Looking Back on the December 13^th Chapter Meeting

First off, YeEd offers a few notes about the caroling sing on Saturday, Dec. 10^th in Old Town Alexandria.  The chorus gathered on a sunny but cold busy shopping day around Market Square.  We sang all the holiday songs we knew, based on what the 4 or 5 baris new!  But the crowds loved us – seemed to really react to the “Hallelujah” and “Drummer Boy.”  Thanks to the soloists and emcees who did us proud. Jeremy Richardson had his first time as emcee. Glad that we invited any men in the audience who like to sing to come join us.  This is one of the gigs we do as payback to City Dept. of Rec for their support. Joe and Will were directors.  A quartet sang “Grinch” and Bob Rhome brought the box of Santa hats for guys to wear.  Greg Tepe was show producer.

When you arrived on Tuesday nite, you wondered where everyone was.  Well they were in every breakout room and office and store room in the Rec Center practicing for the Put Together Contest.

The usual set up work was done early and sales operations continued as usual.  Ian Poulin had a lively business selling scrip cards to guys who need them for gifts for family members or office crew, stocking stuffers, or to buy holiday groceries and treats.

Will Cox conducted the vocal warm ups and got the guys singing well.   Director Joe Cerutti was full of excitement to help the guys discover the contest songs we will sing in Roanoke for the 2012 Southern Division contest.  We have to compete there in order to qualify to sing in the district contest in the fall and earn the right to go to the International contest in Toronto in 2013.

Joe worked hard on introducing the chorus to vowel sounds, taught new guys how to detect an overtone, revealed some of his musical goals for 2012, and helped us to understand the slogan, “I give my best, not my all.”

Music vp Terry Reynolds used the projector to have the music on the screen so Joe could coach with it.  Scott Kahler had the sound system set up too.

Joe also stressed how singers will benefit from quartet singing.  Why not form a quartet for the division, since we are all gonna be down there that weekend.

We ended chorus rehearsal a little early in prep for the quartet contest.

Ops vp Mark Klostermeyer conducted the chapter meeting period. Chapter secretary Chris Buechler gave out new names tags to newest guys – TJ Donahue, Randal Eliason, Ross Felker and Gerry Fuller.

The chapter’s musical section leaders make up a registered quartet with the BHS.  This is the 25^th year for our chapter’s HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES – Rick Savage, Tony Colosimo, Ken Ives and Mike Kelly.

Chris presented membership renewals to Lew Klinge for 10 years, Brian Ammerman for 18 years, Troy Hillier for 21 years, Bob Sutton for 28 years (great to have Bob visit tonite), and Chuck Harner for 44 years. Ken White was given his card for 13 years last week.

Dr. Put, Eric Wallen, offered any last many quartet entries to sign up for tonite’s contest.  He is chapter quartet promotion chair.

Terry Reynolds recognized the new guys who sang with the chorus for their very first time on Sat at Market Square – Ross Felker, TJ Donahue, Mike Vlcej.  He also announced the music and performance committee meeting this weekend.

There is a board meeting on Wed. nite this week.  China trip deposits are due this week – note the address is in Canada so use the right amount of postage.

Membership vp Phil Ashford introduced another applicant with us.

After a coffee break, we held this Wilbur Sparks Memorial Put Together Quartet Contest.

Eric had collected 16 entries for the nite.  Lew Klinge was emcee again and made his usual “call” to talk to Ev Nau. 

Judges for the contest were Erin Odell, Tony Colosimo, Wayne Adams and Joe Sawyer.  They sang for us too – THIS OUGHT TO BE LEGAL.  Great fun to hear Erin keep up with the guys when she sings tenor! Jack Pitzer was judge official.

The judges recognized the top three winners in two categories – comedy and regular.  Trophies were presented to each guy.

Comedy Quartet winners were:

First – MASTER DIRECTORS – Savage, Wallen, Hillier, Dillingham

Second – OUR BASS IS DREAMY –  Cerutti, J George, Hillier, Wallen

Third – GIVING IT OUR ALL, NOT OUR BEST – Garling, Cerutti, Reynolds, Evans

Regular Quartet winners were:

First – FAST & SHARP – Garling, Roots, Richardson, C Clark

Second – OCCUPY DURANT – Savage, Kujuwa, Cameron, S White

Third – WINGIN’ IT – O’Brien, Eliason, Ives, Wallen

The chapter also had a trophy for the guy who sang in the most quartets in the contest.  The George Azzam trophy went to Eric Wallen who sang in five quartets and sang all parts at some point.

After the presentation of trophies, the chapter materials put away and the hall closed.

Next week, Dec. 20^th, we meet at Durant and then will go down into Old Town to sing carols at restaurants and bars.  Always a fun nite. Wear a warm coat with scarf for this one.  Everyone come out and join in the fun. There will likely be a gathering place after we have sung around.

K12 also passed out flyers about the Blast on Tues. Dec. 27^th – instead of our own chapter meeting. A good nite to go to meet and sing and celebrate with other barbershoppers from our DC Metro and Baltimore Metro areas.  (Also a good way to represent our chapter!)  Mark your calendar too for the BLAST in Glen Burnie. Usually some top quartets make the stage plus a bunch of put-together type quartets. Maybe our chapter winners will go represent us.  Form a car pool and lets all go.  Last few years a huge crowd of us took in the fun, chow and cold drinks.  Ask Steve White or Jack Pitzer about going.

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the December 6^th Chapter Meeting

It was a rainy nite in Alexandria but the guys came out to Durant to celebrate the great show we had and to get a start on the new contest package for May 2012.

There was a lot of chatter about the fun Holiday show and the guys were proud of their hard work and musical success.  Director Joe Cerutti paid tribute to a lot of the guys and expressed his appreciation for efforts to deliver a top-rate musical product to our customers. He was especially complimentary about Act III on every show.

A bunch of guys shared reactions from customers and family members who were at the show.  Show producer Bob Mattes thanked the long list of members and FRIENDS who worked to make it all happen.  A round of applause erupted from the guys in the chapter to thank Bob Blair for his dedication and extra efforts to haul and move and deliver!!

YeEd adds these notes to the article he published earlier this week about the show: great to have Dick Dangel and his accordion to welcome customers to the shows; Will Cox is amazing with his comedic rendition of  “The Night Before Christmas”; and did you see how the little kids who came up on the stage reacted to his telling it wrong!. In the spirit of being green, the Potomac Harmony Sweet Adelines chorus took all the wrapped boxes for their show.  No need to waste all that wrapping paper.  We also left many of the decorations on the stage and Bob Blair will return to the church later to get them back into our storage area. The premium seating table idea was a success and Lew Klinge was in charge of those special decorations.  Word is the chapter netted about $1500 from the silent auction Drew Fuller was able to pull together on such short notice. YeEd also learned last nite that Joe spoke to a group of Girl Scouts who were meeting in the church on Saturday morning and told them about barbershop harmony and had a quartet of Rick Savage, Craig Kujawa, Jack Cameron and Steve White to demonstrate.  This event was part of class for earning a badge. 

Amidst the celebrations this week in Durant, there was the usual business activity on the sidelines of the hall.  White House Ornament sales and CDs sold by FRIENDS (especially thanks to Sandy Stamps and Mary Ann Cleaveland).  Entertainment books sold by Chuck Harner. (He tells YeEd that next week is the last week to settle accounts and turn in unsold books.)

The FRIENDS group says thanks for buying sodas and such for the last couple years. They have sold out their supply and will take a vacation for selling them next year.

Roger Day was there smiling to all customers for 50/50 tickets.

When the bell rang at 7, the risers filled up and Tony Colosimo conducted the warm-ups.  When Director Joe was introduced he reviewed some Christmas songs from the Society book of holiday songs so we could use them for the show at Market Square on Saturday, Dec. 10^th.  Chorus call is 1 pm. Free validated parking under the square, so bring your parking ticket with you to the warm up area to be stamped.  Sweaters and scarves and holiday gear like Santa hats. Greg Tepe is producer of this show.

The bulk of our singing time this week was introduction and start on work in preparation for our contest appearance at the Southern Division contest in May, 2012, in Roanoke.  We have to sing there to earn a position in the fall district contest where we must score enough points to qualify for the International contest in Toronto in 2013. For division we are bringing back the gold medal package from 1995 with “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “I’ll Be Seeing You.”

When it was chapter meeting time, ops vp Mark Klostermeyer kept things flowing.  Secretary Chris Buechler presented three new members their name tags – Calvin Schnure, Mike Vlcej and Shawn Tallant.  Chris presented Scipio Garling his membership renewal card for 16 years; and presented jeweled pins for 25 years to Vince Cazenas and for 35 years to Steve White.

Membership vp Phil Ashford introduced a long line of guests including a couple first-timers, and many applicants.  YeEd heard before the nite was over that three of them had passed their auditions – Gerry Fuller, bari; Ross Felker, bass; and Randall Eliason, lead. Great to see guest Carlos Barilla singing with us after his busy weekend as a hi school music teacher who had show concerts this past weekend and one next weekend with his student choral groups.

Eric Wallen pushed for guys to sign up for the Put Together quartet contest on Tues, Dec. 13^th on the stage in Durant.  He offered to help guys find additional singers for a quartet, suggested holiday songs would be good, hinted that parodies are high scoring entries in the contest, and promised to come up with a crazy name if the quartet does not.

K12 announced that while our president Steve Murane is en route to Germany, he has sent word of a pending Presidents’ Ball Award Nite on Jan. 28^th.  Time and details to follow!

K12 also passed out flyers about the Blast on Tues. Dec. 27^th – instead of our own chapter meeting. A good nite to go to meet and sing and celebrate with other barbershoppers from our DC Metro and Baltimore Metro areas.  (Also a good way to represent our chapter!)  Mark your calendar too for the BLAST in Glen Burnie. Usually some top quartets make the stage plus a bunch of put-together type quartets. Maybe our chapter winners will go represent us.  Form a car pool and lets all go.  Last few years a huge crowd of us took in the fun, chow and cold drinks.  Ask Steve White or Jack Pitzer about going.

About 9:15 the meeting ended and guys were released to get coffee (and help eat the left over goodies from the show), and to work on their quartets for the contest on the 13^th.

YeEd got word of another Harmo event last week when TBD sang for the Alexandria City Public Schools “outreach for the arts” event.  Also president Steve Murane, community service chair Clyde Crusenberry, Don Dillingham and Alan Wile attended the evening event at TC Williams Hi School.  They staffed a Harmonizer info table. We were one of several arts groups invited to appear and to provide info at this inaugural event about our work to provide musical experiences for youth and adults in the community.

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the 2011 Holiday Dinner Theater Show, Dec. 2^nd  and 3^rd

The three sold-out performances of the Harmonizer’s 2011 Holiday Show were each fantastic.  Great music. Good food. Enthusiastic audience. Holiday warmth.  Lots of laughter.

Shows were Friday, Dec. 2 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, Dec. 2 at 12:30 and 6 pm at First Baptist Church on King Street in Alexandria.  The chorus wore toy or elf outfits again, and Jack-in-the-Box, (Terry Reynolds) was back again. He shared the spotlights with Jingle, the Marketing Elf (Ken White), and Miss Fanny Bright, Jingle’s assistant (Amy Roots). Their lines helped explain the theme “Commercialization of Christmas.”

As usual the show managed to “fit” all of our holiday songs into the act. YeEd believes the script for the first two sets was developed by Scipio Garling and Josh Roots. The final set featured the chorus performance of several classical men’s choral pieces. There were several standing ovations during the weekend --- “Do You Hear What I Hear,” “Little Drummer Boy,” and “Hallelujah Chorus.”  Terry Reynolds organized the non-singing “monks” who did a flip-chart routine while the chorus sang “Hallelujah” and brought the house down.  The “monks” were applicants, FRIENDS and some chorus members.

The helicopter pilot managed to land his craft right at the feet of Director Joe!

The traditional audience sing of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” also was a fun time for the audience and our singing waiters. Some of our guys prepared suggested “responses” and had a list on the table, which added to the laughs. As usual, the chorus members served the lasagna meal and keep the customers glasses filled and delivered a platter of holiday cookies and treats. The serving went the best-ever. Fun to see “the ground crew” with green and red signal lites keep things flowing (Craig Kujawa). Phil Ashford coordinated the waiter sign ups. Thanks to the kitchen crew of Keith Jones, Gary Plaag and Bob Echman and the staff at the church. 

Beside the chorus songs, our new group, TBD, sang twice and won the audience.  Some quartets composed of members from the chorus also sang to help carry the theme of the show. Joe Cerutti and Scott Kahler produced a number of pre-recorded advertising messages and various members acted out the ads.  These were all really crowd pleasers including Tenor in a Can, The Used Reindeer Lot, Sleigh Grease, Elf Retirement Home.

Some surprises for the weekend:  (1) the number of kids in the audiences, (2) the success of the silent auction at each show, (3) how we turned the hall of the church into Santa’s workshop, (4) the amount of cookies people ate [thanks to the guys for bringing home-made cookies].

Santa and Mrs. Claus (Bruce and Ginny Minnick) were for sure a hit with the crowds.

The chapter used the show to help promote Singing Valentines too and collected emails in exchange for adding customer names to a drawing for a free Valentine.

Ian Poulin headed up the ticket sales.  Bob Mattes was producer.  YeEd suspects he will provide a comprehensive list of thank-yous later. The tech crew ran the show smoothly.  It was good to see Max Kieba and Dennis Ritchey back to help Scott Kahler and Mike Kelly.   Dixie Kennett was in charge of lighting.  Bert Phillips was back in town and came to the show Friday nite was put to work serving too! Actually, all weekend there were a lot of formerly active Harmonizers in the audience. Great to see them all!!

There was a good bit of work to haul in and set up for the show. The tech rehearsal was on Wednesday nite. Earlier that day a crew helped team leader, Bob Blair, set up risers and hauled a couple truck loads of holiday decorations to the church. Then a dress-rehearsal was Thursday nite with time to run thru the whole show, speaking parts and stage times. Friday more materials were hauled in like food and paper supplies for table setting.  Roger Day headed up a crew of about 15 guys, and several FRIENDS including  FRIENDS president, Sandy Stamps, who worked most of Friday to set the tables, decorate the stage, place all the colorful boxes guys had wrapped and brought to the church.

The FRIENDS group offered holiday merchandise for sale to the audience when they arrived.  Drew Fuller headed up the silent auction.

Director Joe was really pleased with the performances all weekend including the various soloists, actors, assistant directors, quartets and tech crew.

Also fun to see and meet so many family members and parents and co-workers of the chorus singers in the audience during the weekend.

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on with the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the November 29th Chapter Meeting

This was third busy Tuesday nite meeting in a row with concentration on preparations for the holiday shows Dec. 2 and 3 at First Baptist in Alexandria.

And again, lots of guys arrived early to get in line to buy and pick up tickets from our ticket chairman, Ian Poulin. Any readers of this column who don’t have tickets should go online and see if they can still get seats for Friday nite. The two Sat shows are sold out.

Roger Day was set up to sell raffle tickets and to remind the guys to wrap two boxes for the show. He even brought in a half dozen empty boxes for guys who didn’t have them yet. Chuck Harner was set up to sell new Entertainment coupon books. We make good money on each one we sell, so help out. Take them on consignment.

Vocal warm ups were conducted by Will Cox. Then he introduced director Joe Cerutti. Joe thanked guys for all the behind-the-scenes work on the show and music. He was pleased with the huge leap on “Drummer Boy” and “Hallelujah Chorus” which we have added to our show this year.

Before the meeting started, music vp Terry Reynolds met with a group of volunteers (many of them family members, recent guests and applicants) to work on the special card flipping routine for the show. These folks will appear as Monks in the show. They did a fantastic job for their first try at it with the chorus, and got into the fun of the act. Scott Kahler gets credit for inventing the gizmo for Nick Leiserson and Terry Reynolds to use with their foot to flip up an extra card. You gotta see it to understand!

Speaking of behind the scenes: there was continual work on gathering the many little props for this show (visual cues as introduced by Jack In The Box). Steve Lingo is coordinating that job.
Lew Klinge has received the huge pile of boxes of paper plates and napkins and such and will haul them over to the church. Another crew has ordered food and contracted with the cooks at the church for food preparation. There are tech folks at work for sound and lights. And the helicopter pilot has gotten in some extra flight time to be ready for the show.

The evening’s rehearsal included walk and talk thru of script with the actors and quartets and TBD doing their parts. Many guys remarked this was one of the smoothest last rehearsals before a holiday show ever.

Ops vp Mark Klostermeyer conducted the chapter meeting period, as usual. Sandy Stamps, FRIENDS president, reminded everyone to grab some of the White House Ornaments the chapter is selling. Get them on consignment, as well. Make some sales. We need the profit and sales are low this year, so far.

Looking ahead, the FRIENDS group will only be selling bottled water beginning in January. Thanks to all of them who worked on the sodas sale for the last year or two.

Membership vp Phil Ashford welcomed back Jacob George who made a trip to India. Also good to see Dean Rust and Martin Banks in the hall. Phil introduced a crew of guests again. Great to have them come sing – most have applied for membership.

After break, Mark reminded everyone about several show matters: sell tickets to fill out Fri nite; bring in two big boxes wrapped in shiny paper; bring 4 dozen holiday cookies; respond to Drew Fuller’s request for items for the silent auction at the shows; and offer to bring in show props that are still needed – see Steve Lingo. Phil Ashford is coordinator of the crew of waiters and needs everyone to sign up if you really wanna serve a particular table (or he will assign us to tables). Show producer Bob Mattes spoke briefly and alerted all to watch for his detailed email about times and schedules. A crew of helpers was recruited for Wed morning at 8:15 to meet Bob Blair at the church to unload risers and then go get a couple truck loads of decorations and such from our storage unit.

The annual Put Together Quartet contest is Dec. 13th – a chapter contest for fun. There will be judges and an emcee and photographer and all – just like a Society contest. You would not expect the Harmonizers to do it any other way. Key is to form a quartet now. Work up some nutty parodies or get some fun costumes or at least an outlandish quartet name. Eric Wallen is Dr. Put and thus he is ready to help guys put-together a quartet if they wish. There are even trophies for the winners! There are two Tuesdays left to snag a good lead or one of the tenors!

Music vp Terry Reynolds reported that music for “Sweet Georgia Brown” is now on the website. We will start working on it the week after the show in preparation for our return to the contest at Southern Division in Roanoke, VA, the weekend of May 25 and 26, 2012. Plan ahead to take Fri afternoon off so you can get down there in time for an early morning rehearsal and prep for the chorus contest on Saturday.

President Steve Murane invited everyone to submit nominations for the 2011 chapter awards that will be given to members at an event the last weekend in January (probably). Stay tuned for details. This will be our chance to resume the Presidents Ball that was not held last year.
After the announcements, it was back to hard work on the songs for the holiday show.

Mark your calendar too for the Tues nite BASH in Glen Burnie, Dec. 27th. It’s an annual bash to celebrate the hobby with guys from all the chapters around the DC region. Usually some top quartets make the stage plus a bunch of put-together type quartets. Maybe our chapter winners will go represent us. There’s no Harmo meeting that nite, so form a car pool and lets all go. Last few years a huge crowd of us took in the fun, chow and cold drinks. Ask Steve White or Jack Pitzer about going.

A good crowd of us went to the afterglow at the Hilton across from King Street Metro station and we laughed and laughed about some of the corny gags in the show.

For chapter history, the memorial service for Alan Durick on Sat. Nov. 26th in Charlottesville was attended by 18 Harmonizers who worked with Alan in our chapter, sang with him in quartets and knew him as a friend. 4 MAN VOCAL BAND with Randy Lazear, Bob Bates, Larry Walker and Dave Cureton, sang. ALEXANDRIA’S RAGTIME BAND sang with Barry Galloway doing the bari, with Mike Wallen, John Adams and Craig Odell. In addition the Harrisonburg Harmonizers sang as did their quartet BLARNEY BROTHERS with Mike Calhoun, Gary Bibens and Dewey Feuerhelm. To close the celebration, all the barbershop singers sang “A Place on the Risers for You.” Alan his wife Lois were married 62 years. He was 82 and joined our chapter in 1974.

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the November 22nd Chapter Meeting

This was another busy Tuesday nite meeting with concentration on preparations for the holiday shows Dec. 2 and 3 at First Baptist in Alexandria.

And again, lots of guys arrived early to get in line to buy and pick up tickets from our ticket chairman, Ian Poulin.

Have you seen the new system he (the chapter) has for paying for things now? You can use a credit card and he can swipe it right there and you get a receipt via email. Makes life a lot easier that remembering a check book or bringing enough cash to buy a lot of tickets or scrip. (I did learn you can only charge scrip if the chapter’s percentage of return is adequate. Ask about it.

This is the time of year to buy cards for Honey Baked Ham stores, holiday shopping at Giant, and such.)

Before the meeting started, music vp Terry Reynolds met with a group of volunteers (many of them family members, recent guests and applicants) to work on the special card flipping routine for the show.

Great to see Dave Reyno in the house. He came from his home out in Maryland to get 100 more White House Ornaments. He has already sold 350. (Sales ideas from YeEd – get a couple yourself and have them out where relatives or co-workers or friends can see them. Let one of them just happen to be on top of your bag at choir rehearsal. Give one as a door prize at the office holiday party.)

When the 7 pm bell clanged, Tony Colosimo took the reins and conducted the vocal warm ups.

When director Joe Cerutti took over, he worked on the songs for the last set of the show.
Also we had some of the beginning sneak previews of the script and funny gags – including those the chorus is a part of. Sure hope the helicopter pilot can control his flight!!!

The chapter meeting period was conducted by operations vp Mark Klostermeyer. Membership vp Phil Ashford introduced two new members – Shawn Tallant and Mike Vlcej. Then he welcomed the line of guests – a big crew again with some first timers, a bunch of applicants (YeEd heard that a couple of them passed their auditions after chapter too), and three guests from the Germantown, MD, Chapter.

This week the cupboard was overflowing with goodies from the recent DELA barbershop weekend party hosted by the Harmonizer members of that group. The fudge was a hit!

After break, Mark reminded everyone about several show matters: sell tickets to fill out Fri nite as Sat shows are basically sold; bring in two big boxes wrapped in shiny paper; bring 4 dozen holiday cookies; respond to Drew Fuller’s request for items for the silent auction at the shows; and offer to bring in show props that are still needed – see Steve Lingo. Phil Ashford is coordinator of the crew of waiters and needs everyone to sign up if you really wanna serve a particular table (or he will assign us to tables).

Ken Henderson is chairing the Singing Valentine project for 2012. BIG CHANGE – we are only offering the service on Feb. 14th. He suggests guys put in for vacation or leave now. Also word is that we will market Singing Valentines by telephone or U-tube. Stay tuned.

The annual Put Together Quartet contest is Dec. 13th – a chapter contest for fun. There will be judges and an emcee and photographer and all – just like a Society contest. You would not expect the Harmonizers to do it any other way. Key is to form a quartet now. Work up some nutty parodies or get some fun costumes or at least an outlandish quartet name. Eric Wallen is Dr. Put and thus he is ready to help guys put-together a quartet if they wish. There are even trophies for the winners! There are two Tuesdays left to snag a good lead or one of the tenors!

After the announcements, it was back to hard work on the songs for the holiday show.

Mark your calendar too for the Tues nite BASH in Glen Burnie, Dec. 27th. It’s an annual bash to celebrate the hobby with guys from all the chapters around the DC region. Usually some top quartets make the stage plus a bunch of put-together type quartets. Maybe our chapter winners will go represent us. There’s no Harmo meeting that nite, so form a car pool and lets all go. Last few years a huge crowd of us took in the fun, chow and cold drinks. Ask Steve White or Jack Pitzer about going.

Jack told guys about the Messiah Sing-along at the Clarendon Methodist Church, Sun, eve at 7:30 pm. Bring your own score and join in the church-full-choir. There is an orchestra and soloists to do the traditional Christmas Messiah. What a treat.

Alan Wile reminded all of the Tuba Christmas event at the Kennedy Center on Dec 7 at 6 pm -- hundreds of tubas and euphoniums playing holiday music.

A good crowd of us went to the afterglow at the Hilton across from King Street Metro station.

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the November 15th Chapter Meeting

Looking Back on the November 15th Chapter Meeting

This was a busy Tuesday nite meeting with concentration on preparations for the holiday shows Dec. 2 and 3 at First Baptist in Alexandria.

Lots of guys arrived early to get in line to buy and pick up tickets from our ticket chairman, Ian Poulin.

When the 7 pm bell rang, the chorus went right to work on the risers. Will Cox conducted the vocal warm ups. Director Joe Cerutti jumped right in to work on the newer holiday songs. The assistant chorus directors also conducted the rehearsals for the songs they will do in the show.

Scott Kahler filled in for ops vp Mark Klostermeyer and conducted the start of the business meeting period. He did a promotion about the sale of our new CDs and encouraged guys to get some for gifts or to sell. They can be picked up from the FRIENDS table along with the White House Christmas ornaments the chapter is also selling. Lots of guys need to get on that task soon.

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Josh Roots for 5 years, Ken Henderson for 8 years and Len Dornberger for 27 years.

Membership vp Phil Ashford introduced the 8 guests present—six are applicants and the other two were first timers.

After the break for coffee and goodies and business matters like tickets and sales items (and audition or vocal placements for guests), it was back on the risers for the second half of our chapter meeting which K12 was back for.

Alan Wile gave his annual plug for the Tuba Christmas event at the Kennedy Center, Wed. Dec. 7th at 6 pm.

Tony Colosimo thanked all the guys who bought tickets for the Dundalk show which supported the CAPITAL FORCE. He also expressed thanks to the guys who sing in the CF.

Holiday show producer Bob Mattes reviewed a few points (that were not in his lengthy assignment sheet). Ian reported that the Sat. afternoon and evening shows are all but sold out, so switch sales to Fri. nite. (The web site will alert customers to consider Fri.)

Drew Fuller volunteered to head up a silent auction for the shows. So – that means we all need to be hunting for some items to donate, or making contact with suppliers or firms we deal with for donated items or services. In the past several members have donated services like voice lessons, piano tuning, meal preparation, picture framing, web design.

Roger Day showed us samples of wrapped boxes to bring for the show – two per member. He also needs a working crew on Friday morning, Dec. 2 between 10 and 11 am at the church.

Jack Pitzer reminded all to bring four dozen holiday cookies to use for the dessert platters.

Then it was back to work on the Christmas music. Joe used every trick in the book to get the guys fired up about learning the songs, new words/ parody for “Jingle Bells” and stage moves for a couple songs.

Earlier in the evening, Joe recognized Clyde Crusenberry who was back after a heart attack last week! He welcomed Brad Jones back. Good to see Lew Klinge back on the risers after his knee operation. Great to have John Hohl and Gary Plaag in the hall too.

Word is that the memorial service for Alan Durick will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 26th, at Unity Church, 2825 Hydraulic Circle, Charlottesville, VA 29901. The “chorus” of barbershop singers present will sing “There Will Always Be a Place On The Risers for You” with members of ALEXANDRIA’S RAGTIME BAND, 4-MAN VOCAL BAND, and the Harrisonburg Chapter. Hope we’ll have a good Harmonizer presence, as well.

Reporters indicate about 25 men attended the Veteran’s Day singout at Oakton Elementary School. Their students were involved and the crowd of parents and military folks appreciated the Harmonizer presence. Greg Tepe was producer. Many of our men went out to lunch afterward and those who were retired military took advantage of the free-lunch offer at Chili’s restaurants for veterans.

Saturday nite, Nov. 12th, was the Dundalk, MD, Chapter show featuring our guys in MAD HATTERS (Steve White and Rick Taylor), and Tony Colosimo and our guys in CAPITAL FORCE. Headliner quartet was STORM FRONT who won gold at the International contest in 2010. They were a riot on stage. Rick Taylor is director of the chorus and some of our guys sang on this show – Chris Yates and Bob Hirsh. The chorus had sold a lot of tickets and the crowd was a typical cheering bunch of folks who love good singing. About a dozen Harmonizers and family members were in the seats – many had purchased their tickets in support of CF.

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the November 8th Chapter Meeting

Looking Back on the November 8th Chapter Meeting

Our chapter meeting had to be held in Jeff Houston school adjacent to Durant because our meeting place was being used as a voting place this week. So the setup crew had to haul things in from our truck. And many of our regular meeting-room items were not available – no guest sign in station, no coffee pot.

But folks managed to scare up some goodies to share thanks to Kevin Kaiser for the brownies and Ellen Dellert for the donuts. The Friends group had a meeting too and they were also busy helping the chapter sell White House Ornaments, the new CDs and drinks for the guys at break.

Ian Poulin was really busy with ticket sales for the show. He reported later in the meeting that we are gaining on the unsold seats but we can’t let up.

Will Cox did the vocal warm ups. Then director Joe Cerutti took over. He shared his experiences from visiting the Dallas Vocal Majority last week while in TX for the BHS board meeting.

Musically Joe had us work on a couple of the songs we will be singing on our show for Veterans Day at Oakton Elementary. Please email producer Greg Tepe if you can sing -- gtindc13@yahoo.com. Military uniforms or suit and tie are the dress code. Call time is 8:30 am. There is a need to help Bob Blair with riser set up early.

The rest of the singing time was used to prep for the holiday show. Chuck McKeever and crew introduced some simple stage presence moves for a couple of the songs. We also drilled the new words for the parity of “Jingle Bells” for the first part of the show.

The chapter meeting period was conducted by ops vp, Mark Klostermeyer.

Tony Colosimo had tickets for the Dundalk chapter show this Sat, Nov.12th. MAD HATTERS with Steve White and Rick Taylor are on the show, plus CAPITAL FORCE. CF is selling these tickets and will earn money for each ticket sold.

Scott Kahler asks all members to sign onto the new Groupanizer and indicate your singing part. Thanks to Scott who has done all the heavy lifting to get Groupanizer up and running. A number of folks have contributed quite a bit, but Scott has put in a monumental level of effort over the past bunch of months and without all his work and direction, many of us would not have been able to do much.

Membership vp Phil Ashford introduced our seven guests – lots of applicants and guys preparing to audition. Phil needs current members to offer to help these applicants with audition songs. Contact Phil to help.

After the break, shows vp Ken White gave details for the Nov. 11 singout.

He reminded us that we will sing holiday music at Market Square in Old Town Alexandria on Sat. Dec. 10th at 2 pm.

Dec. 2 and 3 holiday show producer, Bob Mattes, recapped some details – mostly he encouraged each of us to read the emails he sent out about props needed and another one about how the show weekend will unfold. Don’t forget to bring 4 dozen holiday cookies and two big wrapped boxes. Bob needs a coordinator for a silent auction at the shows.

Eric Wallen invited all singers, even those who are not active chorus members, to prepare a quartet for the annual Put Together Quartet contest, Tues. Dec. 13th. If you wanna be in a quartet, don’t know how it works, wanna song to use – contact Eric. That is why it is called a Put Together – either the guys put something together or Dr. Put does it for you. That includes a quartet name. Let’s have some fun new comedy numbers!!

That would be a good nite to bring a friend to chapter too.

Music vp Terry Reynolds is still looking for nonsingers to help with a comedy bit for the show – guests, adult family members. Contact Terry asap to offer your help.

Chapter president Steve Murane reminded board members of their meeting next Wed at Durant. AND the annual retreat meeting for the outgoing and incoming chapter boards from 8-3 on Sat Nov. 19.

Then it was back to work on the holiday music and review of some songs we have done in a while. Joe asked Tony Colosimo to direct the treble voices and Mike Kelly to direct the bass voices for “Drummer Boy” and it seemed to help the singers do their best on this new song.

And then it was 10 pm and time for the take down work to haul everything back out to the truck and prepare to depart.

Ticket chair Ian Poulin took us out as director of our closing song.

YeEd offers these notes from reporters who attended the DC Chapter show last weekend. “The show had a clever theme, melding poetry and music. Not only the Singing Capital Chorus (directed by Bill Colosimo and associate director Sheryl Berlin); but their ensemble Capital Assets (originally directed by John Hohl); chapter quartets (SURPRISE! with Bruce Minnick and Bob Hirsh, former Harmonizer John Grant, and J C O’Codonovan, and ROLL O’ THE DICE with Bill Colosimo), a contemporary folk ensemble (Shenandoah Run), and MAD HATTERS (the featured quartet with Rick Taylor and Steve White, former Harmonizer Scott Disney, and Rob Seay). Other Harmonizers on the risers included Don Dillingham and Bob Wells. Other Harmonizers reportedly seen in the audience included Brian Ammerman, Tony Colosimo, Alan Wile, John Hohl and Terry Reynolds.”

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the November 1st Chapter Meeting

This was an important rehearsal in preparation for the holiday shows on Dec. 2 and 3 at First Baptist Church. Have you gotten a ticket for your significant other and family and neighbors and co-workers who hear you talking about singing all the time? Don’t delay.

As usual, the sales tables were busy this week with Ian Poulin selling show tickets and scrip cards. Roger Day had the 50/50 sales. FRIENDS group was selling the new CDs and White House Ornaments. Chuck Harner had the entertainment books.

When the chorus took the risers at 7 pm, assistant director, Tony Colosimo, conducted the vocal warm up sessions.

Director Joe Cerutti and his music team worked on the “Hallelujah Chorus” and “Little Drummer Boy” a lot during the first half of the evening. We also separated into two rooms to work on the treble voice parts and bass cleft voice parts for the new arrangement of “Drummer Boy.”

When it was time for the chapter meeting portion of the evening, ops vp, Mark Klostermeyer, kept things flowing – with so many announcements about the show.

Chapter secretary, Chris Buechler, presented two-year renewal cards to Clark Chesser, Chris Clark and Dave Kohls.

Membership vp, Phil Ashford, introduced our guests – all four are applicants.

Craig and Linda Odell gave a tribute for Alan Durick, who died recently. They went to see Alan and his wife Lois, just before he died. Alan sent a message to the “guys in the Harmonizer family – he loved the chorus and all the guys. He spoke over and over about how much the chapter meant to him.” A service will be Saturday, Nov. 26th at 2 pm at Unity Church, 2825 Hydraulic Circle, Charlottesville, VA 22901. (There will be some additional planning about a possible chorus to sing that day.)

Alan was a Harmonizer since 1974 and earned a gold medal in the Society’s seniors quartet contest in 1995 in REMINISCE with John Adams, Scott Werner and the late Dick Whitehouse. Alan sang in 1985 M-AD champ quartet, ALEXANDRIA’S RAGTIME BAND, with Mike Wallen, Craig Odell and John Adams.

Holiday show producer, Bob Mattes, reminded all to sell tickets, talk to Ian Poulin if you have questions about tickets, get your uniform ready, call Bob if you need Holiday music to practice at home (hint!). [Bob is also chapter music librarian.] Jack Pitzer reminded each chorus member to bring 4-dozen colorful holiday cookies for the dessert trays of the dinner theater. Bring the cookies to Jack on Friday when you come to the show (or you can bring them when you come to the dress rehearsal on Thrusday or if you come to help Roger Day to decorate the hall on Friday at 11 am). Also each guy should wrap two large boxes with shiny colorful holiday paper and bring on Thursday.

Bob Blair is seeking a crew to help haul all of our supplies to the church on Wednesday. Contact him if you can help – he needs a large crew.

NOTE: the November 8th chapter meeting will be next door at Jeff Houston school since the hall at Durant will be used as an election location.

Tony Colosimo offered tickets for the Dundalk, MD, holiday show on Sat., Nov. 12th which will feature recent gold medalists, STORM FRONT; district champs, MAD HATTERS, with Steve White and Rick Taylor; and CAPITAL FORCE, the youth chorus managed by Tony and our chapter. CF earns a cut on each ticket they sell – thanks to the Dundalk Chapter! If you didn’t get your tickets for that show, see Tony next week.

Secretary Buechler spoke on behalf of president, Steve Murane, announcing that one of our members, Darryl Flinn, is undergoing a bypass operation. Keep him in your thoughts. Darryl was Society executive director and served a term as Society president and was a coach of our chorus.

Also Chris announced that the chapter board has determined to increase chapter dues for 2012 by $20. That increase will start appearing in invoices received from Society headquarters. Members over 70 or under 26 will only be increased by $10. This action by the board is prompted by a huge deficit after some low ticket sales in recent major shows.

Chris also expressed condolences for Brad and Adele Jones in the recent death of their son Brandon. And Joe alerted the chapter of the recent passing of Jim Miller, former director of the Louisville, KY, chorus, and Society icon.

Director Joe (and also director of the Carnegie Hall Youth Chorus concert) reports that the youth chorus for the Dec. 26th show up in NYC has been capped at 153 singers, ages 13-30, from 30 states, representing 64 barbershop chapters and 14 youth choruses. Youth singers will pay $50 each to sing. But we can all help support this project with cash donations to raise the operational costs. Individuals can lead the way from within our Alexandria chapter and make donations.

Back to singing … we worked on songs for the Veteran’s Day sing on Nov. 11 at Oakton Elementary School. Chorus call is 8:30 am. All military guys are welcome to wear their uniform. Rest of us will wear suit and tie. Let Greg Tepe know you will be attending.

And we worked more on the music for the holiday show, including some fun new parody words for “Jingle Bells” which will help carry out the theme of the show.

YeEd offers congrats to Mick Stamps and his team for the great packaging of the new “Choir of the World” CD. Be sure to get one for yourself and your relatives.

YeEd also offers congrats to Scott Kahler who was recently honored by the Woodbridge Dance Company for “Behind The Scenes” support and contributions. He is their tech guy.

Finally, YeEd wants to thank Don Thompson and Ken Henderson for helping with coffee and refreshments for the previous two chapter meetings.

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the October 25th Chapter Meeting

Looking Back on the October 25th Chapter Meeting

(YeEd was still in Indiana this week, so thanks to Alan Wile and a new reporter who teamed up to help, Nick Leiserson.)

Members began arriving shortly after 6:00 p.m. While a crew of Carl Kauffmann, Jacob George, Chuck McKeever, Mark Klostermeyer (K_12), Steve Lingo, Joel Golden, and others put up the risers, those performing other jobs and plying their wares at the edges included Ian Poulin (show tickets and scrip gift cards), Roger Day (50-50), Chuck Harner (Entertainment Books), Sandy Stamps & Mary Anne Cleaveland (Choir of the World CDs, White House Ornaments, and beverages), Bruce Lauther (Carnegie Hall show DVDs & engraved medals), Steve White (later relieved by Phil Ashford – Membership), Chris Buechler (chapter secretary functions), Terry Reynolds (laptop/projector), Dixie Kennett (attendance), Alan Wile (Harmonizer Hero and Heroine notebooks), Mike Kelly (sound).

As the clock moved close to 7 p.m. VP-Ops K-12 called the Harmonizers to the risers and Assistant Director Will Cox warmed us up before turning us over to Director Joe Cerutti. Joe had us sing the “Hallelujah Chorus” one time through while in our normal performance positions and then moved us into sections … and continued working the same song. He first selected an octet to perform the first few bars for the chorus and then asked them to select replacements. This was repeated four more times, with each group singing a bit more of the song each time. Finally, he asked for a volunteer quartet and when no lead members answered the call, one of our guests, John Carston, came forward [BRAVO!!!]. Not quite done, Joe drilled the chorus some more on the first part of the song.

Moving on, Joe worked the chorus on “The Little Drummer Boy,” concentrating on Chorus III to the end of the song. Joe was impressed with the progress the chorus made while he was at the Sweet Adelines convention.

Then, in preparation for the Veterans Day program in which we will be participating (on Friday, November 11th), we sang the “Armed Forces Medley” and “God Bless The USA.” Librarian Bob Mattes had copies of the music for new guys that might not have seen it before; Terry
announced that it should also be available on one of the websites early this week.

Joe then turned the program over to K-12 who announced that only one member, Craig Kujawa, was celebrating his birthday this week – October 28th. K-12 urged the members to purchase scrip, show tickets, Entertainment Books, CDs, WHOs, etc. during the break and noted that a second order for Carnegie Hall show DVDs would be going in this week for those who missed out the first time or who need additional copies. Chapter Secretary Chris Buechler announced one renewal for the week: Marketing VP Steve Lingo just finished his fourth year of membership.

Ian Poulin explained the hows and whys of our scrip/gift card program (which benefits the chapter) and promised to send out a list of all the participating stores by e-mail. He also stated he would accept credit cards to pay for cards for which the chapter gets a 4% (or more) return.

Membership vp Phil Ashford called our seven guests to come down front. There were a couple first-timers, one who came as a guest of another guest, Carlos Barillo, who has been with us the last few weeks. Phil introduced them all in suitable style and noted that three of them were applicants! WOW! When introductions were complete, Will directed the “Harmonizer Welcome Song” … and then we headed off the risers for a 10-minute break.

Back on the risers, holiday show producer Bob Mattes updated us on the progress and urged us to sell-sell-sell to ensure each performance will be sold out. Ian announced that all the premium seats are sold out for the Saturday evening performance. [Good job, guys!]

Music & Performance VP Terry Reynolds introduced the show script gurus, Scipio Garling and Josh Roots. Scipio gave us a preliminary look at what to expect: three acts, with the third being the time when we’ll sing our more traditional and serious seasonal songs. The first two acts will erupt as a play in which our lovable “Jack” (in the box) [played by Terry] will be confronted by adversary “Jingle” (the marketing elf from the Federal Department of Seasons and Holidays) [played by Ken White].

Terry mentioned that there will be a couple of parody songs to learn for the show: namely, altered lyrics to “Jingle Bells” as well as “Carol Of The *Sales*.”

He also reminded the chorus that we will be performing our patriotic songs on 11/11/11, for which the uniform will be military uniform or coat & tie. Chorus call is at 8:30 am, the performance starts at 9:30, and Harmonizers should expect to be finished by 10:30. Bob Blair announced that he was looking for volunteers for a riser crew at 8 am that morning.

Finally, Terry reminded the Music Committee of their upcoming meeting this Sunday at 1 pm at the Harmo House.

President Steve Murane informed the chapter about the passing of Brad and Adele Jones’ son, Brandon. Service details have been distributed by e-mail and were in The Washington Post this morning: visitation on Sunday, Oct. 30th; service on Monday, Oct. 31st.

Steve also announced he will be handling all China trip related business while Brad is away.

Standing back up on the risers, Joe rehearsed “Jingle Bells,” “Let All Mortal Flesh,” “O Holy Night,” “Sing We Now Of Christmas,” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” Just when we thought we were done, Joe reprised “The Little Drummer Boy” in an attempt to cement what we’d done (learned … mastered) earlier.

Lastly, he noted that about 130 young singers have signed up to perform at the Carnegie Hall benefit concert on December 26th and urged any youngish singers (age 30 or younger) interested in joining the group to contact him in the next day or two.

Terry reminded that we’re to be off the music from measure 55 to the end of “Little Drummer Boy” by next week and announced that except for that song, none of the holiday music will be projected (i.e., look it over and master it this week!).

Tom Griffith highlighted the run/walk for Multiple Myeloma (for John Pence) on November 13th – the $25 registration fee gets you a tee shirt and the privilege of running/walking for a much needed cause.

K-12 read off the first 50-50 number … for cash … quickly claimed by Jack Cameron. The second 50-50 number (yes, we had a dual drawing this week) … for a discount certificate for framing (donated by K12 and suitable for framing)… was won by Alan Wile.

Taking us out, Jacob George did a masterful job directing “Keep The Whole World Singing.” Magically, all the risers, chairs, tables, sound equipment, Harmonizers, etc. disappeared by 10:30 p.m. as TDB rehearsed on the stage.

YeEd adds this news sent to us from Michael Calhoun and other Staunton, VA, area barbershoppers reporting on the health situation of Alan Durick: Alan was leaving the King's Daughters nursing home in Staunton, Oct. 25 to be at their home. A hospice worker will continue to visit Alan and Lois.

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the October 18th Chapter Meeting

Looking Back on the October 18th Chapter Meeting

(Thanks to Alan Wile for writing the column this week while YeEd is in Indiana.)

Bruce Lauther was the first through the door and set up to give up medals he’s had engraved and DVDs from our Carnegie Hall performance. Come on, guys – pick‘em up! Dick Hall busily worked to repair the wooden music stand used to hold the operations notebook. Steve White and Chuck Harner set up tables around the room, after which Chuck set up to sell/distribute four different Entertainment Books. Sandy and Mick Stamps set up with our new CDs (from the Choir of the World show), books by Joel Golden’s brother (Eaten By A Snake), and cold beverages.

Risers were assembled by Bob Blair, Carl Kauffmann, Bob Rhome, Chris Huber, Clyde Crusenberry, and others. The books containing all the Harmonizer Hero and Heroine forms submitted to date were set out for review. Roger Day hawked 50-50 “opportunities.” Ian Poulin sold tickets to the upcoming holiday show and scrip. Dixie Kennett took attendance and Steve White subbed for Membership VP Phil Ashford. Sound equipment was set out by Scott Kahler.

In the temporary absence of VP-OPS Mark Klostermeyer (K-12), Bob Rhome called “Harmonizers on the risers!” as the clock approached 7 p.m. and Assistant Director Will Cox warmed us up with catchy hand-clap sequences and an assortment of vocal arpeggios, after which we were directed to reassemble in sections.

Director Joe Cerutti was in Houston for the Sweet Adeline International contest and convention. A bunch of our members were there also. Joe’s SAI chorus, the Pride of Baltimore, came in 12th. Congats to our friends in POB.

Since Joe was gone, our assistant directors worked with the chorus on the show music. We rehearsed “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” and “Caroling, Caroling” and then changed directors to work on “The Chipmunks Christmas Song,” “Blue Christmas,” and “Do You Hear What I Hear?” while VP-Music & Performance Terry Reynolds ran the projector. Tony directed “Ave Maria” before sending us off to sectionals to work on the “Hallelujah Chorus” and “The Little Drummer Boy.” Thanks to Joel Golden for preparing a learning track for the upper basses on the latter.

K-12 announced birthdays of the week: Jack McKendree on the 20th, Jack Pitzer on the 21st, and Bill Colosimo (Tony’s dad) on the 23rd. Steve White called all the guests down and introduced them – all 8 and all repeaters! He also acknowledged Roger Day’s presence, who announced that, “I am back!” We were also pleased to see Jack Stonesifer, who just finished his freshman year at Marshall University. After Will directed the “Harmonizer Welcome Song,” all were excused for a 10 minute break.

Returning to the risers, Roger Day announced that the 50-50 has been reinstated (which he began a few years ago). Roger is our holiday show decorator extraordinaire. In this role, he asked that every member wrap two large (copy paper size) boxes with shiny paper and that he’ll be in need of a host of volunteers to come early to help bring the venue to “holiday life.”

VP-Shows Ken White reminded us about our participation in the Veterans Day program (again) at the Oakton Elementary School AND that we’ll be performing at Market Square on Saturday, December 10th.

Terry Reynolds emphasized the need to be off the music on the more traditional holiday music AND to adhere to the learning schedule for both the “Hallelujah Chorus” and “The Little Drummer Boy.”

Chapter President Steve Murane reminded members of the current and next year’s board that the annual leadership retreat will be held on Saturday, November 19th. Also, he stressed the necessity for next year’s board members to attend the Leadership Academy classes on Saturday, October 29th. [Alan’s note: LA classes are open to anyone who would like to attend; the application is on the district website.]

Attendance, taken most nights by Dixie Kennett, is on our Groupanizer site. All members were encouraged to check it weekly to ensure that it is accurate as the site will name those who have repeated absences … and none of us want to be on that list if we can help it.

Back in standing position, still in sections, Will worked the “Hallelujah Chorus,” followed by Tony on “The Little Drummer Boy,” which brought us to the end of the evening.

K-12 drew the lucky 50-50 number and although TJ Jones tried to claim the prize ($42 … not shabby at all), Scott Kahler actually had the winning ticket. Taking us out was our returning college man, Jack Stonesifer, who directed “Keep The Whole World Singing.” Risers were disassembled and placed under the stage, chairs and tables put back in their appointed places and, once the room was cleared, a few stalwarts reassembled at the Hilton for an afterglow gathering.

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the October 11th Chapter Meeting

Tuesday was a hard working nite to keep the ball rolling for the Holiday Shows set for Fri. Dec. 2 and Sat. Dec. 3. There was a good crowd of singers on hand and several non-singing members in the house for the annual meeting and election.

Will Cox did warm ups and turned the singing time over to our director, Joe Cerutti. Music vp, Terry Reynolds, helped manage the music work by operating the computer/projector.

We had lots of singing guests too. Almost all of them are applicants and eager to move along in their quest to become a member. Members can lend a hand with that by offering to help the applicants practice singing an audition song in a quartet. The musical team also has approved a few holiday songs to use for audition (sorry YeEd doesn’t have the complete list but remembers “Blue Christmas” and “Jingle Bells”). Librarian, Bob Mattes, also has volunteered to help any guest get a look at some holiday music for practice for the show and for auditioning.

With so many guys in the process of joining, we all have to help them with the music, uniforms, customs and traditions, and meeting the other guys.

Speaking of guys helping, next week is the Sweet Adeline International convention in Houston. Director Joe will be there as the director of the Pride of Balitmore Chorus. The Harmonizers all wish the POB chorus well! Several of our members with be there too as Friends of the POB which includes our membership vp, Phil Ashford. So step up and help with guests next week. Ken White and Steve Lingo are gonna fill in since YeEd will also be gone on travel.

Linda Odell reported that daughter, Erin, is competing in the quartet contest in Houston in a quartet called SHADES OF JADE.

When it was time for the chapter business meeting, operations vp, Mark Klostermeyer was in charge. He made general announcements about buying Entertainment Books, Scrip, White House Ornaments, and of course tickets for the show.

Bob Mattes is also show chairman for the holiday event. He invited guests and members to check out the various segments of the show to learn the holiday music for one or two segments. You might be able to sing a couple segments and then skip the others. Also he has plenty of tasks for guys to help with that weekend too.

Don’t forget to work on costumes. And to plan to bring 4 dozen colorful holiday cookies.

Ian Poulin is the ticket guy, so make contact if you have questions. SUGGESTION: buy a table of ten and then sell the tickets. Several of us have done that already, so tables are selling fast.

There will be a silent auction again this year and Bob is eager for someone to step up and manage it.

Chapter secretary, Chris Buechler, presented membership renewal cards to Tom Griffith for 24 years, and Phil Ashford for 34 years.

Chris also announced the slate of officers and board members as presented by the nominating committee (Brad Jones, chair; Will Cox, Ken White, Bob Rhome). The slate was elected by acclamation.

Position Name
President Steve Murane
VP Chapter Development Phil Ashford
VP Operations Scott Kahler
VP Music & Performance Dan O'Brien
VP Shows Brian Ammerman
VP Marketing & PR Steve Lingo
Secretary Chris Buechler
Treasurer Dave Welter
Member At Large 2011-2012* Ken Henderson
Member At Large 2011-2012* Ian Poulin
Member At Large 2012-2013 Troy Hillier
Member At Large 2012-2013 Nick Leiserson
Immediate Past President* Bradley Jones
* - Continuing term - not up for election.

After break, chapter IT coordinator, Scott Kahler, presented the emerging plans to switch our website and operation to Groupanizer. He expressed our chapter thanks to Nick Aiuto who had launced the out-going website for the chapter. Scott’s visual presentation helped guys get a feel for what is coming this weekend. He also offered FAQ and is willing to respond to questions via email.

The new technology has a lot of useful tools for chapter leaders and for the members as well. Thanks to Scott for the tons of work he has put into this transition, and his willingness to help us learn to use it.

After the presentation, it was back to work on the risers. Often during the nite, Joe moved vocal sections to different parts of the riser. There was a lengthy sectional rehearsal on “Hallelujah Chorus” and we also got our first shot at “Little Drummer Boy.”

Reminder of holiday show details: Fri nite Dec. 2 at 7:30 pm, Sat afternoon Dec. 3 at 12:30 pm and Sat nite at 6 pm. At First Baptist Church, 2932 King St., Alexandria 22302. A dinner theater with singing waiters. Great for the whole family. Santa likely will stop by.

Tickets at 571-969-1377 or www.AlexandriaHarmonizersPresent.com

It was good to see several guys back with us like Dave Welter, Kevin Roth, John Hohl, Mike Everard, Terry Jordan and Bob Wachter. There was a FRIEND OF HARMOY dinner meeting also.

Reminder: if you are under 30 and wanna sing the show at Carnegie Hall Dec. 26th, see Joe Cerutti right away.

And also please consider contributing some goodies for the cupboard at break time. The supply is low!

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the October 4th Chapter Meeting

Director Joe Cerutti was back from his coaching trip to Germany and a lot of guys were back from summer breaks. The set up crew did their usual good job – risers, screen, computer, sound stuff, guest chairs, admin tables to sell stuff.

Joe was full of funny stories about the language differences (you need to ask him the word in German for an A flat!). He also thanked Brian Ammerman again for a great fall show, and thanked his assistant directors Will Cox, Mike Kelly and Tony Colosimo for carrying the ball on the guest nite.

After the vocal warm ups, Joe got right to work on the holiday show music – especially the new songs we are adding. Music vp Terry Reynolds operated the projector and we all used the screen for music. Made it a lot easier for all members and the many guests present.

Speaking of guests – we had a huge crop of 13 visitors. Many of the guys were recent guests including returnees from the special guest nite; a few were barbershoppers from other chapters, and some new men who came with another member. Will and Tony conducted a number of vocal assessments to help the guests move along in their “joining” process. Many members also helped welcome our guests up onto the risers, sang tags with them, and helped explain what it means to be a Harmonizer.

The chapter meeting period was managed by operations vp, Mark Klostermeyer. He announced this week’s birthdays. And he filled in for chapter secretary, Chris Buechler, who could only stay at Durant a little while after having some eye work done during the day. Mark gave membership renewal cards to Bob Blair for 12 years and Terry Reynolds for 28 years.

Terry then did a wrap up of news from the fall district contest including honoring our quartets. MAD HATTERS won the quartet contest with our guys Steve White and Rick Taylor singing with Rob Seay and former Harmonizer Scott Disney. Steve White won his fifth district championship and that makes him the guy with the most M-AD champ medals.

MAYHEM with Ken White and Mike Pinto was the fourth place quartet.

The district championship trophy left Alexandria after 11 years and was presented by district officials to Voices of Gotham, this year’s district chorus champ. Funny story about that trophy – while Joe was in Germany he was visiting with some American barbershoppers who were there helping with the school where Joe was coaching and they were telling a funny story about a chapter who had lost the chorus trophy. And that made Joe stand up from his chair and run out to get a message to Scott Kahler --- the M-AD chorus trophy is at the Harmo House! Luckily, Scott got the message and Cheryl Wallen rescued the trophy and got it to Lancaster.

A previous Looking Back column reported all of the other news and more complete details from the contest in Lancaster last weekend.

President Steve Murane was back from his trip to HI and brought greetings from the barbershop chapter there. He reminded everyone that the annual chapter meeting and election is next week, Oct. 11th. Everyone needs to attend, cast a vote for the slate of board and officer nominations and make sure we have a quorum. The slate listed below was presented to the chapter by the nominating committee headed by Brad Jones.

Position Name
President Steve Murane
VP Chapter Development Phil Ashford
VP Operations Scott Kahler
VP Music & Performance Dan O'Brien
VP Shows Brian Ammerman
VP Marketing & PR Steve Lingo
Secretary Chris Buechler
Treasurer Dave Welter
Member At Large 2011-2012* Ken Henderson
Member At Large 2011-2012* Ian Poulin
Member At Large 2012-2013 Troy Hillier
Member At Large 2012-2013 Nick Leiserson
Immediate Past President* Bradley Jones
* - Continuing term - not up for election.

President Steve also reported that the chapter had received a check for just over $2,000 from Harmony Foundation during the House of Delegates meeting in Lancaster. These monies are the result of our members making contributions to Harmony Foundation and ear marking a percentage of it to be returned to their chapter.

After coffee and goodies (thanks to those who brought homemade treats) we were back on the risers to prepare for the holiday show.

Show details as YeEd knows them: Fri nite Dec. 2 at 7:30 pm, Sat afternoon Dec. 3 at 12:30 pm and Sat nite at 6 pm. At First Baptist Church, 2932 King St., Alexandria 22302. A dinner theater with singing waiters. Great for the whole family. Santa likely will stop by.

Chorus members should start working on their costumes – new members check with some of the guys who have done the show before for ideas. Plenty of free parking.

Also chorus members will be asked to bring 4 dozen homemade or extra good goodies to use to make dessert trays for the shows.

Be prepared to get a table of seats reserved for your customers as these shows will likely be sold out. Prices announced are $30 adults 15 and over, $25 seniors 66 and over, $15 kids between 5 and 14, kids under 5 free but ticket required. There will also be 30 premium seats sold up by the stage for each show at $40.

Tickets at 571-969-1377 or www.AlexandriaHarmonizersPresent.com

Work continued on the holiday music right up until 10 pm.

Before we dismissed, the chapter sang to Bert Phillips who is moving to TN. He was a great sport and we teased him a lot about his southern accent. We also presented him with a new Harmo name tag listing him as Chapter Vice President in Charge of Lamp Post Relocation (as a joke about his moving the lamp across the stage during the fall show). Bert’s wife Susan was there when we sang the traditional “There Will Always Be a Place on the Risers for You.”

Bert took us out for our last song and then a good crowd went to the afterglow at the Hilton.

Reminder: if you are under 30 and wanna sing the show at Carnegie Hall Dec. 26th, see Joe Cerutti right away.

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. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the 2011 M-AD Fall Convention

The fall district contest weekend was in Lancaster, PA, at the Marriott and adjacent convention center. (And by the way, across the street was the Central Market with all the good eats for lunch and breakfast!)

As a little history lesson, the quartet contest started with 23 entries who had qualified at one of the division contests earlier this spring. This was the district quartet contest. All entries sang in the Friday nite session and the top 10 highest scoring quartets sang in a finals round on Saturday nite.

Our guys did great! MAD HATTERS with Rob Seay, Scott Disney, Rick Taylor and Steve White placed first and are the new district quartet champs. The popular district quartet that has helped our chapter with the youth festival, FRANK THE DOG, was second. A new quartet with Ryan Griffith’s dad on tenor, LIMELIGHT, was third. MAYHEM, with Richie Lavene, Pookie Dingle Jr., Mike Pinto and Ken White, was fourth.

YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT with Mike Wallen was 13th (one of their songs, “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore,” was an arrangement by John Hohl); and ROLL O’ THE DICE with Bill Colosimo was 16th.

The top scoring senior’s quartet was LEGACY and they will go on to represent the district at the Mid-Winter BHS convention in January.

The district chorus contest (and concurrent International preliminary chorus contest) was on Saturday. There were 23 choruses who had scored high enough at the spring division contests to be in Lancaster. District champ and rep to the International chorus contest is Voices of Gotham from Hell’s Kitchen, NY. They had 26 on stage. Second place went to The Big Apple Chorus, Manhattan, NY, with 50 singers; third place went to the Chorus of the Chesapeake, Dundalk, MD, with 73 singers; and fourth place went to Long Island Sound, Five Towns College, NY, with 17 singers.

Several current or former Harmonizers were directors of other choruses and some guys were on stage with other choruses too: Mike Wallen directed Richmond, Mike Geipel and Paul Lensch were on the risers; Rick Taylor directed Dundalk, Sam McFarland, Bob Hirsh and Brad Jones were on the risers; Richard Lewellen directed Fairfax; Steve Guy sang with Patapsco Valley; Bill Colosimo directed Washington, DC, Don Dillingham, Bob Wells and Bob Hirsh sang on the risers; Dewey Feuerhelm, Gary Bibens and Michael Calhoun sang with Harrisonburg, VA; Bob Ulibarri sang with LaPlata, MD; Jim Herrick sang with the host chapter chorus, Lancaster.

Two Harmonizers were guest judges as candidates for the weekend – Tony Colosimo in the singing category and Dan O’Brien in the music category. Chuck Hunter’s dad, Chuck Sr., was contest administrator. Our coach, Brandon Guyton, was a singing judge.

Gary Plaag and Dennis Ritchey were emcees for contest sessions. Both did a great job of keeping the audience entertained and involved in the contest.

Eric Wallen and Joe Sawyer were hosts for the webcast of the weekend. Mike Kelly and Mary Anne Cleaveland coordinated the video filming for the contestants.

Saturday nite the evening began with a tribute to OLD SCHOOL who won the 2011 quartet championship in July and represented our district.

Other events on the program included a chorus of past district quartet champs – Mid Atlantic District Association of District Champions (MADAQC). Bill and Tony Colosimo were directors of that chorus during the presentation to name this year’s new district champs. Jay Butterfield was their emcee. Other guys at the convention representing past district champs included Mike Kelly, Joe Sawyer, Mike Pinto, Gary Plaag, Rick Taylor, John Hohl, Mike Wallen, Wayne Adams, Ryan Griffith, and Steve White.

Always important to recognize our chapter members who also serve our district as leaders: Gary Plaag, immediate past president; Bill Colosimo, executive vp; Bob Eckman, treasurer; Keith Jones, secretary; Dennis Ritchey, board member at large; Chuck Harner, vp chapter support & leadership training, and vp southern division; Gary Plaag, vp youth in harmony; Alan Wile, vp financial development; Mike Kelly, chief information officer; Carl Kauffman, district events team treasurer. Thanks for going the extra mile. They also represented our chapter at the House of Delegates meeting on Sunday in Lancaster. During the chorus contest, Chris Buechler filled in as vp contest and judging for John Santora, who was competing.

For fun, YeEd will take a chance at listing the many other “Harmonizer family” guys who were at the convention and not mentioned above: Tim Buell, Dean Martin, Arthur Louis, Lew Klinge, Terry Reynolds, Terry Jordan, Andrew Havens, Jack Pitzer, Noah Van Gilder and Bruce Minnick.

Thanks to Alan Wile our new CD was on sale this weekend in the Harmony Marketplace.

Next year’s fall convention will be in Ocean City, MD. The headquarters hotel will be The Grand Hotel, 2100 Baltimore Ave.

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 with the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)