmony” we will sing with PRIDE. There was a lengthy review session and drill on three songs to be used at Dogs Days, Tuesday Aug. 25th in Manassas.
This is the annual get-together of all the chapters in the area hosted by Prince William County Chapter. Inactive members are encouraged to come out too. Show is at 7 pm. Alexandria usually sings last, so don’t skip if you have to work late. Get there. It is part of the Harmonizer culture to participate and sing at this event. It is fun. Bring family or prospective singers. At Sacred Heart Church, 12875 Purcell Rd, Manassas. Refreshments provided too in their air conditioned hall. Lots of easy parking. Chorus is wearing the teal travel shirt outfit. Look forward to seeing everyone again.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Tuesday nite was a busy, hardworking, big crowd nite. At 6 pm, McKeever was at work teaching some newer members some moves for songs we are using in shows. A crew was at work getting risers ready and set up.
As is typical in the fall season, the line up of people selling things was full. Entertainment Books sold by Harner, script cards sold by the Halls (guys need to remember to buy them in advance when you are getting a big gift, refurbing a kitchen or room, going on vacation), 50/50 tickets by the Halls too, and the first sign that White House Ornaments were on sale again by Sandy Stamps. Our goal is to sell 4,000 of the 2009 ornament – most we have ever sold, according to Mick, is 3,750.
Also saw a crew of guys dismantling the crate that we used to ship our “benches” for contest set in Anaheim.
Will Cox lead vocal warm ups and Mike Kelly did bass warm ups. Early in the evening there was a plug for guys to make self-evaluation recordings to be turned in to their section leaders.
When Director Joe took over, he sent the chorus into 10 minute sectionals to work on “It Don’t Mean A Thing.” He surprised guys by calling them out to sing it in octets. And each guy got a gift from Joe (a CD with former REVILLE quartet).
Then he had the chorus sing it and added some visual and musical interp to make it even more fun as we prep it to become an entertaining comedic tune for our shows.
At the end of the first half, K12 announced birthdays (we sang happy birthday to Carolyn Hall) and reminded the board of their meeting. Secretary Buechler reminded members to pay their dues on time, especially if they plan to sing in the fall contest. He also offered name tag pins for those who need to repair.
Dan O’Brien plugged the guest nite on Sept. 15. There were several strong points made about the need for a large crowd that nite. Dan thanked Kujawa, Sawyer and Wallen for doing a quartet gig with him this past weekend and earning some money to use in paying for advertisements for the guest nite.
As usual we had a large line of guests including two former members: Pat Duffey and Steve Matuszewski.
CAMERON STATION sang one of their new songs for us.
Regular announcements included a final plug by Rhome for men to speak with him before next Tuesday if they don’t have a ticket or room for the fall contest in Lancaster, PA, Oct. 2 and 3. Sandy Stamps introduced the WHO sale. Terry Reynolds plugged the self-recording project.
Tom Kraus introduced a new plan to form another small group within the chapter to do contemporary a capella music. Watch for details and/or contact Tom direct. Auditions for the group will be Sept. 9th at Harmo House (in case you are new, that is Joe’s house).
A report was given to the entire chorus from the recent repertoire committee. We will now have just 15 songs in the list. One new song gets added, it replaces another. The committee has met recently and their visual report shows how some of the songs will go away and others will be added. The prospects include some great and exciting David Wright arrangements include “Stars and Stripes.” YeEd noted that “Danny Boy” will be coming back for our audience pleasure. The whole list will change over a couple years. The committee chair is Keith Jones, with Eric Wallen and Joe Sawyer.
Joe S. was thanked for his computer work in get the learning materials prepared for one of the new songs being added for the joint show with the Pride of Baltimore chorus on Nov. 8th.
President Brad Jones was pleased to announce a joint show with Westminster Chorus from CA on June 27th – on the way to the 2010 International convention!! Should be an exciting weekend since everyone will want to see them. YeEd suspects we might be called upon to host them in our homes as we have done over the years with other chapters who came to sing with us like Dallas VM, Cincinnati Western Hills, Entertainmen from Sweden, Big Apple from Manhattan.
Brad also presented more “Stars” to members – Drew Fuller for service as clearing house for quartet gigs that come to the chapter, and Jack Cameron for his every-year coordinating sales of chorus contest pictures.
Special treat was appearance by DOWN A FOURTH quartet – Sawyer, Cerutti, Kelly, Adams.
The rest of the nite was hard work including some first shots at “In Harmony” we will sing with PRIDE. There was a lengthy review session and drill on three songs to be used at Dogs Days, Tuesday Aug. 25th in Manassas.
This is the annual get-together of all the chapters in the area hosted by Prince William County Chapter. Inactive members are encouraged to come out too. Show is at 7 pm. Alexandria usually sings last, so don’t skip if you have to work late. Get there. It is part of the Harmonizer culture to participate and sing at this event. It is fun. Bring family or prospective singers. At Sacred Heart Church, 12875 Purcell Rd, Manassas. Refreshments provided too in their air conditioned hall. Lots of easy parking. Chorus is wearing the teal travel shirt outfit. Look forward to seeing everyone again.
Until next time – editorjack!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Looking Back on August 11th Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on August 11th Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
YeEd was glad to be back and see everyone. The set up was well underway when we arrived after our usual 5 pm dinner at Hard Times. The big screen was up again and used to show new song later in the evening.
Gary Plaag did some body warm up and Will Cox did the vocal warm up. He was using the “Gug Gugs” as we used in the past.
Director Joe took the helm and, as promised, selected an octet to sing out front. He said he would and he did! He also had the chorus do a lot of small group work – assigned them into chorus thirds or into octets or the like. Had each smaller group sing a song and other rate them as to intonation, visuals, mouth postures, best selling. It was fun and for sure helped men know what songs they needed to work on personally. Later in the nite, there was a push out quartet exercise with the whole chorus participating.
If you were not there, you will be surprised to see Mike Kelly’s new “doo” – or is that “no doo” since he is shaved!!
Before break, Joe had the big summer crowd on the risers sing the contest package.
At break time, Mark Klostermeyer announced some calendar reviews and birthdays. It would have been Bud Arberg’s birthday this week. He died at 91 recently.
Dan O’Brien plugged the Sept. 15th guest nite and offered several tools for members to use in recruiting and bring in another crowd. Joe made a special appeal for guys to get bring prospective singers – now is the time vs. next spring, if the new person can be ready for Philly. Dan introduced 6 guests – almost all were basses!!!! Steve Power, Victor Hills, Bert Phillips, Thom Faircloth, John Sogn, Anthony Bartholomew (who has gone back to his chapter in TX after a summer internship in DC).
After the break, Bob Rhome reminded all those planning to attend the district contest in Lancaster in Oct. need to get the room requests and ticket orders in to him.
Craig Kujawa plugged the 10 for 10 weight loss program. One team captain tried to lure guys from other teams to stop by his car for cupcakes!!!
President Brad presented Achievement Star pins to the visual quad leaders – Jack Cameron, TJ Jones, Bob Blair and Chuck Powell.
Before closing for the nite, the chorus did a contest package run thru so guys could do their self evaluation tapes and turn them in to section leaders. And everyone was reminded of the Market Square show coming up Friday nite, Aug. 14th. Chorus at 6:30. Show time is 7:30. Official travel uniform for chorus. Lots of guys were talking about going out to dinner either before or after the show. Usually the singers can park under ground and bring up the parking ticket to be stamped to avoid paying.
We had fun with Edris Q7 directing “Keep the Whole World” – a new guy who hardly new the song – to close out the nite.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
YeEd was glad to be back and see everyone. The set up was well underway when we arrived after our usual 5 pm dinner at Hard Times. The big screen was up again and used to show new song later in the evening.
Gary Plaag did some body warm up and Will Cox did the vocal warm up. He was using the “Gug Gugs” as we used in the past.
Director Joe took the helm and, as promised, selected an octet to sing out front. He said he would and he did! He also had the chorus do a lot of small group work – assigned them into chorus thirds or into octets or the like. Had each smaller group sing a song and other rate them as to intonation, visuals, mouth postures, best selling. It was fun and for sure helped men know what songs they needed to work on personally. Later in the nite, there was a push out quartet exercise with the whole chorus participating.
If you were not there, you will be surprised to see Mike Kelly’s new “doo” – or is that “no doo” since he is shaved!!
Before break, Joe had the big summer crowd on the risers sing the contest package.
At break time, Mark Klostermeyer announced some calendar reviews and birthdays. It would have been Bud Arberg’s birthday this week. He died at 91 recently.
Dan O’Brien plugged the Sept. 15th guest nite and offered several tools for members to use in recruiting and bring in another crowd. Joe made a special appeal for guys to get bring prospective singers – now is the time vs. next spring, if the new person can be ready for Philly. Dan introduced 6 guests – almost all were basses!!!! Steve Power, Victor Hills, Bert Phillips, Thom Faircloth, John Sogn, Anthony Bartholomew (who has gone back to his chapter in TX after a summer internship in DC).
After the break, Bob Rhome reminded all those planning to attend the district contest in Lancaster in Oct. need to get the room requests and ticket orders in to him.
Craig Kujawa plugged the 10 for 10 weight loss program. One team captain tried to lure guys from other teams to stop by his car for cupcakes!!!
President Brad presented Achievement Star pins to the visual quad leaders – Jack Cameron, TJ Jones, Bob Blair and Chuck Powell.
Before closing for the nite, the chorus did a contest package run thru so guys could do their self evaluation tapes and turn them in to section leaders. And everyone was reminded of the Market Square show coming up Friday nite, Aug. 14th. Chorus at 6:30. Show time is 7:30. Official travel uniform for chorus. Lots of guys were talking about going out to dinner either before or after the show. Usually the singers can park under ground and bring up the parking ticket to be stamped to avoid paying.
We had fun with Edris Q7 directing “Keep the Whole World” – a new guy who hardly new the song – to close out the nite.
Until next time – editorjack!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Looking Back on August 4th Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on August 4th Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Many thanks to Alan Wile for taking notes and writing up the column while YeEd was in Illinois for his 50th hi school class reunion.
Chuck McKeever was on the Durant stage at 6:00 p.m., ready, willing and able to help with choreography … likely more guys will be there for training next week, especially all the new guys trying to catch up.
The riser crew was Tom Berkey, Jeremy Knobel, Tony Colosimo and, perhaps, one or two others, but efficient.
We were on the risers at 7 p.m., with Tony Colosimo directing warm-ups.
Director Joe Cerutti spoke briefly about Harmony University, noting that it was “awesome, as usual” and that a large number of Harmonizers were there, taking or giving classes. Chapter Members at HU 2009:Faculty: Joe Cerutti, Gary Plaag. Students – Director College: Chris Buechler, Anthony Colosimo. Students – Harmony University: Tom Gannon (YeEd thinks he lives in one of the Dakota’s tho he retains membership), Ryan Griffith, Patrick Kim, Edris Qarghah, Noah Van Gilder.
The chorus performed the contest package for video-taping. These will be put on line and every chorus member is encouraged to view all of them to see, not only how they are performing, but tips from others that might make their individual performance even better.
Next, we sang through our new song, “It Don’t Mean A Thing,” three times for purposes of an introduction and with the challenge to be well prepared next week, when we’ll be octeting!
Next the chorus worked on “When I Lift Up My Head” (again). Joe had us do choreo only, singing only, and the entire song. Then it was “Great Day,” followed by drilling the end of “Kiss The Girl.”
VP Operations Mark Klostermeyer (“K-12”) gave several announcements and introduced others during the business part of the meeting.
Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership documents, pins, “Breathless Moments,” etc., to two of our newest members: Kellen Hertz and Edris Qarghah (“Q-7”). At the same time, he presented “Man of Note” pins to Kyle Blomgren (for sponsoring Kellen) and to Kellen (for sponsoring Edris).
Chuck Harner hyped the newly arrived “Entertainment Books” for (1) Northern Virginia and DC, (2) Maryland and DC, and (3) Greater Baltimore. This year the price is $30 for all the coupons you can possibly use to save money (not a bad idea, given the state of the economy). For each book sold, the chapter receives $6 … and if we sell 71 or more, we get 50%. We reached that goal last year and Chuck is hopeful and encouraging all to do the same this year. (Let’s hear a cheer for Chuck and his extra efforts to head up this activity every year!!!!!)
VP Marketing and PR Scipio Garling urged every member to bring one guest (more is OK, too) to our Guest Night -- September 15th -- and then turned the floor over to Director Joe, who announced that he will present a special reward (not a kazoo) to each man who brings a guest … after all, he’d like to see 110 on the risers in Philadelphia next July! Also, there will be a “grand prize” given to the man who brings the most guests. Yes, it’s another challenge, guys. VP Membership Dan O’Brien (“Dan-O”) asked that each man pick up a stack of guest night-related business cards and flyers before leaving … and to pass them out and post them liberally.
After the break, Dan-O introduced the guests. In addition to former members Ron Rich, Lee Cohen, Chris Yates, and Pat Duffy there were 8 men and two women (an Alexandria choreographer -- Rachel Unterberger and Ken Fess’ sister, Marbeth Hanamura. It was great to have a couple of applicants (Chris Yates, who passed his audition, and John Sogn) and first time guests in the group, together with some others who have visited more regularly. The other guests: Anthony Bartholomew, Paul Elder, Thom Faircloth, Nik Hanlon, Victor Hills, Dean Martin, and Steve Power. Glad to have you all here … and hope to see you all again at subsequent chapter meetings!!!
K-12 reminded us about the Market Square (free) show on Friday, August 14th and that we’ll be meeting in Manassas for our annual inter-chapter visit sponsored by the Prince William Chapter (Bull Run Troubadours) on Tuesday, August 25th.
Terry Reynolds explained that we would do two run-throughs of the contest set each week: (1) for videoing (see above) and (2) for vocal taping. Each member who wants to be on stage at the Mid-Atlantic District Fall Convention/Contest in Lancaster, PA on October 3rd MUST submit at least one “make me better” recording together with his self-evaluation. An evaluation of his presentation skills (from the video) needs to be submitted, too. Constructive feedback will be provided.
Scipio and Alan Wile announced that the chapter Board decided to contribute the proceeds of the weekly “50-50” to the Mid-Atlantic District Endowment Fund. The total amount for the balance of the year must be at least $500. Scipio explained that as the chapter leads in all other areas, it must be a leader in its support to the Endowment Fund, too. Interest earned by the Fund provides scholarships for musical directors and youth quartets to attend Harmony College East at Salisbury University each June.
Quartet Promotion “guy” Eric Wallen reminded all about the Put-Together Quartet Contest to be held December 15th. Details will be coming but it’s not too early to get start thinking and preparing for it. (YeEd hopes for some funny songs and comedy routines.)
President Brad Jones announced that tickets for our fall show with the Pride of Baltimore Chorus are now available and that we are looking to have an afterglow in the same facility (more to follow).
Brad then presented Music Librarian Dick Dangel with a “Make A Difference” pin in recognition of the work he does to keep our guest music books up-to-date … and you know how we love to see guests! Congratulations, Dick!
Innovator Craig Kujawa announced that 40 men had signed up for “The 10 for 10 Challenge.” With the four team captains (Joe Cerutti, K-12, Ken Fess, and Phil Ferguson) up front, the names were drawn, three at a time, to create the teams.
Finally, we got back to singing and Joe worked us -- really worked us -- on “New York, New York.” When satisfied with the product, he then rehearsed “Almost Like Being In Love.” The evening drawing to a close, we performed the contest set once more … this time for recording.
Front Row Captain Craig Kujawa announced that two men have been added to the front row (replacing Chuck Hunter and Bob Sutton). Congratulations to Patrick Kim and Tom Kraus!
The “50-50” was won by one of our guests (YEA!) -- Dean Martin -- who then took us out with “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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Many thanks to Alan Wile for taking notes and writing up the column while YeEd was in Illinois for his 50th hi school class reunion.
Chuck McKeever was on the Durant stage at 6:00 p.m., ready, willing and able to help with choreography … likely more guys will be there for training next week, especially all the new guys trying to catch up.
The riser crew was Tom Berkey, Jeremy Knobel, Tony Colosimo and, perhaps, one or two others, but efficient.
We were on the risers at 7 p.m., with Tony Colosimo directing warm-ups.
Director Joe Cerutti spoke briefly about Harmony University, noting that it was “awesome, as usual” and that a large number of Harmonizers were there, taking or giving classes. Chapter Members at HU 2009:Faculty: Joe Cerutti, Gary Plaag. Students – Director College: Chris Buechler, Anthony Colosimo. Students – Harmony University: Tom Gannon (YeEd thinks he lives in one of the Dakota’s tho he retains membership), Ryan Griffith, Patrick Kim, Edris Qarghah, Noah Van Gilder.
The chorus performed the contest package for video-taping. These will be put on line and every chorus member is encouraged to view all of them to see, not only how they are performing, but tips from others that might make their individual performance even better.
Next, we sang through our new song, “It Don’t Mean A Thing,” three times for purposes of an introduction and with the challenge to be well prepared next week, when we’ll be octeting!
Next the chorus worked on “When I Lift Up My Head” (again). Joe had us do choreo only, singing only, and the entire song. Then it was “Great Day,” followed by drilling the end of “Kiss The Girl.”
VP Operations Mark Klostermeyer (“K-12”) gave several announcements and introduced others during the business part of the meeting.
Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership documents, pins, “Breathless Moments,” etc., to two of our newest members: Kellen Hertz and Edris Qarghah (“Q-7”). At the same time, he presented “Man of Note” pins to Kyle Blomgren (for sponsoring Kellen) and to Kellen (for sponsoring Edris).
Chuck Harner hyped the newly arrived “Entertainment Books” for (1) Northern Virginia and DC, (2) Maryland and DC, and (3) Greater Baltimore. This year the price is $30 for all the coupons you can possibly use to save money (not a bad idea, given the state of the economy). For each book sold, the chapter receives $6 … and if we sell 71 or more, we get 50%. We reached that goal last year and Chuck is hopeful and encouraging all to do the same this year. (Let’s hear a cheer for Chuck and his extra efforts to head up this activity every year!!!!!)
VP Marketing and PR Scipio Garling urged every member to bring one guest (more is OK, too) to our Guest Night -- September 15th -- and then turned the floor over to Director Joe, who announced that he will present a special reward (not a kazoo) to each man who brings a guest … after all, he’d like to see 110 on the risers in Philadelphia next July! Also, there will be a “grand prize” given to the man who brings the most guests. Yes, it’s another challenge, guys. VP Membership Dan O’Brien (“Dan-O”) asked that each man pick up a stack of guest night-related business cards and flyers before leaving … and to pass them out and post them liberally.
After the break, Dan-O introduced the guests. In addition to former members Ron Rich, Lee Cohen, Chris Yates, and Pat Duffy there were 8 men and two women (an Alexandria choreographer -- Rachel Unterberger and Ken Fess’ sister, Marbeth Hanamura. It was great to have a couple of applicants (Chris Yates, who passed his audition, and John Sogn) and first time guests in the group, together with some others who have visited more regularly. The other guests: Anthony Bartholomew, Paul Elder, Thom Faircloth, Nik Hanlon, Victor Hills, Dean Martin, and Steve Power. Glad to have you all here … and hope to see you all again at subsequent chapter meetings!!!
K-12 reminded us about the Market Square (free) show on Friday, August 14th and that we’ll be meeting in Manassas for our annual inter-chapter visit sponsored by the Prince William Chapter (Bull Run Troubadours) on Tuesday, August 25th.
Terry Reynolds explained that we would do two run-throughs of the contest set each week: (1) for videoing (see above) and (2) for vocal taping. Each member who wants to be on stage at the Mid-Atlantic District Fall Convention/Contest in Lancaster, PA on October 3rd MUST submit at least one “make me better” recording together with his self-evaluation. An evaluation of his presentation skills (from the video) needs to be submitted, too. Constructive feedback will be provided.
Scipio and Alan Wile announced that the chapter Board decided to contribute the proceeds of the weekly “50-50” to the Mid-Atlantic District Endowment Fund. The total amount for the balance of the year must be at least $500. Scipio explained that as the chapter leads in all other areas, it must be a leader in its support to the Endowment Fund, too. Interest earned by the Fund provides scholarships for musical directors and youth quartets to attend Harmony College East at Salisbury University each June.
Quartet Promotion “guy” Eric Wallen reminded all about the Put-Together Quartet Contest to be held December 15th. Details will be coming but it’s not too early to get start thinking and preparing for it. (YeEd hopes for some funny songs and comedy routines.)
President Brad Jones announced that tickets for our fall show with the Pride of Baltimore Chorus are now available and that we are looking to have an afterglow in the same facility (more to follow).
Brad then presented Music Librarian Dick Dangel with a “Make A Difference” pin in recognition of the work he does to keep our guest music books up-to-date … and you know how we love to see guests! Congratulations, Dick!
Innovator Craig Kujawa announced that 40 men had signed up for “The 10 for 10 Challenge.” With the four team captains (Joe Cerutti, K-12, Ken Fess, and Phil Ferguson) up front, the names were drawn, three at a time, to create the teams.
Finally, we got back to singing and Joe worked us -- really worked us -- on “New York, New York.” When satisfied with the product, he then rehearsed “Almost Like Being In Love.” The evening drawing to a close, we performed the contest set once more … this time for recording.
Front Row Captain Craig Kujawa announced that two men have been added to the front row (replacing Chuck Hunter and Bob Sutton). Congratulations to Patrick Kim and Tom Kraus!
The “50-50” was won by one of our guests (YEA!) -- Dean Martin -- who then took us out with “Keep The Whole World Singing.”
Until next time – editorjack!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Looking Back on July 28th Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on July 28th Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
YeEd brought along the May-June Harmonizer magazine from the BHS to read. Great story about our sing at the Supreme Court building. And a story about former director, Scott Werner, and his FL chorus giving 10% of their individual $250 stimulus payment from IRS to the Barbershop Harmony Foundation.
Before the meeting, Scott Kahler went to work on two sections of risers to tighten ALL the screws. Seemed to make a difference is the “noise” when the chorus did sways and big moves.
Will Cox did the warm ups. We have almost 60 members present before the nite was over. Many of our men were at Harmony University in MO including Director Joe as well as Tony Colosimo.
So, Mike Kelly and Will had directorship duties. They worked the troops in preparation for the August show in Old Town Alexandria at Market Square and provided a good review of a number of package show songs. Chuck McKeever also added review pointers for the stage presence plans of those songs.
Bob Rhome substituted for K12 (who is in Germany). Bob chided the men to wear their badges to chapter meeting. Craig Kujawa confirmed that there will be three teams in the 10 for 10 weight loss team competition. Didn’t hear him say who would be the third team captain. Members have until noon on Aug. 4 to let Craig know via email that they want to be included. Teams members will be drawn that nite at chapter meeting.
Scott Kahler also mentioned his work on developing an emergency notification method for the chapter – much like colleges use to alert students of a problem. The Board will be considering the plan at their meeting this week.
There were some announcements about wearing the correct kaki pants with the blue teal casual shirt. (An email has already come out with correct details.)
Dan O’Brien reminded all of the next guest nite, Sept. 15th at Durant. He also passed out flyers and calling cards developed by Scipio to help everyone plug the date. Dan would like some indication via email as to where the guys put the flyers. An email version is pending.
There were 8 guests introduced. And as usual, some first timers, some guys from other chapters, some guys in the loop to join.
After the break, President Brad alerted everyone to plan ahead for housing and parking and such for the Fall Contest in Lancaster Oct. 2-3. Alexandria is staying at the Willow Valley Resort.
Brad presented a “You Are A Star” pin to Ike Evans for his work on chapter photos and for doing the work to get a supply of black canvas briefcase bags with the guy’s name and Harmo logo. Nice looking.
Bob Rhome reminded all to bring taping equipment next week to make self-evaluated tapes to turn in. He plugged the dates for the Market Square Show Aug. 14th and for the Dog Days sing out in Manassas Aug. 25th where we sing on Tues nite with all the other local VA chapters. A fun nite.
After announcements, it was back to work on the singing. Will formed a push out quartet event and had them sing “Lift Up My Head” which was fun. Several new guys and guests actually got into it too.
The evening ended with the raffle and the winner was Carolyn Hall. She took us out for KTWWS.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
YeEd brought along the May-June Harmonizer magazine from the BHS to read. Great story about our sing at the Supreme Court building. And a story about former director, Scott Werner, and his FL chorus giving 10% of their individual $250 stimulus payment from IRS to the Barbershop Harmony Foundation.
Before the meeting, Scott Kahler went to work on two sections of risers to tighten ALL the screws. Seemed to make a difference is the “noise” when the chorus did sways and big moves.
Will Cox did the warm ups. We have almost 60 members present before the nite was over. Many of our men were at Harmony University in MO including Director Joe as well as Tony Colosimo.
So, Mike Kelly and Will had directorship duties. They worked the troops in preparation for the August show in Old Town Alexandria at Market Square and provided a good review of a number of package show songs. Chuck McKeever also added review pointers for the stage presence plans of those songs.
Bob Rhome substituted for K12 (who is in Germany). Bob chided the men to wear their badges to chapter meeting. Craig Kujawa confirmed that there will be three teams in the 10 for 10 weight loss team competition. Didn’t hear him say who would be the third team captain. Members have until noon on Aug. 4 to let Craig know via email that they want to be included. Teams members will be drawn that nite at chapter meeting.
Scott Kahler also mentioned his work on developing an emergency notification method for the chapter – much like colleges use to alert students of a problem. The Board will be considering the plan at their meeting this week.
There were some announcements about wearing the correct kaki pants with the blue teal casual shirt. (An email has already come out with correct details.)
Dan O’Brien reminded all of the next guest nite, Sept. 15th at Durant. He also passed out flyers and calling cards developed by Scipio to help everyone plug the date. Dan would like some indication via email as to where the guys put the flyers. An email version is pending.
There were 8 guests introduced. And as usual, some first timers, some guys from other chapters, some guys in the loop to join.
After the break, President Brad alerted everyone to plan ahead for housing and parking and such for the Fall Contest in Lancaster Oct. 2-3. Alexandria is staying at the Willow Valley Resort.
Brad presented a “You Are A Star” pin to Ike Evans for his work on chapter photos and for doing the work to get a supply of black canvas briefcase bags with the guy’s name and Harmo logo. Nice looking.
Bob Rhome reminded all to bring taping equipment next week to make self-evaluated tapes to turn in. He plugged the dates for the Market Square Show Aug. 14th and for the Dog Days sing out in Manassas Aug. 25th where we sing on Tues nite with all the other local VA chapters. A fun nite.
After announcements, it was back to work on the singing. Will formed a push out quartet event and had them sing “Lift Up My Head” which was fun. Several new guys and guests actually got into it too.
The evening ended with the raffle and the winner was Carolyn Hall. She took us out for KTWWS.
Until next time – editorjack!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Looking Back on July 21st Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on July 21st Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Folks arrived a little late this week, but the risers and room was set up promptly and we were back to normal in finding all the Harmo “stuff” in Durant. Dick and Carolyn Hall were back from this trip to see family. From the grin on his face, you would think Dick had won the gold medal, not his brother Bob in the Ambassadors of Harmony!
The usual warm up and a warm down for basses was conducted. Then it was off to work with Director Joe in preparation for the Ft. Ward show on Thursday.
Since our chapter is supported by the City of Alexandria Rec Dept., we look forward to this event each year as a small payback for that support. Good PR, good place to bring prospective customers and for sure prospective singers. Show starts at 7:30 for audience.
Joe promised this show is the “send it off our repertoire” for “Kiss de Girl” which drew cheers from all.
After a good singing workout, K12 started the meeting portion of the nite. Secretary Buehler presented a 7-year membership card to Frank Fedarko and a 31-year card to Phil Ashford. J.T. Price was presented his 30-year card and pin.
Dan O reminded everyone of the guest nite coming up Sept. 15th!! He also offered several promotional tools for members to pick up and use – flyers, cards, etc.
Then he introduced 12 guests including a number of first timers, members from other chapters, guys who were at our Youth Festival, and former members Lee Cohen, Jeremy Richardson, Chris Yates (hope I didn’t forget anyone).
Before we left the risers for refreshments, Joe spoke to honor, thank and recognize Chuck Hunter on his last nite with us for a while. He departs soon for a State Dept. assignment in Damascus. It was wonderful that Chuck’s parents, Chuck and Pat, where here from CA too. For old timers who might wonder, we decided not to do the “chair” routine and sing “A Place on the Risers for You” since we have done that for his previous assignments – and we expect him back as soon as his duty is over. There was cake that had Place on the Risers for You written on it to celebrate with our friend as he heads off again.
Other announcements included word from Quartet Promo Chair Eric Wallen that there will be a Chapter Quartet Contest on Dec. 15th. It is a fun event and all the guys need to get started “putting” a quartet together. That is why we call it a Put Together contest, cause the chair will “put” quartets of guys together. Some will do comedy; some will sing their own new songs. Usually there is a ringer quartet or two that has practiced more than twice!!
Show VP Ken Rub covered the Ft. Ward show details and solicited crews for risers and such.
Craig Kujawa launched a new project within the chapter called “10 for 10 Challenge” – two teams of 10 men each with captains Joe Cerutti and Mark Klostermeyer. Each man on the team must loose 10 pounds between Aug. 4 and the Saturday of the retreat before International. 10 people, 10 pounds, 10 months. Watch for better details from Craig. And periodic results being posted. If more guys want to join, he will form another team. Craig also promised a significant prize for the winners!
President Brad Jones explained the media visit earlier in the evening to film the framed tribute our chapter has (and has also given to the BHS museum) of our chapter CDs that were autographed by a Harmonizer fan, John Glenn, when he went into space last time. He took our CDs with him for music.
Brad announced news that Burt Stueve’s wife had fallen and was seriously injured recently while working in the attic of their garage.
President Brad also presented a “You Make A Difference” star to Max Kieba for his good work on managing the scholarship program our chapter sponsors for Harmony University. As an aside to that story, one of our younger winners who was going as part of the Next Generation promotion had to cancel, so we gave that scholarship to a young member in our district from another chapter.
Speaking of Harmony U, there will be a number of our musical leaders and members absent next week. We did a filming of Tony Colosimo directing us that he will use as his submission to director college at the U.
Then it was back to work on show tunes and the contest package. During the “Armed Forces Medley” a guest stood automatically when we sang his service song. Kevin is headed for a duty assignment in Korea today. He sang with Westminster.
Chuck Hunter took us out for the wrap up song. Everyone cleared the hall and another big crowd of guys went to the afterglow. During that event, the Class of 08 and 09 met with Membership VP Dan. They must be plotting an overthrow!!
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Folks arrived a little late this week, but the risers and room was set up promptly and we were back to normal in finding all the Harmo “stuff” in Durant. Dick and Carolyn Hall were back from this trip to see family. From the grin on his face, you would think Dick had won the gold medal, not his brother Bob in the Ambassadors of Harmony!
The usual warm up and a warm down for basses was conducted. Then it was off to work with Director Joe in preparation for the Ft. Ward show on Thursday.
Since our chapter is supported by the City of Alexandria Rec Dept., we look forward to this event each year as a small payback for that support. Good PR, good place to bring prospective customers and for sure prospective singers. Show starts at 7:30 for audience.
Joe promised this show is the “send it off our repertoire” for “Kiss de Girl” which drew cheers from all.
After a good singing workout, K12 started the meeting portion of the nite. Secretary Buehler presented a 7-year membership card to Frank Fedarko and a 31-year card to Phil Ashford. J.T. Price was presented his 30-year card and pin.
Dan O reminded everyone of the guest nite coming up Sept. 15th!! He also offered several promotional tools for members to pick up and use – flyers, cards, etc.
Then he introduced 12 guests including a number of first timers, members from other chapters, guys who were at our Youth Festival, and former members Lee Cohen, Jeremy Richardson, Chris Yates (hope I didn’t forget anyone).
Before we left the risers for refreshments, Joe spoke to honor, thank and recognize Chuck Hunter on his last nite with us for a while. He departs soon for a State Dept. assignment in Damascus. It was wonderful that Chuck’s parents, Chuck and Pat, where here from CA too. For old timers who might wonder, we decided not to do the “chair” routine and sing “A Place on the Risers for You” since we have done that for his previous assignments – and we expect him back as soon as his duty is over. There was cake that had Place on the Risers for You written on it to celebrate with our friend as he heads off again.
Other announcements included word from Quartet Promo Chair Eric Wallen that there will be a Chapter Quartet Contest on Dec. 15th. It is a fun event and all the guys need to get started “putting” a quartet together. That is why we call it a Put Together contest, cause the chair will “put” quartets of guys together. Some will do comedy; some will sing their own new songs. Usually there is a ringer quartet or two that has practiced more than twice!!
Show VP Ken Rub covered the Ft. Ward show details and solicited crews for risers and such.
Craig Kujawa launched a new project within the chapter called “10 for 10 Challenge” – two teams of 10 men each with captains Joe Cerutti and Mark Klostermeyer. Each man on the team must loose 10 pounds between Aug. 4 and the Saturday of the retreat before International. 10 people, 10 pounds, 10 months. Watch for better details from Craig. And periodic results being posted. If more guys want to join, he will form another team. Craig also promised a significant prize for the winners!
President Brad Jones explained the media visit earlier in the evening to film the framed tribute our chapter has (and has also given to the BHS museum) of our chapter CDs that were autographed by a Harmonizer fan, John Glenn, when he went into space last time. He took our CDs with him for music.
Brad announced news that Burt Stueve’s wife had fallen and was seriously injured recently while working in the attic of their garage.
President Brad also presented a “You Make A Difference” star to Max Kieba for his good work on managing the scholarship program our chapter sponsors for Harmony University. As an aside to that story, one of our younger winners who was going as part of the Next Generation promotion had to cancel, so we gave that scholarship to a young member in our district from another chapter.
Speaking of Harmony U, there will be a number of our musical leaders and members absent next week. We did a filming of Tony Colosimo directing us that he will use as his submission to director college at the U.
Then it was back to work on show tunes and the contest package. During the “Armed Forces Medley” a guest stood automatically when we sang his service song. Kevin is headed for a duty assignment in Korea today. He sang with Westminster.
Chuck Hunter took us out for the wrap up song. Everyone cleared the hall and another big crowd of guys went to the afterglow. During that event, the Class of 08 and 09 met with Membership VP Dan. They must be plotting an overthrow!!
Until next time – editorjack!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Looking Back on July 14th Chapter Meeting
Looking Back on July 14th Chapter Meeting
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Things were a little turned around at the Rec Center as the staff there had to stash stuff in our storage area in prep for Vice President Biden speaking at Durant on Wednesday. But we found most of the things we needed to run the meeting (tho we opted not to dig for refreshment supplies).
There was a good crowd on hand early – Ye Ed thinks a lot of guys had withdrawal since this was the first Tuesday nite back for many after Anaheim. So they were eager. And they wanted to hear what was being said out there about our performance and by whom.
Director Joe and his musical team did the usual kind of warm ups and then Joe reminded all the men that we have just gotten to the end of one important goal and we can’t wait and rest. We are already working on the next goals – summer shows, fall show and fall contest and an all-important guest nite.
So back to singing – the chorus got to sing a bunch of tunes we have not done for a while (as show producer guy Ken Rub reports that we are going to sing about every song we know at Ft. Ward on July 23rd). Joe had the chorus sing through, work on notes, did some interp fixits as well reviewed stage presence. It was a solid work session, but the guys were “into it” as they were glad to review. All the new men were working hard to catch up on other songs so they can do shows.
K12 acknowledged Dick Newton for his work as chair of our trip to CA. Dick then had the chapter thank the various chairs (as reported in my convention wrap up). He particularly thanked Carl Kauffmann, who is back from his operation, for the initial planning he did before he got sick. And Ye Ed didn’t know that Bill Stewart built the crate to ship the new benches out west.
Membership VP Dan O’Brien had a lot of guests to introduce and welcome including member Alan Kousen who is back in the area to sing with us again.
After the break we got into a review session from Anaheim. Joe spoke about his pride, the feedback he has gotten from judges and coaches and barbershop musical leaders and friends regarding our successful shot and 9th place finish. By all accounts, we made a huge leap in our performance. And not surprising, Joe has challenged us to work to build the chapter by another 20-30 men – many of whom should be basses.
Terry Reynolds, who has agreed to take over for Chuck Hunter who is being posted in Damascus with the State Department and will vacate the music vp position in a couple weeks, did his usual statistical review of scores and comparisons of past years. He was able to help us discover some positive signs of improvement and growth musically and visually.
After the talking, we sang more of the show songs. Joe did share that the Peter Pan medley and package will be put on hold. We will use the Anaheim package in the fall at the district convention. Our goal would be to score more 90s from the judges at that event and to set our numbers high enough to go into the 2010 International chorus contest ranked as high as possible!
We have another big event in November when we sing a show with the Pride of Baltimore SAI chorus. That will be the last time we do the 2009 package. Joe promises that he is working on a killer ballad that shows off the great Harmonizer style and class and talent, plus he is looking for a great up tune. He solicited ideas of serious contender songs.
Before leaving and loading everything back into the truck, we watched our performance from Anaheim – that appeared on the web cast of the convention.
Ye Ed did see another crop of new member prospects headed off to have their auditions toward membership. Hurray.
The crowd at the afterglow was cheerful and the weather was nice enough for the tag singers to gather outside on the patio to sing. A great barbershop nite.
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 of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)
Things were a little turned around at the Rec Center as the staff there had to stash stuff in our storage area in prep for Vice President Biden speaking at Durant on Wednesday. But we found most of the things we needed to run the meeting (tho we opted not to dig for refreshment supplies).
There was a good crowd on hand early – Ye Ed thinks a lot of guys had withdrawal since this was the first Tuesday nite back for many after Anaheim. So they were eager. And they wanted to hear what was being said out there about our performance and by whom.
Director Joe and his musical team did the usual kind of warm ups and then Joe reminded all the men that we have just gotten to the end of one important goal and we can’t wait and rest. We are already working on the next goals – summer shows, fall show and fall contest and an all-important guest nite.
So back to singing – the chorus got to sing a bunch of tunes we have not done for a while (as show producer guy Ken Rub reports that we are going to sing about every song we know at Ft. Ward on July 23rd). Joe had the chorus sing through, work on notes, did some interp fixits as well reviewed stage presence. It was a solid work session, but the guys were “into it” as they were glad to review. All the new men were working hard to catch up on other songs so they can do shows.
K12 acknowledged Dick Newton for his work as chair of our trip to CA. Dick then had the chapter thank the various chairs (as reported in my convention wrap up). He particularly thanked Carl Kauffmann, who is back from his operation, for the initial planning he did before he got sick. And Ye Ed didn’t know that Bill Stewart built the crate to ship the new benches out west.
Membership VP Dan O’Brien had a lot of guests to introduce and welcome including member Alan Kousen who is back in the area to sing with us again.
After the break we got into a review session from Anaheim. Joe spoke about his pride, the feedback he has gotten from judges and coaches and barbershop musical leaders and friends regarding our successful shot and 9th place finish. By all accounts, we made a huge leap in our performance. And not surprising, Joe has challenged us to work to build the chapter by another 20-30 men – many of whom should be basses.
Terry Reynolds, who has agreed to take over for Chuck Hunter who is being posted in Damascus with the State Department and will vacate the music vp position in a couple weeks, did his usual statistical review of scores and comparisons of past years. He was able to help us discover some positive signs of improvement and growth musically and visually.
After the talking, we sang more of the show songs. Joe did share that the Peter Pan medley and package will be put on hold. We will use the Anaheim package in the fall at the district convention. Our goal would be to score more 90s from the judges at that event and to set our numbers high enough to go into the 2010 International chorus contest ranked as high as possible!
We have another big event in November when we sing a show with the Pride of Baltimore SAI chorus. That will be the last time we do the 2009 package. Joe promises that he is working on a killer ballad that shows off the great Harmonizer style and class and talent, plus he is looking for a great up tune. He solicited ideas of serious contender songs.
Before leaving and loading everything back into the truck, we watched our performance from Anaheim – that appeared on the web cast of the convention.
Ye Ed did see another crop of new member prospects headed off to have their auditions toward membership. Hurray.
The crowd at the afterglow was cheerful and the weather was nice enough for the tag singers to gather outside on the patio to sing. A great barbershop nite.
Until next time – editorjack!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Looking Back on International Convention, Anaheim July 2009
Looking Back on International Convention, Anaheim July 2009
(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week with the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —Ye Ed.)
What a week for the Harmonizers! The 71st International Convention in Anaheim was another important milestone in Harmonizer history.
The chorus earned 2647 points in the contest (88.2%) and ranked 9th. We had 81 singers on stage. More points that 2008 but slipped one notch, but it is great to still be in the TOP TEN. Just wait til we add 20 or 30 more by next year.
Of course, the tough chorus competition at the medalist level was the big news. The upset victory by the Ambassadors of Harmony from St. Charles, (St. Louis) MO was the talk of the town. Dallas Vocal Majority earned a record score when they sang Friday morning only to have that record broken a few hours later when the Ambassadors overwhelmed the audience with a “76 Trombones” uptune complete with a surprise costume change into flashy band uniforms with feather topped hats! Our retreat coach David Wright was on stage with them.
1. St. Charles Ambassadors – 2926, 158 men
2. Dallas Vocal Majority – 2889, 142 men
3. Hilltop, MN – 2764, 86 men
4. Denver Mile High – 2744, 117 men
5. Toronto Northern Lights – 2706, 39 men
Other chorus rankings of interest include Alliance from Ohio in 6th place, new young-guy chorus from Stockholm, Sweden, zero8, in 7th; New Zealand chorus in 10th; Cincinnati in 11th; Atlanta in 12th, Greendale Midwest Vocal Express (the fish bowl guys) in 14th; Northbrook in 15th. Jordan Haedtler, one of our regular Harmonizer guests when he is on campus in DC, sang with Greg Lyne’s chorus, Voices of Harmony, who were 8th.
Our chorus had a busy rehearsal schedule starting Tuesday evening. Each session was just two hours. It is always a great feeling to see everyone who has arrived and gathered for the first time at contest. Tuesday nite was also the first chance for guys to see the new benches made by Dennis Ritchey and shipped to CA. The benches had a new color panel underneath to add some color and support when guys stood on them!
Kyle Blomgren welcomed his fellow chorus members to CA and his old stomping grounds on Tuesday nite. Gary Plaag and Tony Colosimo did warm ups. K12 shifted and coached the guys into windows. Director Joe expressed his sincere thanks to the guys for being there and making it to CA after so many weeks of work.
Then our coach Cindy Hansen spent time with the chorus mostly encouraging and building confidence in the ability to do the job at hand. She asked the men to dig deep into their emotions for the ballad.
Keith Jones shared his emotional story of trying his best to qualify and yet he did not pass the test. Then he gave his previously earned gold medal to 2009 class president Phil Ferguson to take on stage.
Continuing the scenario development work that had begun back in Alexandria, Bob Wachter gave his story of new love and romance and how it compared to the ballad. Joe followed that with the closed eye drill and then a final run of the set.
Before he let the men go to bed, Joe asked each one to pick up a piece of the cream colored paper and an envelope in the back of the rehearsal room. Each man was to come to the Wednesday morning rehearsal having written his Dream that he sings about in the ballad on that paper. They each sealed their envelopes and carried them all week.
The second rehearsal was Wednesday morning. The front row worked out more. Coach Steve Tramack was on hand to cheer for us. The usual work ethic continued. Phil Ferguson did the scenario story before the closed eye drill. Joe had each man hold his Dream envelope during the drill.
Wednesday afternoon was the third rehearsal with more of the same including a scenario story from Terry Reynolds and the Dream envelopes for the closed eye drill. Surprise guests at this session were Geri and Royal Geis. Joe invited her to say hello and she wished the gang the best. She was in town to help Northbrook.
Thursday morning session included some warning about the huge camera that sweeps across the stage and shows your face on the screen during a song. (Some of our men were featured with great looks during our time on stage.) Two former members, Ray Johnson and Bill Power, who sing with last year’s chorus champs, Masters of Harmony in CA, stopped in to present the chapter with a memento from their chorus to ours.
Ken White announced our congrats to the chapter quartet guys for their accomplishments in the quartet contest on Wednesday. Our chapter quartets fought through the tough competition: CRUNCH TIME (with Eric Wallen) was 25th and FULL TILT (with Ed Cazenas, Nick Aiuto, Pete Frank, Steve White) was 35th.
Other district quartets: ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT was 14th; BIGTIME! was 45th. Former Harmonizers who had qualified to sing in the quartet contest: Will Daniel Mudd-Simmons came in 28th place in 65 SOUTH; Mike Louque came in 29th in SKYLINE; and Harold Nantz came in 35th in ATTRACTION.
The quartet contest was won by CROSSROADS with Fred Farrell, Michael Slamka, Brandon Guyton and Jim Henry who is also director of the Ambassadors. (All four of these guys already have a gold medal from other quartets. Brandon was our retreat coach a few years ago.)
1. CROSSROADS
2. OLD SCHOOL - representing our Mid-Atlantic District
3. STORM FRONT
4. RING MASTERS from Sweden and STATE LINE GROCERY quartet with Tim Brooks as lead (he was at our send off) tied for fourth.
At this rehearsal session, Phil Ashford shared his moving story of romance built around life in our chapter. The Dream session and closed eye drill followed.
Thursday afternoon the guys came to work some more. Steve Jamison, arranger for “Clap Yo Hands” stopped in to say hi, have a listen. He was proud of how we were presenting his arrangement. Rik Johnson, a judge and coach we met at Southern Division back in May in Virginia, came over to offer some ideas of things for Joe and the guys to work on. Bill Colosimo brought greetings from the DC Chapter.
While Rik was talking to Joe out in the hall, we planned our usual surprise on the director. This year when we sang the ballad the first time, no one made a sound except Ken White who sang from the Broadway show opener. But there was to be more. When we sang the uptune the last time in this work session, the guys pulled out kazoos and did the song. Poor Joe is always so shocked when these gags happen and then this year he got hit twice. He is a great sport and it was another in a long line of chapter tradition.
Pete Frank told his scenario story of romance and that his Dream is going to take him to Erie, PA, and this was his last time to sing with us. We will all miss him! His story was followed by one more Dream session and closed eye drill.
To wrap up this session, we cheered for the M-AD collegiate quartet, NEXT STOP, who
came over to sing for us before they had to compete on Saturday morning. They ended up
17th place in the contest.
Friday started early for all of the Harmonizer family as it was the our annual Togetherness Breakfast. Guys were up early for coffee in the lobby in their teal shirts and casual uniform. Families and friends all joined too. Guests included district officials (mostly all our own guys), Tom Gentry, arranger of the Peter Pan medley; Steve Jamison and his wife; Steve Tramack and his wife; the original Joe Cerutti, Joe’s Dad; Ray Johnson from the Masters, Cindy Hansen and her husband; and BHS executive vice president Alan Lamson and his wife.
President Brad Jones was emcee. He pointed out that the trophy from the Masters was engraved – The Dream is Carried On. How appropriate for us. Our FRIENDS in HARMONY group had decorated the tables with Dream Catchers. They also presented each singer with a small Dream Catcher to carry on stage. Ina Berky, Tom’s wife, spoke on behalf of the FRIENDS and did a great job in offering motivation and support from them.
The program included remarks from Phil Ferguson who was president of the Class of 2009 that included Tom Hutton, Bob Mattes, Ryan Griffith, Josh Roots, Drew Dias, Edris Qarghah, Kellen Hertz, and Frank Fedarko. There was a bandana check at the breakfast and then, as tradition dictates, they were allowed to discard them before going on stage. Phil shared that their class would be proud to carry on the dream of the chapter.
Next was Ian Poulin who spoke about the generations of barbershopping in the chapter and his urge to join us so he could sing from the heart and not just for score or points. He called it heart-to-heart singing.
Gerry Levine also spoke about how he found us and why the experience of so many years has meant so much to him.
Cindy Hansen spoke of how the chorus had developed, how they were so willing to share their Dreams and how they had helped her with her Dream of better health and courage. She said, “You have made me happy!”
Director Joe was the last speaker and he extended his appreciation to all the admin and musical leaders who helped get us to this new level in our chapter growth. He shared a great story to show how what we do as an individual is so important to the whole; and how our attitude and work ethic make a big difference.
All of the speakers were terrific and you would have figured they had planned together what to say – all related to the task at hand of preparing the chorus for its appearance on stage in a few hours.
The Harmonizers sang 12th in the Friday morning session. There was an evening session too. The Harmo fans were excited and started a clapping routine way before the emcee mentioned the chapter. We kept applauding and the crowd joined us in screaming and welcoming the chorus to the stage. Dixie Kennett was backstage calling the video cues for our chorus and she had previously chosen the background lighting that brightened up the stage for us.
And take the stage they did!!! Just as they were trained. And as many, many folks told us, like the Harmonizers of the past. We were all proud. And then to ice the cake, the audience jumped to their feet for a Standing O. (And it was not our own family and friends, it was the folks in the hi priced seats up front who were on their feet first!)
Immediately after they left the stage, Joe and Terry were interviewed for the Internet audience. Accolades have come to the chapter including a nice note from former director Scott Werner with congrats for a job well done.
General news about the convention would include a report of how we were bussed from the hotel to the Honda Center for all contest sessions. Some guys had cars and that made life a little easier, but the bussing operation was handled well. Our hotel, the Hilton, was just across the street from the Marriott (where we stayed 10 years ago when we were doing our swan-song year and performed 7 shows in one week including one with Dick Van Dyke at Disneyland) and across the parking lot from the Sheritan where Keith Jones had organized the terrific Togetherness breakfast. There were a lot of guys at Disneyland on Tuesday and again on Sunday.
The Harmo Hideaway was fun, had a great view especially at nite when the Disneyland fireworks show was going on, and was stocked well with things cold to drink and goodies to eat. Bill Stewart and Dennis Ritchey and their family members were hosts.
As is the tradition, many former members, families and friends stopped in to get a sneak preview of the chorus package and to lend their support. Chuck Hunter’s parents were there, as was Eric’s Dad, Mike Wallen; and Tony’s Dad, Bill Colosimo; and Joe’s Dad, Joe Sr. There was a continual group of family member in the room all week.
Harmonizers were everywhere all week. Alan Wile and Chris Buechler attended the BHS board meeting on Tuesday. Harmonizer family members were on the judging panels too – Dwain Chambers was chair; Mike Louque was presentation judge for chorus contest; coach Kirk Young was a music judge for quartet and chorus contest; and Chuck Harner was administrator for the collegiate quartet contest early Saturday morning.
As chair of the Society chorus director development committee, Joe was on stage to present a major BHS award during the chorus contest – the Joe Liles Lifetime Achievement Award to R. D. Mathey. Mathey was a choral director at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and has introduced barbershop quartet singing to his students for years. Terry Reynolds is a grad of that program (and Ye Ed thinks there may be another Harmonizer or two from there.).
The Masters of Harmony did their swan song performance at the end of the chorus contest, while judges were adding up the scores. During that time they sang a special song and used audio visual to honor Society icons. They included several folks close to the Harmonizers – two of our own, Wilbur Sparks and Bud Arberg; plus Fred King, Joe Liles, Cindy Hansen, David Wright and Ed Waesche.
Another big event on Saturday afternoon was the Harmony Foundation show. Wow! It included the VM, Ambassadors, Masters, a gold medal Sweet Adeline chorus Harbor Lites, and quartets VOCAL SPECTRUM, OC TIMES, MAX Q. The finale included the 400 plus chorus singers on risers set up on the floor in front of the stage (too much weight for that stage) with the quartets at mics on the stage. The huge chorus sang “Let There Be Peace On Earth” and the quartets sang “One Voice” with them. No dry eyes in the house after that!
In an attempt to continue the tradition Wilbur Sparks used to do in The Echo, here is a list of Harmonizers, past and present, we saw in Anaheim who were not in the 2009 chorus: Tim Emery who came in from San Diego on Friday, got to a rehearsal and bought a ticket to be in the hall to see the chorus sing. John Rettenmeyer, Ben Luttge, Bill Ward from FL, Dennis Malone, Jack Stevens, Larry Deters, Ross Johnson, Lynn Hineman, John Hohl, JT Price, Lew Klinge, Ron Rich, Joe Kane, Dave Binetti, Ray Johnson, Bill Power, Ron Rogers, Darryl Flinn, Terry Traylor, Jim Pyle, Bob Hirsh, Gary Smith, Keith Jones, Dick Newton.
Speaking of Dick Newton, he stepped in to be our convention week chairman when Carl Kauffman had to have his operation in the spring. He was great and really make it a smooth week for all. He and his team also made sure the new guys knew what to expect and met with them several times to keep them in the loop. Others helping Dick that are not mentioned in the article earlier are Bob Rhome who tackled the huge task of housing and registration for our large contingent, Mark Klostermeyer who is the chorus manager/traffic control officer for the week; Dixie Kennett and Chris Buechler also prepared the convention handbook that goes to each Harmonizer; Bob Blair handled transportation; and Jack Cameron handled chorus photos.
Ye Ed heard from a few guys about their trip and experiences. Sounds like John Pence just made it after a frightening ride in a shuttle bus. When the driver got back on the road and finally stopped, all the passengers got out and ran!
And this in from Dick Dangel: “Boy, based on my experience, I plan to take my new cane to the next International. It was unbelievable being whisked thru security without trauma, no waiting on lines, going on the bus first, all the sympathy and empathy. Anyhow, at the airport we had a VM guy come up and tell us we had a terrific performance and we paid him the same compliment. My survey of the Ambassadors we met in our hotel leads me to the conclusion that none live in St. Charles. A number of them drive 1.5 hrs to rehearsal. I gained 6 pounds trying to get my money’s worth from those $21 bufffets”
.
For sure it was a great week. 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 of the great things going on each week with the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —Ye Ed.)
What a week for the Harmonizers! The 71st International Convention in Anaheim was another important milestone in Harmonizer history.
The chorus earned 2647 points in the contest (88.2%) and ranked 9th. We had 81 singers on stage. More points that 2008 but slipped one notch, but it is great to still be in the TOP TEN. Just wait til we add 20 or 30 more by next year.
Of course, the tough chorus competition at the medalist level was the big news. The upset victory by the Ambassadors of Harmony from St. Charles, (St. Louis) MO was the talk of the town. Dallas Vocal Majority earned a record score when they sang Friday morning only to have that record broken a few hours later when the Ambassadors overwhelmed the audience with a “76 Trombones” uptune complete with a surprise costume change into flashy band uniforms with feather topped hats! Our retreat coach David Wright was on stage with them.
1. St. Charles Ambassadors – 2926, 158 men
2. Dallas Vocal Majority – 2889, 142 men
3. Hilltop, MN – 2764, 86 men
4. Denver Mile High – 2744, 117 men
5. Toronto Northern Lights – 2706, 39 men
Other chorus rankings of interest include Alliance from Ohio in 6th place, new young-guy chorus from Stockholm, Sweden, zero8, in 7th; New Zealand chorus in 10th; Cincinnati in 11th; Atlanta in 12th, Greendale Midwest Vocal Express (the fish bowl guys) in 14th; Northbrook in 15th. Jordan Haedtler, one of our regular Harmonizer guests when he is on campus in DC, sang with Greg Lyne’s chorus, Voices of Harmony, who were 8th.
Our chorus had a busy rehearsal schedule starting Tuesday evening. Each session was just two hours. It is always a great feeling to see everyone who has arrived and gathered for the first time at contest. Tuesday nite was also the first chance for guys to see the new benches made by Dennis Ritchey and shipped to CA. The benches had a new color panel underneath to add some color and support when guys stood on them!
Kyle Blomgren welcomed his fellow chorus members to CA and his old stomping grounds on Tuesday nite. Gary Plaag and Tony Colosimo did warm ups. K12 shifted and coached the guys into windows. Director Joe expressed his sincere thanks to the guys for being there and making it to CA after so many weeks of work.
Then our coach Cindy Hansen spent time with the chorus mostly encouraging and building confidence in the ability to do the job at hand. She asked the men to dig deep into their emotions for the ballad.
Keith Jones shared his emotional story of trying his best to qualify and yet he did not pass the test. Then he gave his previously earned gold medal to 2009 class president Phil Ferguson to take on stage.
Continuing the scenario development work that had begun back in Alexandria, Bob Wachter gave his story of new love and romance and how it compared to the ballad. Joe followed that with the closed eye drill and then a final run of the set.
Before he let the men go to bed, Joe asked each one to pick up a piece of the cream colored paper and an envelope in the back of the rehearsal room. Each man was to come to the Wednesday morning rehearsal having written his Dream that he sings about in the ballad on that paper. They each sealed their envelopes and carried them all week.
The second rehearsal was Wednesday morning. The front row worked out more. Coach Steve Tramack was on hand to cheer for us. The usual work ethic continued. Phil Ferguson did the scenario story before the closed eye drill. Joe had each man hold his Dream envelope during the drill.
Wednesday afternoon was the third rehearsal with more of the same including a scenario story from Terry Reynolds and the Dream envelopes for the closed eye drill. Surprise guests at this session were Geri and Royal Geis. Joe invited her to say hello and she wished the gang the best. She was in town to help Northbrook.
Thursday morning session included some warning about the huge camera that sweeps across the stage and shows your face on the screen during a song. (Some of our men were featured with great looks during our time on stage.) Two former members, Ray Johnson and Bill Power, who sing with last year’s chorus champs, Masters of Harmony in CA, stopped in to present the chapter with a memento from their chorus to ours.
Ken White announced our congrats to the chapter quartet guys for their accomplishments in the quartet contest on Wednesday. Our chapter quartets fought through the tough competition: CRUNCH TIME (with Eric Wallen) was 25th and FULL TILT (with Ed Cazenas, Nick Aiuto, Pete Frank, Steve White) was 35th.
Other district quartets: ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT was 14th; BIGTIME! was 45th. Former Harmonizers who had qualified to sing in the quartet contest: Will Daniel Mudd-Simmons came in 28th place in 65 SOUTH; Mike Louque came in 29th in SKYLINE; and Harold Nantz came in 35th in ATTRACTION.
The quartet contest was won by CROSSROADS with Fred Farrell, Michael Slamka, Brandon Guyton and Jim Henry who is also director of the Ambassadors. (All four of these guys already have a gold medal from other quartets. Brandon was our retreat coach a few years ago.)
1. CROSSROADS
2. OLD SCHOOL - representing our Mid-Atlantic District
3. STORM FRONT
4. RING MASTERS from Sweden and STATE LINE GROCERY quartet with Tim Brooks as lead (he was at our send off) tied for fourth.
At this rehearsal session, Phil Ashford shared his moving story of romance built around life in our chapter. The Dream session and closed eye drill followed.
Thursday afternoon the guys came to work some more. Steve Jamison, arranger for “Clap Yo Hands” stopped in to say hi, have a listen. He was proud of how we were presenting his arrangement. Rik Johnson, a judge and coach we met at Southern Division back in May in Virginia, came over to offer some ideas of things for Joe and the guys to work on. Bill Colosimo brought greetings from the DC Chapter.
While Rik was talking to Joe out in the hall, we planned our usual surprise on the director. This year when we sang the ballad the first time, no one made a sound except Ken White who sang from the Broadway show opener. But there was to be more. When we sang the uptune the last time in this work session, the guys pulled out kazoos and did the song. Poor Joe is always so shocked when these gags happen and then this year he got hit twice. He is a great sport and it was another in a long line of chapter tradition.
Pete Frank told his scenario story of romance and that his Dream is going to take him to Erie, PA, and this was his last time to sing with us. We will all miss him! His story was followed by one more Dream session and closed eye drill.
To wrap up this session, we cheered for the M-AD collegiate quartet, NEXT STOP, who
came over to sing for us before they had to compete on Saturday morning. They ended up
17th place in the contest.
Friday started early for all of the Harmonizer family as it was the our annual Togetherness Breakfast. Guys were up early for coffee in the lobby in their teal shirts and casual uniform. Families and friends all joined too. Guests included district officials (mostly all our own guys), Tom Gentry, arranger of the Peter Pan medley; Steve Jamison and his wife; Steve Tramack and his wife; the original Joe Cerutti, Joe’s Dad; Ray Johnson from the Masters, Cindy Hansen and her husband; and BHS executive vice president Alan Lamson and his wife.
President Brad Jones was emcee. He pointed out that the trophy from the Masters was engraved – The Dream is Carried On. How appropriate for us. Our FRIENDS in HARMONY group had decorated the tables with Dream Catchers. They also presented each singer with a small Dream Catcher to carry on stage. Ina Berky, Tom’s wife, spoke on behalf of the FRIENDS and did a great job in offering motivation and support from them.
The program included remarks from Phil Ferguson who was president of the Class of 2009 that included Tom Hutton, Bob Mattes, Ryan Griffith, Josh Roots, Drew Dias, Edris Qarghah, Kellen Hertz, and Frank Fedarko. There was a bandana check at the breakfast and then, as tradition dictates, they were allowed to discard them before going on stage. Phil shared that their class would be proud to carry on the dream of the chapter.
Next was Ian Poulin who spoke about the generations of barbershopping in the chapter and his urge to join us so he could sing from the heart and not just for score or points. He called it heart-to-heart singing.
Gerry Levine also spoke about how he found us and why the experience of so many years has meant so much to him.
Cindy Hansen spoke of how the chorus had developed, how they were so willing to share their Dreams and how they had helped her with her Dream of better health and courage. She said, “You have made me happy!”
Director Joe was the last speaker and he extended his appreciation to all the admin and musical leaders who helped get us to this new level in our chapter growth. He shared a great story to show how what we do as an individual is so important to the whole; and how our attitude and work ethic make a big difference.
All of the speakers were terrific and you would have figured they had planned together what to say – all related to the task at hand of preparing the chorus for its appearance on stage in a few hours.
The Harmonizers sang 12th in the Friday morning session. There was an evening session too. The Harmo fans were excited and started a clapping routine way before the emcee mentioned the chapter. We kept applauding and the crowd joined us in screaming and welcoming the chorus to the stage. Dixie Kennett was backstage calling the video cues for our chorus and she had previously chosen the background lighting that brightened up the stage for us.
And take the stage they did!!! Just as they were trained. And as many, many folks told us, like the Harmonizers of the past. We were all proud. And then to ice the cake, the audience jumped to their feet for a Standing O. (And it was not our own family and friends, it was the folks in the hi priced seats up front who were on their feet first!)
Immediately after they left the stage, Joe and Terry were interviewed for the Internet audience. Accolades have come to the chapter including a nice note from former director Scott Werner with congrats for a job well done.
General news about the convention would include a report of how we were bussed from the hotel to the Honda Center for all contest sessions. Some guys had cars and that made life a little easier, but the bussing operation was handled well. Our hotel, the Hilton, was just across the street from the Marriott (where we stayed 10 years ago when we were doing our swan-song year and performed 7 shows in one week including one with Dick Van Dyke at Disneyland) and across the parking lot from the Sheritan where Keith Jones had organized the terrific Togetherness breakfast. There were a lot of guys at Disneyland on Tuesday and again on Sunday.
The Harmo Hideaway was fun, had a great view especially at nite when the Disneyland fireworks show was going on, and was stocked well with things cold to drink and goodies to eat. Bill Stewart and Dennis Ritchey and their family members were hosts.
As is the tradition, many former members, families and friends stopped in to get a sneak preview of the chorus package and to lend their support. Chuck Hunter’s parents were there, as was Eric’s Dad, Mike Wallen; and Tony’s Dad, Bill Colosimo; and Joe’s Dad, Joe Sr. There was a continual group of family member in the room all week.
Harmonizers were everywhere all week. Alan Wile and Chris Buechler attended the BHS board meeting on Tuesday. Harmonizer family members were on the judging panels too – Dwain Chambers was chair; Mike Louque was presentation judge for chorus contest; coach Kirk Young was a music judge for quartet and chorus contest; and Chuck Harner was administrator for the collegiate quartet contest early Saturday morning.
As chair of the Society chorus director development committee, Joe was on stage to present a major BHS award during the chorus contest – the Joe Liles Lifetime Achievement Award to R. D. Mathey. Mathey was a choral director at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and has introduced barbershop quartet singing to his students for years. Terry Reynolds is a grad of that program (and Ye Ed thinks there may be another Harmonizer or two from there.).
The Masters of Harmony did their swan song performance at the end of the chorus contest, while judges were adding up the scores. During that time they sang a special song and used audio visual to honor Society icons. They included several folks close to the Harmonizers – two of our own, Wilbur Sparks and Bud Arberg; plus Fred King, Joe Liles, Cindy Hansen, David Wright and Ed Waesche.
Another big event on Saturday afternoon was the Harmony Foundation show. Wow! It included the VM, Ambassadors, Masters, a gold medal Sweet Adeline chorus Harbor Lites, and quartets VOCAL SPECTRUM, OC TIMES, MAX Q. The finale included the 400 plus chorus singers on risers set up on the floor in front of the stage (too much weight for that stage) with the quartets at mics on the stage. The huge chorus sang “Let There Be Peace On Earth” and the quartets sang “One Voice” with them. No dry eyes in the house after that!
In an attempt to continue the tradition Wilbur Sparks used to do in The Echo, here is a list of Harmonizers, past and present, we saw in Anaheim who were not in the 2009 chorus: Tim Emery who came in from San Diego on Friday, got to a rehearsal and bought a ticket to be in the hall to see the chorus sing. John Rettenmeyer, Ben Luttge, Bill Ward from FL, Dennis Malone, Jack Stevens, Larry Deters, Ross Johnson, Lynn Hineman, John Hohl, JT Price, Lew Klinge, Ron Rich, Joe Kane, Dave Binetti, Ray Johnson, Bill Power, Ron Rogers, Darryl Flinn, Terry Traylor, Jim Pyle, Bob Hirsh, Gary Smith, Keith Jones, Dick Newton.
Speaking of Dick Newton, he stepped in to be our convention week chairman when Carl Kauffman had to have his operation in the spring. He was great and really make it a smooth week for all. He and his team also made sure the new guys knew what to expect and met with them several times to keep them in the loop. Others helping Dick that are not mentioned in the article earlier are Bob Rhome who tackled the huge task of housing and registration for our large contingent, Mark Klostermeyer who is the chorus manager/traffic control officer for the week; Dixie Kennett and Chris Buechler also prepared the convention handbook that goes to each Harmonizer; Bob Blair handled transportation; and Jack Cameron handled chorus photos.
Ye Ed heard from a few guys about their trip and experiences. Sounds like John Pence just made it after a frightening ride in a shuttle bus. When the driver got back on the road and finally stopped, all the passengers got out and ran!
And this in from Dick Dangel: “Boy, based on my experience, I plan to take my new cane to the next International. It was unbelievable being whisked thru security without trauma, no waiting on lines, going on the bus first, all the sympathy and empathy. Anyhow, at the airport we had a VM guy come up and tell us we had a terrific performance and we paid him the same compliment. My survey of the Ambassadors we met in our hotel leads me to the conclusion that none live in St. Charles. A number of them drive 1.5 hrs to rehearsal. I gained 6 pounds trying to get my money’s worth from those $21 bufffets”
.
For sure it was a great week. Until next time – editorjack!
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