Looking Back on the March 4^th Chapter Meeting

Guys were ready to get to work and many arrived early at Durant to set up (honestly, Todd Ryktarsyk had lots of the risers up by himself by 6pm), to drill stage presence with Chuck on the stage (a large crowd of 30+ guys including some front row men who have to know the riser moves too for parts of the “Miller Medley”), floor dancers in the foyer to work with Carlos and adding Doug White to the mix – great to have him back after his work duty took him away for a month), and everyone to help welcome a good crew of singer-guests.

During the evening, candidates for emcee work with the chorus were auditioned; and quartets and soloists for “World Peace” met with associate director Tony Colosimo.

Assistant director Will Cox did the warm ups and then gave the ready chorus to director Joe Cerutti.  Joe was excited and ready too and shared with us a package of thank you notes/cards/hand drawn cartoons from the students at Oakton Elementary school who were appreciative of our singing at their school on Veteran’s Day in November.

The music and visual team helped us expand our confidence for the many new songs for the shows coming up and in France at Normandy.  We did take time to clean up “Stars and Stripes” and get it to the level of our other songs. The staging of “Miller Medley” is coming along as we will be singing it in a couple weeks for the A CA CHALLENGE show at Lincoln Theater on March 22^nd. (Ken Rub had tickets for the audience members and family members for that show.)

Bob Rhome was filling in for operations vp Bob Blair and he conducted the chapter meeting.  He ran down the list of events on the front burner: 

Early Friday morning, March 7^th, a mini-chorus will help Joe demonstrate barbershop harmony for the boys chorus at Francis Scott Key Middle School.

Our own MAYHEM is singing  in the 2014 Mid Atlantic Harmony Sweeps  A Cappella Festival at The Birchmere in Alexandria on March 8^th at 7:30 pm.  Let’s get a good crowd there to support them – besides it is a fun place for a Harmo social event. Birchmere is a dinner theater atmosphere, so go early to get food and a good seat.  General admission for $39.10 each. Here is a  link: http://m.ticketmaster.com/event/15004B5CDC9F7C4B?brand=birchmere&SREF=SLfbk-013_15004B5CDC9F7C4B

Several of our chapter quartets will be singing in the International Preliminary Quartet Contest in Reston at the Hyatt on Friday, March 14^th.  This contest is how quartets earn the right to compete in the International contest this summer in Vegas.

In singing order based on current M-AD website in the first round, Friday nite at 7pm:

2. OLD TOWN SOUND - Alan Kousen, Clyde Crusenberry, Bob Mattes, Dave Welter

3. DA CAPO - Ryan Griffith, Tony Colosimo, Joe Sawyer, Wayne Adams

5. MAYHEM - Matt Fellows, Pookie Dingle, Mike Pinto, Ken White

6. THE MONORAIL FOUR - Kellen Hertz, Phil Ferguson, Bobby Seay VI, Andrew Havens

7. YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT - Mike Wallen, Roger Tarpey, Hardman Jones, Vic Owen, Jr.

9. BSQ - Rob Seay, Kevin King, Rick Taylor, Al Mazzoni

14. ACME CHORD COMPANY - Dan O'Brien, Chris Susalka, Paul Grimes, Eric Wallen

15. LAST MEN STANDING - TJ Barranger, Drew Feyrer, Ed Bell II, Mike Kelly

16. FORECAST - Mike Fitch, Ian Galvin, Travis Murray, Dan Cook

 

On Saturday morning, there is an adjudication for college and high school quartets at 11am.  The finals contest is Saturday nite at 7pm. 

The deadline to get the better rate for housing for the weekend in Reston has been extended to March 7^th for rooms in the Reston Hyatt. Rate is $120. You can reserve a room by visiting www.MidAtlanticDistrict.com/Spring and click the link under “Housing.” While you’re on the site, be sure to reserve your convention registrations, too! Or you can buy tickets at the door.

Also on Saturday March 15^th, a chorus of Harmonizers will sing a paid job at the Mayflower in DC for American Society of Public Administration for their diamond jubilee gala.

HELP is needed to get more guys and girls to come to our chapter sponsored Youth Harmony Festival on Saturday, April 5^th.  The numbers are extremely low, according to chairman Brad Jones. He needs responses from teachers, choir directors, youth group leaders, Scout groups hoping to earn a badge for singing, your grandkids, or your voice lesson students.  If you have prospects or a teacher wants help to register students, contact Brad at Youthfestival2014@verizon.net.  The fee is just $15 per student which includes the festival fun, music, a t-shirt and snacks and lunch and dinner.  Registration deadline is Monday, Mar. 10^th so the t-shirts can be ordered.

Reed Livergood is coordinating housing for our guest chorus, Ambassadors of Harmony [where he was a member before moving to our area], when they come to the DC area to sing with us for the Crescendo show on June 21^st.  Reed got responses from 30+ Harmonizers which gets us over 25 beds available for AoH-ers to use. That said, our goal of 70-80 beds has not been met, yet. For those who have not indicated their hosting status, please take 5 minutes within the next week to indicate if you can make housing available, possibly available, or not available to host our guests in June.

Other announcements in the meeting included the plea for riser singers to bring in their gold scarves used in Toronto on March 11^th! And front row to bring in their gold vests.  All for the FRIENDS IN HARMONY to begin adjusting them.

Regarding the trip to France, chairman Ken Fess asks all members to respond quickly to inquiries he sends out regarding travel and other admin matters for the trip.

Membership vp Jeremy Richardson with help from Rich Hewitt welcomed and introduced a long line of guests – several first timers including four fellow students and friends of Ben Roberts.

President Terry Reynolds offered this week’s notation of why It’s Great to Be a Harmonizer – the chance to sing with our master director Joe Cerutti!

After coffee break, we worked on more of our new music including presenting the men who will sing the quartet parts for “World Peace” with the chorus and soloists.

Interesting background info from music and performance vp Steve White explaining how the weekly schedule is developed for our Tuesday nite rehearsals, “At 5:30 each Wednesday after our Tuesday nite meeting, the chorus directors have a "hot wash" conference call to discuss the previous night's rehearsal and lay out what is needed for the coming rehearsal. Then on Thursday morning the M&P vp plans the rehearsal with the goal of getting the outline to Dave Branstetter for the weekly e-mail to the members.”

In other news, our BHS mourns the passing of Lew Sims, 66-year Society member, DELA stalwart, Hall of Honor inductee, judge, quartet singer and chorus director. Lew died peacefully on Feb. 24, at the age of 104.  He was a loyal member of the DC Chapter and was their director when they won the Society's first official International Chorus Champions in 1954. His popular quartet, FEDERAL CITY FOUR sang joyfully together for five decades.
 

Our chapter historian Martin Banks adds, “Sixteen choruses from 9 of the 14 districts competed in the June 1953 contest in Detroit. The contest winner, The Great Lakes Chorus, was designated as the "International Convention Chorus Champion" and was the first and last chorus so named. This unique title was chosen because the participating choruses were not selected through district competition and not all districts were represented. The Singing Capitol Chorus, directed by Lew Sims, won the Society's first "official" International Chorus Competition in 1954 in their hometown of Washington DC. The Alexandria Harmonizers represented the Mid-Atlantic District in Detroit in 1953 and would not represent the district in an International Chorus Contest again until 1978, nearly a quarter of a century later.”

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 during the 66^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the SingStrong Show and the February 25^th Chapter Meeting

What fun we had singing at the SingStrong a cappella festival Sunday afternoon, Feb. 23^rd for a screaming and cheering audience of fellow singers.  We wore our black casual shirts and jeans, looked good, had risers full with 70 singers, and did four great songs with a “hot” front row. Associate director Tony Colosimo directed along with assistant directors Mike Kelly and Terry Reynolds.  Producer Greg Tepe and chorus manager Mark Klostermeyer keep things rolling for us after arrived for the noon chorus call at South Lakes High School in Reston. 

Earlier in the weekend in Reston, several of our musical team attended the festival and Tony and Terry taught a class on tag singing.

Tuesday nite was an invigorating rehearsal and meeting.  Big crowd, high energy, success in learning more songs for Normandy, bunch of guests, and great dancing by new floor performers!

While the set up crew worked to prepare the hall for our nite, a big crowd of us worked on stage with Chuck McKeever and some of his SP team to drill moves for “Miller Medley.”

Tony did the warm ups and turned the chorus over to director Joe Cerutti to get to work.  And work we did.  The drills for stage presence was useful as we spend a huge chunk of time for choreographer Carlos Barillo adding important emotions and details to the moves for “Miller” and getting us comfortable.  Joe directed the chorus on the risers and Chuck helped him keep the guys in the right move plan. And during the 40-minute work-session, each of the singing sections spent 10 minutes with Tony on special musical spots.  When we put it all together, it felt good. 

Similar successes came out as we sang many of the other new songs for France, and Joe was happy with how well we were able to sing another new song, “I’ll Walk With God” for the first time.

Tony was full of excitement after the great reception we had at SingStrong on Sunday, as he conducted another of his very useful and educational craft sessions.

All during the evening, there were guys leaving the risers for auditions as emcees with Greg and Carlos.  Soloists and quartet try outs were conducted before chapter meeting.

Operations vp Bob Blair conducted this week’s chapter meeting. He suggested that guys without name tags buy a new one from Chris Buechler or at least get a paper name tag at the membership kiosk!

Ken Rub introduced marketing materials for the A CA Challenge at Lincoln Theater on March 22^nd. This huge event is another new venture for the chapter into the a cappella world.  We will sing and debut two of our new songs!  Ken and chapter leaders are asking each Harmonizer to bring 1-3 people for the audience.  Also Skip Coburn is coordinating advertising sales for the show’s printed program.

Greg Tepe confirmed that we would wear the back suite outfit for Lincoln theater that we wore in Toronto.  New members all need to get them from uniform guru Tom Kern. 

Speaking of uniforms, any guys singing in the Mayflower hotel gig March 15th, you will need the tux and tails outfit, so be sure you have them.

Brian Ammerman’s father died recently and Brian reports that he used a recording of the chorus for the memorial service, since his Dad was a fan of our music. Christina Ammerman explained the scrip sales effort for the Harmonizers.  This ongoing fundraising project is being managed by the FRIENDS IN HARMONY, with Christina and Ninamarie Maragioglio leading the effort.

Speaking of FRIENDS, they are helping us prepare the gold scarves for upcoming shows. Soooo – bring in your gold scarf from Toronto on Tuesday, March 11^th. And front row guys need to bring in those great gold vests Mar. 11^th too. 

President Terry Reynolds welcomed Rick and Peggy Wagner as Rick undergoes the days of radiation! Terry also gave a brief update on Burt Steuve.

Terry reported the upcoming chapter history committee meeting, and related that the SingStrong show experience is another reason why “It’s Great to Be a Harmonizer!”

Secretary Chris Buechler presented a new member nametag to Aaron Simoneau, then renewal cards to Josh DesPortes for 2 years, Clyde Crusenberry for 4 years, Ed Schubel for 4 years, Bob Rhome for 13 years, Tom Kern for 16 years, and Skip Coburn for 25 years. Skip also was given an lapel pin.

Membership vp Jeremy Richardson with help from Rich Hewitt welcomed and introduced a bunch of guests, some new applicants and members from other chapters in town to visit us.  Jeremy plugged the next open audition nite, April 9^th. Spread the word.

Ben Roberts announced his school theater department’s show ad sales and offered forms for any potential advertisers.

The hot coffee and goodies were welcomed by all.  Thanks to the several guys who brought goodies to share and some napkin.  Keep it up – especially salty items like pretzels and such.

After break it was back onto the risers for more great singing and the successful feeling as we demonstrated that we are making progress at learning all the new songs.  Plus we pulled up some more rep songs that we will use this summer.

In other news, several of our chapter quartets will be singing in the International Preliminary Quartet Contest in Reston at the Hyatt on Friday, March 14^th.  This contest is how quartets earn the right to compete in the International contest this summer in Vegas.

As this point we have Harmonizers singing in 9 of the 17 quartets in the contest – DA CAPO. MAYHEM, YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT, BSQ, THE MONORAIL FOUR, OLD TOWN SOUND, FORECAST, ACME CHORD COMPANY, LAST MEN STANDING.  The first round of the contest is Friday nite at 7pm.  On Saturday morning, there is an adjudication for college and high school quartets at 11am.  The finals contest is Saturday nite at 7pm. 

For those who might wanna stay out in Reston and sing tags and have a fun weekend in Reston Town Center, our own Bill Colosimo, who is district president, alerted us that the Reston Hyatt has extended the guarantee of a BHS block rate until March 1...it's only $120 for a lovely room! After that date, rates rise to $139. You can reserve a room by visiting www.MidAtlanticDistrict.com/Spring and click the link under “Housing.” While you’re on the site, be sure to reserve your convention registrations, too! Or you can buy tickets at the door.

And finally, good news that MAYHEM has been invited to participate in the 2014 Mid Atlantic Harmony Sweeps  A Cappella Festival at The Birchmere in Alexandria on March 8^th at 7:30 pm.  Let’s get a good crowd there to support them – besides it is a fun place for a Harmo social event. Birchmere is a dinner theater atmosphere, so go early to get food and a good seat.  General admission for $39.10 each. Here is a  link: http://m.ticketmaster.com/event/15004B5CDC9F7C4B?brand=birchmere&SREF=SLfbk-013_15004B5CDC9F7C4B

Thanks to Joel Golden for making the learning tracks for the new tag Dan O’Brien wrote and arranged for the “Armed Services Medley.”

 

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 during the 66^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the February 18^th Chapter Meeting

For the record, the chapter held sectional rehearsals for all parts on Saturday, Feb. 15^th, in the music suite at First Baptist Church.  A good crowd of 65+ eager singers attended.  Assistant director Will Cox did the warm ups. Associate director Tony Colosimo did the directing for combined work and gave the “assignments” for what the section leaders needed to work on during the 9 – noon event.  Bob Blair made arrangements with the church.  Coffee and brownies were a hit too. Music and performance vp Steve White welcomed everyone to this extra event. Based on good responses to the work day, Steve promised to plan another sectional workout in April.

Tuesday nite’s gathering at Durant was another full evening of singing and work by the leaders and the singers, as well as fun to meet new members, many guests and get a hot cup of coffee!

Chuck McKeever was ready early to teach the moves of “Miller Medley” on the stage at 6 pm and a big class attended. He also announced that he has prepared a written SP plan for that song – look for it to be published soon.

Floor dancers were hard at work in the lobby with choreographer Carlos Barillo.  They were working in teams with some of the men teaching other men the plan for “Miller Medley.”

The previously announced sale of old uniforms and costumes was held in the main hall, including the swap-n-shop table for getting rid of logo shirts from years of barbershopping.  It was kinda fun seeing the look of amazement when new members saw some of the wild uniforms we wore in the past.  And some new guys got a Harmo shirt to wear that nite. Some quartet guys snapped up four of everything for additions to future quartet outfits. Thanks to Tom Kern for the extra work in making the Harmo “yard sale” event happen.  He pledges to take all left-overs to Goodwill!

The Harmo history committee, headed by Martin Banks, did make sure to collect samples of former uniforms for the chapter’s historical collection.  (We are just a few years away from our 75^th anniversary year.) 

Speaking of history – if you have files or photos or materials that help tell the Harmonizer story, offer them to Martin.  And if you are not quite ready to let go of them, be sure to mark them in some way so that your family knows to pass them on to the chapter some day! 

Assistant director Will Cox did the warm ups with a full chorus on the risers. When director Joe Cerutti took reigns, he thanked all those who used the weekend sectional to advantage. He  then jumped right in to work on songs for this weekend’s appearance at SingStrong including a “freshen up” for “Anything Goes” including some revamp for the front row and a chance for about a half dozen men who had not sung with us in Toronto to practice the stage presentation.

After working on “Music Man,” Tony conducted another of his fantastic barbershop craft sessions!

All during the evening, show producer Greg Tepe and Carlos auditioned a steady flow of guys who wanted to try-out as possible emcees for chapter performances.

Operations vp Bob Blair conducted the weekly chapter meeting and continued his push to get men to wear their name tags!

President of the FRIENDS IN HARMONY, Sandy Stamps, announced that sales of scrip cards will resume next week.

Music and performance vp Steve White confirmed plans for another all-section rehearsal later this spring. And he announced a late-breaking request for another Youth Harmony presentation to fill a request from the music teacher at Francis Scott Key to meet their young men’s chorus, at 8 am on Fri. March 7. Sign up online tomorrow.

Shows vp Nick Leiserson announced that the SingStrong folks offered comp tickets for any of our singers who might want to attended other shows during the weekend’s a cappella festival.  Greg Tepe reviewed previously announced details for those singing on the show – 12 Noon chorus call.  Black logo camp shirt, jeans, comfortable shows and no medal.  We will meet in the Orchestra Room at South Lakes High School in Reston.

President Terry Reynolds reported health updates for Bede Bender and Rick Wagner, and told us about FIH members who had fallen on ice recently including Carolyn Hall, Connie Lauther and Jean Wachter.  Take it easy FRIENDS.

Terry asked any members willing to contribute funds to provide Angel Support for members to make the Normandy trip to let him know ASAP.

Finally he reminded us again “It’s Great to Be a Harmonizer” when singing with guys who have earned recognition as did Jeremy Richardson when he appeared on MSNBC recently as an expert witness regarding water quality issues in WV.

Secretary Chris Buechler presented a 25-year membership renewal card and pin to Matt Kahn, and a third Man of Note Award to Dan O’Brien. Other membership renewals went to Frank Fedarko for 12 years; Kevin Kaiser for 14 years; Chuck Powell for 20 years; TJ Jones for 23 years, and Dean Rust for 34 years.

 Go to see TJ up and about and improving after his serious fall in his home a few weeks ago.

Membership vp Jeremy encouraged members to invite any singers they meet during the SingStrong festival to our next open audition on Wed. April 9^th.  Rich Hewitt introduced this week’s guests to the chorus and reminded those involved of an audition tonite for an applicant.  Two of tonite’s guests became applicants before the nite ended.

YeEd notes that the membership team has added a new approach for signing in our guests – a table next to the kiosk has two chairs and forms and pens for the guests to register in order to collect the correct contact info.  Jeremy asked us all to help with welcoming guests – both when not on the risers and when a guest is singing next to us where we can help him with the guest book, or help him with the vocal warm up phrases or make sure he knows about the break.

After coffee break, we worked on the other songs for Sunday afternoon, and then on our new music for Normandy.  Joe displayed approval of our musical progress on the songs and lots of comments from the chorus about these great songs. 

More Harmonizer good news!  MAYHEM has been invited to participate in the 2014 Mid Atlantic Harmony Sweeps  A Cappella Festival at The Birchmere in Alexandria on March 8^th at 7:30 pm.  Let’s get a good crowd there to support them – besides it is a fun place for a Harmo social event. Birchmere is a dinner theater atmosphere, so go early to get food and a good seat.  General admission for $39.10 each. Here is a  link: http://m.ticketmaster.com/event/15004B5CDC9F7C4B?brand=birchmere&SREF=SLfbk-013_15004B5CDC9F7C4B

 

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 during the 66^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the February 11^th Chapter Meeting

 The extreme cold on Tuesday nite did not deter attendance nor visitors and guests.  And the stage was packed for the 6 pm choreo review with Chuck McKeever (recovered from his bout with pneumonia).  And 25 or more “floor performers” worked with choreographer Carlos Barillo in the lobby at Durant on their exciting addition to “Miller Medley” package.

Many FRIENDS IN HARMONY members were in the house for their meeting.  Several early arrivals helped decorate cookies for the coffee break period.  Thanks to them for helping.

 

Speaking of coffee break, we could always use salty snacks like chips or pretzels if you have some to share. And how about bringing in left-over napkins from any holidays.  They always get used.

 

Assistant director Will Cox did the warm up vocal exercises this week and surprised assistant director Terry Reynolds with a Happy Birthday just for his day!  Associate director Tony Colosimo held a barbershop craft session for us.  Director Joe Cerutti welcomed two BHS staffers to our meeting from Nashville – both work in IT there at headquarters.  Great to have them.

 

Chapter leaders had a brunch meeting with BHS chief executive officer, Marty Monson, on Sunday, Feb. 9^th at Theisman’s.  He was in the area after the American Choral Director’s Association convention that was in Baltimore, and took this chance to meet with a local chapter leadership team.  President Terry and other chapter leaders plus our director Joe attended

 

Joe had also attended the ACDA convention and got to see the American Boychoir folks again.  Their director was thrilled to see Joe and confessed how much his students wanted to see the Harmonizers again.  Some of their students were “lovin” a look at sample barbershop music in the BHS display booth at ACDA and were heard singing four-part harmony without any urging.

 

Joe and Tony then worked with the chorus on lots of the new songs as well as the several songs we are bringing back into an active repertoire.

 

Operations vp Bob Blair called this week’s meeting to order and reminded guys “to wear those name tags.”  Music and performance vp Steve White asked for more singers to sign up for the major shows coming up in a few weeks, especially the Sing Strong show Sun., Feb, 23^rd.  He also announced that we would not be learning “Behold Man” as had been on the schedule.

 

President Terry Reynolds announced that Dick Hall had called him to wish a happy birthday and that is when Dick reported he is suffering from shingles.  (Dick has called every Harmonizer on his birthday for MANY years and continues to do so.  We all say thanks and get well, Dick.) Then Terry invited Rick Wagner to share his difficult news – that a soft tissue sarcoma was discovered in his thigh, that he will have radiation and then an operation to remove the baseball-sized area.  We are all pulling for Rick. 

 

Terry concluded his remarks sharing about how much our officers enjoyed telling CEO Monson about our chapter – just another example of why “It Is Great to Be a Harmonizer!”

 

Secretary Chris Buechler presented name tags and Harmon history books to two new members – Ed Schubel and Nathan Ritter; membership renewal cards to Steve Szyszka for two years and Jacob George for four years; and a 40-year membership lapel pin for Rick Savage.

 

Rich Hewitt, filling in for Jeremy Richardson, introduced all of our singing guests – several of them first timers. In other news about our own Dr. Jeremy Richardson -- he appeared on the MSNC talk show of Melissa Harris-Perry on Sunday discussing the chemical spill in the waters of WV.  The link is http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/can-we-trust-our-water-systems-144157763516

 

After coffee break with Valentine cookies and coffee, we were back on the risers for work on more of our 2014 package show songs, including putting together the visual package for “Miller Medley” with the floor performers.  Great work by those men.

 

SingingValentine news was announced before we dismissed: after taking a break from it in 2013, the Alexandria Harmonizers will be performing SingingValentines for selected groups on Feb. 14th and 15th!  As a public service, we are offering them free to Alexandria-area seniors facilities, schools and businesses.

Ninamarie Maragioglio and the FRIENDS IN HARMONY auxiliary, in cooperation with quartet promotion chairman Calvin Schnure, organized the event. This is the first year of our "new" SingingValentines plans. Several quartets were lined up to wear the chorus tux outfits and make the presentations.  (All this was planned before the snow storm that hit on Feb. 13^th – stay tuned as to the outcome of the day.)

In other chorus news, our uniform chairman, Tom Kern, has announced the “First and Last Annual Free / Sale / Resale / Clearance Event!”  His goal is to clear out many one-of-a-kind uniform pieces from the past Harmonizer inventory. They will be available free (first come – first served) to a good home…as long as you promise never to bring them back. Some items, mostly brand new in original packaging, will be available for a very low purchase price.

 

ALSO Tom has made an offer to any members who have Harmonizer logo shirts in their closet that no longer fit or are no longer worn – a table will be available for a barbershop logo shirt exchange to sell, swap, or simply donate. Attach a piece of tape with your name on it, put it on display, and see if you can find a new home for your excess.

 

The uniform exchange will be on the Durant stage, Tuesday, Feb. 18^th  starting at 6pm before rehearsal, during break, and after rehearsal. (The choreo session will be in another room.) Items that don’t go home with a new owner will be donated to AMVETS / Goodwill for other people to love.

 

In conjunction with this, the chapter history team headed by Martin Banks has collected a few samples of our chorus outfits from Tom’s warehouse to add to the collection of uniforms we have for historical purposes.  (For our 50^th anniversary we had them all on display.) Thanks too for the history display Martin brought to Durant this week.

 

Finally, there is an all-sectional rehearsal on Sat., Feb. 15 in the choir suite at First Baptist Church, 2932 King St., Alexandria 22302 from 9-noon.  There will be coffee for early arrivals. Bring your music and a pencil as per director Joe’s admonition earlier in the evening.

 

Birthday celebrations for Terry continued at the afterglow at LaPorta’s, 1600 Duke 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 during the 66^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the February 4^th Chapter Meeting and Recent MidWinter Convention          

Our chapter leaders had to make a call about meeting tonite based on threats of icy roads.  But it was decided to go for it, with the plan to keep an eye on the weather in case it was necessary to wrap up early.  The leaders did suggest guys who live west of Alexandria might need to leave early, tho most stayed til the last note was sung.  The risers were full again and it was a hard working nite.

 

Chuck McKeever’s bad cold has moved into pneumonia and so Carl Kauffmann and Chuck Powell  conducted the early-bird visual review session. Here again there was a large group of us on stage to work on the moves for “Miller Medley.”

 

Assistant director Will Cox did the warm ups this week.  Music and performance vp Steve White coordinated the musical part of the nite since assistant director and president Terry Reynolds was in Vegas. (He and past president Alan Wile coordinated via email and phone about meeting plans and Terry issued a late afternoon call to come to Durant.)

 

When director Joe Cerutti took the reins he welcomed Bruce Roehm back after a military assignment in MT.  Long-time member Jim Gammon was in the house to audition as a Special Forces guy for our Normandy trip.  Then we worked on the new tag for “Armed Services Medley” and worked on “Bring Him Home” with associate director Tony Colosimo carrying the beautiful solo.

 

Then Tony conducted another of his fantastic craft sessions – this one was a review of the many craft maxims we have learned in the last year or so.  He did his review because there are soooo many new members and guests with us these days.

 

For our work on “Miller Medley” the chorus worked on the risers and the floor dancers worked in the lobby.  When we put it all together it was working well, but we all need to keep reviewing and drilling on our own.

 

Operations vp Bob Blair conducted the chapter meeting portion of the nite.  On behalf of president Reynolds, Steve White introduced another new performance maxim – Sign Up – Show Up!  It is so important for each member to get onto the Groupanizer page and indicate your attendance plans for meetings and shows, as well as get your music and stage notes – at harmonizers.groupanizer.com.  Wear you name tag too on Tuesday nites!

 

As music vp, Steve was eager to report too major coaching sessions this spring: Tues. April 1^st with David Wright, and Tues. April 29^th with Cindy Hansen.  Mark your calendars.

 

Steve announced that we have received another request for a youth harmony session from the music instructor at Francis Scott Key Middle School.  Stay tuned for an email.

 

Finally, Steve invited all recent new members to join him for an orientation session after break tonite. 

 

Past president Wile presented gifts to men who did not make it to the recent Presidents’ Award banquet.

 

There is a change in the sale and distribution of scrip cards for the chapter.  Our FRIENDS IN HARMONY have assumed responsibility for it and Ninamarie Maragioglio spoke to us about kicking off the new sales year.  She did offer to fill requests for specific cards, if we let her know to try to get them.  As some of you know, this project can be a major source of income for the chapter. For example, if you are making home improvements, then buy Home Depot cards from the chapter to pay for things.  The chapter gets a significant percentage of profit from sale of the cards and you can use them to pay HD.

 

Membership vp Jeremy Richardson presented a membership renewal card to Brian Miller for 17 years.   Rich Hewitt welcomed a long line of guests – several first timers, some of our Special Forces guys, and visitors from other chapters. The membership team is using a new registration card, created by Rich, to collect info about the many guests when they arrive on Tuesday and stop by our sign-in kiosk.

 

After coffee break, we worked on more songs including “Jersey Boys” that we will need to sing for our A CA Challenge show.  The chorus will not do stage moves, but front row will.

 

Joe was thrilled about the successful rehearsal and the hard work of all of the mem on the risers. 

 

Before we wrapped up, there was a shout out of congrats to Mike Wallen.

 

Our chapter was well represented at the recent MidWinter BHS convention in Long Beach, CA, Jan. 28^th-Feb.2^nd.  Plus our own Mike Wallen’s quartet, YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT, captured a fourth place medal in the International Senior’s Quartet competition. Mike sings tenor with Roger Tarpy, lead, Hardman Jones, bari, and Vic Owens, Jr., bass.  The first place quartet was also from our district, FACES 4 RADIO.  Congrats to them as well.  They sang an arrangement of “It All Depends on You” created by our own John Hohl.

 

Here is Dixie Kennett’s report of the convention: The official events began on Tuesday evening with the District Presidents' Council meetings. Bill Colosimo is the moderator. Gary Plaag, Alan Lamson, and Chris Buechler (as parliamentarian) were involved in Society board activities. The keynote address was given by outgoing Society board member John Miller. [It is available online.] Doug Brown from Hell’s Kitchen NY Chapter was elected to fill a vacancy on the BHS board.

Thursday evening there was a kick-off party aboard the Queen Mary. Society past champs and medalist quartets sang as did Seniors quartet champs from past years. The weather was in the mid-sixties, liquid refreshment areas plentiful, and people were roaming, listening to entertainment throughout the evening.

 

The youth choruses owned the stage on Friday. Twenty choruses crossed the boards to thunderous applause. The Friday night show featured a chorus of past seniors’ quartet champs, several past championship quartets, FOREFRONT (current 5th place medalist), MAIN STREET (current 4th place medalist with our coach Tony DeRosa), and the Masters of Harmony chorus – several current and/or former Harmonizers sang with the chorus including Jim Haggerty, Ken Potter, Ray Johnson, and Bill Power.

 

Joe Cerutti in his role as Society Music Specialist for Youth and Chorus Director Development was instrumental in putting the youth contest together and also served as emcee for the Friday and Saturday evening shows. (Unlike prior years, he did the emcee job wearing a business suit rather than the gamut of costumes worn in previous years.) Sean Devine and Ryan Killeen were involved during the convention as staffers for the Harmony Foundation and Mike Kelly did AV work for the Foundation.  Cindy Hansen was show producer for the convention.

 

Reporter Alan Wile sent this word about the youth choruses:  “They were fabulous and  the audience favorite was the Mountain West Voices Chorus from the Provo, UT, Chapter and Brigham Young U (average age of 23.9) that sang and performed the Peter Pan medley. They received a rating of Superior ... and so did the chorus out of the M-AD: East Coast Sound (formally the Tri Star Chorus) from the Montclair Chapter.  David Ammirata, lead of GIMMIE FOUR (the quartet that will staff our chapter’s youth harmony festival this spring) is their director (average age of 22.7).

 

Dixie’s report continues: The Saturday night show began with the "audience favorite" youth chorus. Society medalist quartets including MASTERPIECE (current gold medalist) all entertained. The evening concluded with Westminster chorus singing five songs, ending with one that included all the youth participants singing from the theatre balcony with them -- very moving. And while most people were beginning to make their way home on Sunday morning, Chuck Harner was in the Harmony Foundation board of trustees meeting.

 

Reporters Dixie and Keith Jones, kept track of the many Harmonizers and former members who were there.  The list includes the following names not mentioned above: Terry Reynolds, John Hohl, Sam McFarland, Keith Jones, Tom Gannon, Bob Hirsh, Dwain Chambers, Ross Johnson, Darryl Flinn, Dave Ellis, Mike Geipel and John Rettenmeyer.  Richard Lewellen was a judge for the quartet and chorus contests.

 

In other news for the chapter:  The chapter is looking to have more emcees for our package shows. Carlos Barillo and Greg Tepe are holding open auditions on Tuesday, Feb 18th, during rehearsal, for anyone interested.

Whether you've been an emcee in the past, have done it recently, or have never done it, everyone will need to audition. Candidates will audition in small rooms at Durant one at a time,
Anyone interested should email Greg (gtindc13@yahoo.com) to indicate you would like an audition slot.

 

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 during the 66^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)