Looking Back on the March 20th 2018 Chapter Meeting 

This week’s gathering at Convergence was a very busy one, but the first day of spring with a winter storm approaching bringing in snow/ice/sleet/rain caused the numbers to be small.  Associate director Tony Colosimo did the vocal warm ups, was in charge of the music for the nite, and opened the evening with work on the first “bring back” song for our 70^th anniversary show – “Glenn Miller Medley.”

The support team had brought projector and screen for us to project the music for all to see.

Chapter leaders then presented info about our possible trip to Brazil in 2019.  Brad Jones, project manager for the trip, introduced Sean Fagan, president of Opus Performance Tours agency, who reported plans for the possible trip.  Currently scheduled for early August in 2019 and departing from Dulles. This trip idea is an outgrowth of a request to help launch new barbershop singing groups in their country and thus the trip will include several concerts or performances in local venues.  

Our chapter president Shawn Tallant summarized the next steps for the chapter: a survey will go to all members soon seeking a “go or no go” vote.  Members and any family members they wish to pay for will be part of the trip. A guest quartet will likely be invited to make the trip with us. The chapter is seeking some possible financial support for the trip too, but everyone will pay their own fees.

During the chapter meeting, president Shawn also announced a plan to acquire new performance suits.  Carlos Barillo show-cased two choices and there was unanimous support for one. Chapter leaders have determined that we will manage this acquisition differently that in the past – this time each member will buy his own outfit (about $100) and maintain them. New uniform chairperson Robyn Murane previewed some steps on how chorus members will be responsible for their uniforms.

The plan is to use the new outfits for our contest appearance in Orlando in July and for our 70^th anniversary show on Sept. 8^th, 2018. Everyone needs to be measured right away – so be sure you are included on the order sheet with correct sizes. Current plans do include a new tie but we will wear the current white shirt we have been wearing with the all black suits.  Those black suits will be turned in and offered for sale to other groups. 

Terry Reynolds, executive director, reminded us that next week the meeting is back at Durant with coach Kevin Keller present to help us prepare our contest package.

Terry also reminded everyone about the Youth Harmony Festival all day on Fri. April 13^th.at Restoration Anglican Church, 1815 N Quincy St., Arlington.  Many helpers will be needed during the day – stay tuned for volunteering.  The chorus will sing three songs in the evening with a 6 pm chorus call for the 7 pm show.  Uniform will be black camp shirt, jeans, black shoes.

The fifth-annul Aca-Challenge is the next nite, April 14^th at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in DC (600 I St. NW) from 7-10 pm. Presented by the Harmonizers, hosted by contemporary a cappella spokesperson Deke Sharon, and co-sponsored by the venue. Six east coast groups will compete for a $2000 prize from the chapter and chosen by the audience.  Tickets are $25 for general admission or $45 for VIP seats which includes ticket to an afterglow with Deke and the contestants. Attendees who need to use the lift for entry may call 202-408-3100 to make arrangements for entry to the building and seating. Our chapter’s a cappella group, TBD, will do a set on the show while the results are being tallied. 

President Tallant asked members to buy tickets,  and for sure, to promote and sell tickets to others.

Because of the bad weather this week, the Private Voice Instructions will resume in two weeks.

Good news that Dick Hall’s name will be on the Keeping America Ringing Wall at BHS headquarters in Nashville.  Terrific that many have made a donation to make that happen thru Harmony Foundation International.

Jack Pitzer continued the series of Moments in Harmonizer History – this time explaining why we shout “Hark” each time Will Cox comes up to direct our welcome song for guests.

Some rehearsal plans for the chorus in Orlando were announced, There will be only three rehearsals – morning sessions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  The Togetherness breakfast will be changed to a dinner event during the week. Long-time members who always attend the International convention should take special note in the major changes in the week’s schedule.

The chorus retreat in preparation for Orlando will be June 8-9-10 at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD, (about 70 miles from Springfield).  Friday June 8^th will be mandatory for front row and optional for all others with special session for the small groups to be coached. There are many good restaurants in town and it is a good social time on Friday nite.. Fees include lodging; three meals on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday; plus linens and a Saturday evening party. There are three price levels – Friday-Sunday attendees; Saturday-Sunday attendees; and commuters who won’t be staying any nite. Non-competing members are welcome to attend. Fees are due in advance and should be given to Howard Nestlerode or Jack Cameron before May 29th  All requests for roommate assignments are due to retreat master, Chuck McKeever, by Tues. May 8th.

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewals to Bob Rhome for 17 years; Walt Page for 24 years; Dean Rust for 38 years; and Will Cox for 40 years.  He also was given his 40-year lapel pin.

Last week, YeEd missed a couple things. First, chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented new member packets to Gary Cregan, Connor Goss, and Jerry Jayjohn. And Ken Ives received his membership renewal for 33 years. Second, president Shawn Tallant announced that past president Randall Eliason was in MN with family matters since his mother-in-law was placed in hospice recently. 

Guest this week was David Wagner.  Welcome to him.

After the chapter meeting, musical work continued on our contest music.  Assistant director Chuck Hunter helped do some of the coaching/teaching. 

Then about 8:45, the work moved to the music for “Iron and Coal’ for those who will be singing at that event.

In other news, Keith Jones was in a car accident (a tractor trailer side-swiped him while he was stopped at an intersection) near Richmond last Friday, on his way to relocate to Florida. He was not injured or hurt, thankfully. He spent the nite with former Harmonizer Paul Laurenz while he waited for auto repair shops to open.

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 70^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the March 20th 2018 Chapter Meeting 

We were back at Convergence this week with a heavy emphasis on the “Iron and Coal” music. 

Director Joe Cerutti was at the piano for training and letting us hear the accompaniment.  The ladies who are singing with the chorus for this work were present too.

As a kick off for the evening tho, the chorus warmed up and did personal recordings of the contest uptune to submit to their section leaders.

Then the rest of the night was work on the music – and the Hebrew pronunciation work too. 

There was a brief meeting at the end of the evening for the Harmonizers conducted by executive director Terry Reynolds.  Rick Savage was assisting new uniform chairperson Robyn Murane by taking measurements of everyone – just in case the plan to get new suites/uniforms comes to fruition. Carol Dangel was helping him take down all the data. 

To clarify, our meeting on March 20 will be back at Convergence (with a presentation about future international travel in 2019;  and then we are back to Durant on March 27 to work with our coach Kevin Keller.

Chapter leaders reminded everyone about the Keep America Ringing Memorial for Richard Dick Hall that has been established with the Harmony Foundation. (After the chapter meeting it was confirmed that donations have surpassed the $1000 mark and thus Dick’s name will be posted on the Memorial at BHS headquarters in Nashville.) Great news to show our love for a great barbershopper and chapter member. Donations may continue to be sent to Harmony Foundation International, Memorial for Richard T. Hall, to 110 7ths Ave. N, Ste. 200, Nashville, TN 37203 or online at harmonyfoundation.org at memorial giving.

TBD continues to work hard with extra rehearsals and preparation for the Aca Challenge on April 14^th.  Alto the chorus will not sing, many of us will be needed to make the event run smoothly. They also sang a gig on March 10^th in the DC Metro area.

And congrats to their musical leader, Reed Livergood and his wife are new parents of Caitlin Livergood born Monday nite and weighing in at 7lbs. 4 oz.  

This year’s Youth Harmony Festival will be on Friday eve April 13 at Restoration Anglican Church on Princess Street in Arlington..  Many helpers will be needed for this event too. And the chorus will sing.

 We had two singing guests for the chapter this week – Nick Frederick and David D’Auria.

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 70^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the March 6th 2018 Chapter Meeting and IMC Performance

The meeting was back at Durant this week so we could use the risers and perform our contest package with coach Rasmus Krigstrom, from the gold medal quartet, RINGMASTERS. As most of the readers of this piece know, he arranged our contest uptune, “Blow Gabriel Blow.”

It was another nite of hard work on our music for the contest.  It was particularly fun to have the arranger help us get the most out of the song based on his plans for the music.  He added several great points that we did not have time to use for the fall contest performance.

Rasmus was exciting and helped the singers get a good feel for their performance plan for the uptune. Even tho it was the hard work, it was fun.  And a good crowd migrated to the afterglow even in the heavy snow that was falling when we adjourned at 10 pm.

Joe introduced Rasmus to the chorus and reported his background in music, quartets and directorships, and welcomed him to the Harmonizer family all the way from Stockholm.  Rasmus actually asked to join the chorus and is our newest member!! 

Joe also reported that the new contest ballad arrangement had arrived, that learning tracks are being made and that the music is up for all to take a look at on Groupanizer. He couldn’t offer enough adjectives about the arrangement by David Wright.

And also Joe took a few minutes to thank and congratulate the chorus for a terrific performance last Thursday (see a summary below in this report).  He was grateful for all the guys who made the effort to go into the city during rush hour.  “We exceeded our goal and helped demonstrate the power of a strong barbershop chorus in the arena of other men’s choral ensembles.”

Before our break, executive director Terry Reynolds conducted this week’s chapter meeting, reminding us all that the next two weeks we are meeting at Convergence. (Remember that we will not have coffee or goodies there, so plan ahead for some end of the day chow for yourself.) We are back at Durant on March 27^th to work with our coach Kevin Keller. 

Other reminders included the Youth Harmony Festival on Friday, April 13^th at Restoration Anglican Church on Princess Street in Arlington. The chorus will sing in the evening.

This year’s ACA Challenge is on Saturday eve, April 14^th.  Some of the coordinating team yelled out , “Sell Tickets!” Several members and family volunteers will be needed to help that nite. The chorus will not sing, but TBD will. 

Early details about the chorus retreat in preparation for our contest appearance in Orlando were announced: June 8-9 at Westminster College in MD. Chuck McKeever will be releasing more complete details to all members via email.  But everyone should plan to attend on Friday nite, June 8^th.  The front row will have a mandatory rehearsal that nite, and the chorus will work too. The last couple years, we have all gone early, found a good place for dinner and started our work with the coaches. 

It was also announced that Brad Jones and his planning team will be reporting some prospective international trip plans for the chapter soon.  Stay tuned, as we will all be asked our opinion and interest in such a trip. 

At this point in the meeting, Joe grabbed two empty chairs and placed them in front of the chorus.  This was the sad signal that two of members are leaving our ranks.  First tribute was for Tom Kern, who for many years has single-handedly managed our uniform program. Second tribute was for Keith Jones who for years has helped offer presentation input to Joe and the team and has accepted many admin tasks for the chapter.  As is our tradition, we sang “A Place on the Risers for You” for these important Harmonizers.

We also learned that Tom has passed along the uniform management work to Robyn Murane.

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented a membership renewal card to Terry Jordan for his 54 years of chapter membership.

 Calvin Schnure from our membership team introduced our guests this week: Rasmus who got his “I Sang With the Harmonizers” button; Nick Frederick, Ryler Rasmussen, and Carter White.  Will Cox directed our Harmonizer welcome song. 

The membership team issued this invite to all: Several of our members meet for a pre-chapter meeting nosh either at the Subway on King Street that's on the block adjacent to the Durant Center; and some long-time members meet at the Hard Times Chili place that's one block east from Subway on King Street. Any members are more than welcome to join the gang at either place.  Guys show up at Subway around 6:00pm. The HT Chili crew usually arrives between 5 - 5:30pm.  Joe Cerruti is often there

After break, it was back to work on the uptune with Rasmus and Joe.

Here is the summary report of our appearance on Thursday, March 1^st where the Harmonizers were the lead off performing chorus at the Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses National Seminar.  We assembled and used our stage time to fit our large chorus onto the risers and space available in the sanctuary of National City Christian Church on Thomas Circle about 6 pm. After that we changed into our black suits and ties and began a solid warm up session with director Joe Cerutti.

The chapter is a member group of the IMC and shared the kick off concert session with The Rock Creek Singers from the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and the United States Army Chorus.

Our package included “America,” “Summertime,” “Deep River” with Andrew Havens as soloist, “Rock My Soul,” “Bring Him Home” with Tony Colosimo soloist, “Blow Gabriel Blow,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” “All You Need is Love” with Clyde Crusenberry and Tony as soloists, and “New York New York” featuring our front row.

Terry Reynolds was our emcee.  This was the first time Mario Sengco sang with the chorus on a show. Great to have several of our newest members in the audience to cheer for us as well as Marty Monson, CEO of the BHS, who attended the seminar representing the Society at the seminar. Joe and Marty attended the board meeting of the IMC on Friday.

As a reminder, a Keep America Ringing Memorial for Richard Dick Hall has been established with the Harmony Foundation.  Donations can be sent to Harmony Foundation International, Memorial for Richard T. Hall, to 110 7ths Ave. N, Ste. 200, Nashville, TN 37203 or online at harmonyfoundation.org at memorial giving.

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 70^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the Feb. 27^th 2018 Chapter Meeting 

This week we were back at Convergence Church.  The front row met early in the front of the sanctuary while the members gathered.

Director Joe Cerutti did the warm ups using “A Place on the Risers for You” which we sang at Dick Hall’s funeral on Wed. Feb. 28^th at the Oxon Hill, MD, Methodist Church. We also sang “I’ll Be Seeing You.”  A very large group of Harmonizers came to honor Dick (and Carolyn) including several guys who don’t sing with us regularly including Larry Silva, Bob Wilson, Paul Greiner, Jerry TePaske, Joe Wagovich, Al Herman, Geoff Berman, Bob Eckman, Lew Klinge, Mike Everard, Ken Fess, Don Johnson, and Bob Hoffman. Some of us went to the burial at the Maryland Veteran’s Cemetery in Cheltenham and then back to a reception. Dick’s brother Bob, who sings with the Ambassadors of Harmony, visited with us while we did our warm ups at the church.

As a reminder, a Keep America Ringing Memorial for Richard Dick Hall has been established with the Harmony Foundation.  Donations can be sent to Harmony Foundation International, Memorial for Richard T. Hall, to 110 7ths Ave. N, Ste. 200, Nashville, TN 37203 or online at harmonyfoundation.org at memorial giving.

Then we launched a performance driven rehearsal of the songs we will sing Thurs. March 1^st at the Intercollegiate Men’s Chorus (IMC) Seminar, at National City Christian Church.  (Call time for our chorus will be 5:45 pm; uniform will be black suit, thin tie and shiny black shoes. It is important to plan ahead to travel during in rush hour, and find parking and get to the room to assemble.  We can change there.)

Terry Reynolds, executive director, coordinated the chapter meeting period.  Associate director Tony Colosimo reported some preliminary details about our Youth Harmony Festival that will be an all –day event on Fri. April 13^th.  A number of members will be needed to assist with hosting the students and their teachers. Guest quartets who will be teachers are THE LADIES and GIMME FOUR. 

Then Saturday April 14th is our next ACA Challenge. Marketing flyers for this event will be distributed to local college campuses by volunteers from the chorus.

Next week’s meeting is back at Durant with the arranger of our uptune, Rasmus Krigstrom, as coach.  The rehearsal on Mar. 13^th will be for Iron and Coal music.  

Terry reminded Harmonizers to form their small learning groups. He announced that there was printed scores for “Iron and Coal” if anyone still needed one. 

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewals to Mario Sengco for 8 years, Clyde Crusenberry for 8 years, and Chuck Powell for 24 years.

Ben Watsky welcomed guests for the nite – Carter, Ryler, Mike, and John.

Before we left for the nite, everyone had a chance to make a recording of the contest uptune for self review and to send to their section leader.

New appointee as manager of the Music Admin Team, Steve White has added a whole new dimension to helping the singers with behind the scenes work on their music and access to materials.   His team is working to update all charts and learning tracks for the entire repertoire as discrepancies and changes are identified.  They have uploaded to our Groupanizer website "live" rehearsal tracks from last Tuesday (2/20) for "Bring Him Home" and "Deep River".  

Dave Welter reports from the Harmony Sweepstakes that was Sat. nite Feb. 24^th at the Birchmere: My group, TOP OF THE SEVENTH finished third with a very solid hit. Second place went to POLARITY, a high school group from Ohio. First place, and going to the national event, was UP ALL NIGHT, a Sweet Adelines quartet from the Vienna-Falls chapter. The ‘audience favorite’ was THE DISTRICT, an all-female group of 12 from DC. Several members of the Harmonizer family were in the audience. It was a lot of fun, - Dave

 

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 70^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd