Looking Back on the October 2^nd Chapter Meeting 

Musically we continued our work on the holiday show songs and the special song for the Bark Ball. Director Joe Cerutti was back from his travels and judging assignments.

The work time was divided with sectionals on a holiday song we had not worked on recently and then the chorus sang returned to the risers to sing it together.  We used the same technique for “From This Moment On” that we will record in a couple weeks to use at the Oct. 20 gig.

This week we also held our annual chapter meeting and elected the officers as nominated:  President – Shawn Tallant; Immediate Past President – Terry Reynolds; Secretary – Christopher Buechler; Treasurer – Alan Herman; Members at Large – David Branstetter, Clyde Crusenberry, and Matt Doniger. 

Communications director Steve Murane conducted the meeting and provided this quick reminder of the full schedule in Oct. for the chorus:

* fall M-AD contests in Reading PA Oct. 5-6 – chorus will not sing, but many members will be attending as administrators, fans of the quartet and ops team helpers. SILVER ALERT will compete.
* Arts on the Avenue – the chorus sings in Del Ray Sat. Oct. 6^th from 1-1:45 pm.  Report time is noon.  Wear black camp shirts and sing a long list of songs. Riser crews were recruited.
* Men’s Choral Fellowship event at Alfred Street Baptist Church, Oct. 17, at 7 pm
* Bark Ball Oct. 2 in DC – uniform will be tails.
* Our holiday show at TC Williams Hi School, 7:30 pm Dec. 8^th. Ticket sales will begin on Oct. 15^th with Dean Sherick as ticket chairman.

Last year’s president Randall Eliason presented a 2018 presidential Award for Meritorious Service to Martin Banks – our unofficial historian and guy with the pulse of our history materials.  Martin was particularly recognized for his terrific series on FaceBook of “Throwback Thursday” articles about the chapter during our 70 years.  He posted a piece for 40 weeks during the year. Recently Martin provided much of the background materials, photos and such for the 70^th anniversary show, and for this he was presented a framed show flyer from that event. The chapter members gave him a rousing standing ovation for his hard work.

President Shawn Tallant acknowledged and gave a cheer for SILVER ALERT who will be competing at the M-AD contest this weekend.

He also reported on some family matters for the chapter including the recent passing of Don O’Connor, 85,  who was a member from 1980 - 2003. He sang lead and was member of all four international championship choruses. Services for him will be Oct. 4^th at Miller’s Funeral Home in Woodbridge. Some members will try to organize a quartet or octet to sing as per the family wishes. 

Jack McKendree also died this week and his service will be at 2 pm, Oct. 5, at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, VA.  He was once the editor of our bulletin, The Echo, and served as treasurer in the 1970s. Jack was 85.  He sang bari in the chorus. 

President Shawn also gave a brief update on Mike Everard who is recovering at his home after his amputation surgery.  He still manages his duties as president of the Mount Vernon Harmony Heritage Singers and has a battery of in-home sessions for therapy.  Tuesday, Martin Banks, took a display over for Mike to see before we take that display to the fall M-AD contest this weekend.  Martin brought it to chapter for all to see also.

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented a membership renewal card to Chuck McKeever for 32 years!

Membership chair Calvin Schnure welcomed guests for this week including Tyler who has moved to DC from TN where he sang barbershop, and Susan Jayjohn, mom of Jerry, who is in town to support her son following his tonsillectomy on Wed!

Before break, chapter leaders presented a preview of the Strategic Plan for the chapter at this juncture.  Liz Birnbaum, president of our second 501 (c) 3 chapter –  AH Inc. –  started the report to the members.

She began her report with word that Kristin Kelly will be in charge of the Silent Auction at the holiday show. Every member is asked to solicit gift cards and major gift packages for that auction.

Liz then introduced Marie Muscella who was a volunteer to help chapter leaders facilitate the strategic plan work.  Marie explained how they obtained input from members throughout the process such as a survey, personal interviews with a cross section of members, and focus groups at the retreat.

Our new mission statement is “Enriching lives through vocal harmony in the greater DC area.”

The four major goals are (1) to attain the highest level of vocal quality; (2) define and expand our community impact; (3) develop and improve our brand awareness; and (4) create financial health for the chapter.
This 4-year plan has more details that surely will be distributed to the chapter members.  

After the meeting and a break, the chorus was back to work on the songs for Art on the Avenue for Sunday.

In other recent news, about 20 guys sang at the wedding for Joia  Hertz, Kellen’s sister Sat. Sept. 29^th. at Church of the Nativity in Burke

A crew of guys went to Ramparts for an afterglow as usual.

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 September 25^th Chapter Meeting 

This week’s meeting was another busy nite to work on our music for upcoming shows.

Associate director Tony Colosimo was maestro this week. He did vocal warm ups and then launched the work sessions on holiday songs.  Like last week, we had sectionals for 15 minutes on each song the first time we worked on it.  

We also worked on the song for the “Bark Ball” fund raising event on Oct. 20^th.  We are singing an original Steve Tramack arrangement of Shania Twain’s “From This Moment On” at the Washington Hilton.

Early in the evening, president Shawn Tallant welcomed Rick Taylor, a fellow Harmonizer, who was with us as a representative from Harmony Foundation International.  Rick thanked the chapter for its many efforts in leadership, inclusion, musical excellence and support of the Foundation.  (He also enthusiastically applauded our 70^th anniversary show!).  Rick offered to help any member sign up as a supporter of the Foundation.  He also invited current supporters to increase any support that can as there are more and more youth choruses that need support from the Foundation.  He also reminded us that donors to the Foundation can designate a percentage of their gift to come back to the Harmonizers.  (Alan Wile offers to help any members with their support to or membership in the Foundation.)  

Next quartet promotion chair Clavin Schnure welcomed SILVER ALERT quartet to sing for the chapter.  They are singing at the M-AD contest in Reading, PA, Oct. 5-6 as an entry in the senior’s contest. Calvin also presented them a  financial support gift of convention registrations.  Quartet includes Rick Savage, Mike Edison, Will Cox, and Steve Murane.

Steve Murane changed hats to his communications director position and conducted this week’s chapter meeting.

A quick reminder of the full schedule in Oct. for the chorus:
* sing at the wedding for Joia  Hertz, Kellen’s sister Sat. Sept. 29^th.
* fall M-AD contests in Reading PA Oct. 5-6 – chorus will not sing, but many members will be attending as administrators, fans of the quartet and ops team helpers.
* Arts on the Avenue – the chorus sings in Del Ray Sun Oct. 6^th from 1-1:45 pm.  Report time is noon.  Likely will wear black camp shirts and sing a long list of songs.
* Men’s Choral Fellowship event at Alfred Street Baptist Church, Oct. 17
* Bark Ball Oct. 2 in DC – uniform will be tails.
* Our holiday show at TC Williams Hi School, 7:30 pm Dec. 8^th.

President Shawn thanked Rick for his presentation. And Shawn told us that the chapter is involved with the Arts on the Avenue event to expand our community involvement.

Craig Kujawa made a terrific presentation explaining our chapter SCRIP program of fund raising.  He used our screen and his laptop to coach guys to use their cell phones to participate. Hopefully more guys will jump into this program and help the chapter increase our income from this source.

Secretary Chris Buechler reminded members again of the official chapter meeting and election on Tues., Oct. 2, at the usual 7 pm at Scottish Rite Temple.  Officially there can be no nominations from the floor at the election, but if anyone wishes to nominate himself or another member in opposition to the slate presented, they needed to alert Chris before the end of the meeting.

The slate presented by the nominating committee is President – Shawn Tallant; Immediate Past President – Terry Reynolds (not subject to election); Secretary – Christopher Buechler; Treasurer – Alan Herman; Member at Large – David Branstetter; Member at Large – Clyde Crusenberry; and Member at Large – Matthew Doniger. Each of the above has been contacted and agreed to serve in the positions indicated. 

The nominating committee members are Alan Wile, chair; Clark Chesser; Kellen Hertz; Mark Klostermeyer; and Michael Schwartz.  There will also be a presentation of the chapter’s strategic plan.

Chris also presented membership renewals to Mike Kelly for 38 years, and Jack Cameron for 49 years.

Membership chair Calvin Schnure welcomed guest Dylan and Mike, and also introduced newest member Adam Shepherd.  Last week, Jim and Ruthanne Lucy were here from Colorado Springs to see everyone.

After a break, it was back to work on the holiday music.

A crew of guys went to Ramparts for an afterglow and they found a place there to do some tag singing!

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week during the 70^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the September 18^th Chapter Meeting 

This was a most unique chapter meeting and rehearsal for the Harmonizers.

Carlos Correa joined us at the beginning of our rehearsal for a tribute for his husband Alan Kousen and our tenor friend. Alan died on Sept. 8^th in Massachusetts.  Carlos was joined by members of Alan’s family and his own family and several friends who have been to our shows and events in the past.  Carlos shared that Alan’s goal was to sing with the Harmonizers when he was 80 years old – but he only made it to 76.  Several members of the chapter spoke about singing with Alan and director Joe shared on our behalf how important his tenor voice and participation in quartets and sing outs was to us.  Alan was given credit for helping us find our new meeting place at Scottish Rite Temple.  There was a photo display, a Harmo bear and Alan’s ashes.  We sang our traditional “There Will Always Be a Place on the Risers for You.”  Alan earned his gold medal in 1998.

Also this week we launched our work on holiday show music with 15-minute sectional rehearsals on a song, then back on the risers to sing the song. 

The usual chapter meeting time was managed by communications director Steve Murane with a reminder of the busy calendar for Oct.! 

New on this list is the gathering with the men of Alfred Street Baptist Church and two other men’s choirs from the community. This event will be at their church on Wed. Oct. 17.  Clyde Crusenberry is coordinating this for us.

There will be an election for the 2019 Alexandria, VA BHS Chapter Board of Directors at the fall chapter business meeting, Tues. Oct. 2^nd.   The slate presented by the nominating committee is President – Shawn Tallant; Immediate Past President – Terry Reynolds (not subject to election); Secretary – Christopher Buechler; Treasurer – Alan Herman; Member at Large – David Branstetter; Member at Large – Clyde Crusenberry; and Member at Large – Matthew Doniger. Each of the above has been contacted and agreed to serve in the positions indicated. 

The nominating committee members are Alan Wile, chair; Clark Chesser; Kellen Hertz; Mark Klostermeyer; and Michael Schwartz.  There will also be a presentation of the chapter’s strategic plan.

Matt Doniger, one of the producers of the 70^th anniversary show, took a few moments to officially thank the Platinum Moments show team and presented them framed show flyers. The chorus gave the team a rousing round of applause.  The team listed in the printed show program included: artistic director, Joe Cerutti; director of shows, Joe Cerutti Sr.; chapter executive directors, Terry Reynolds and Randall Eliason; chapter president, Shawn Tallant; producers, Matt Doniger, Rebecca Conner, Krissi Folsom, Rob Langston; marketing, Jon Enten, Krissi Folsom, Steve Murane, Eileen Spinela; publicity, Walter Page; ticketing, Ian Poulin; printed program, Casey Belzer and Adam Afifi; script, Dave Branstetter and Steve White; stage manager, Robyn Murane; guest refreshments, Connor Goss and Terry Reynolds; front of house, Sandy Stamps; props, Janet Cerutti; costumes, Robyn Murane; history, Jack Pitzer and Martin Banks; videography, Mike Kelly; photography, Rob Langston; housing, Stan Quick; and Platinum Affair, Ken Rub.

Shows chairman Joe “Senior” pushed for guys to sign up for the Oct. “shows marathon” on Groupanizer.  He did alert us that holiday show tickets will go on sale shortly.  Jeff Burkey is show chairman. That show is Dec. 8^th at 7:30 pm in the 1056-seat auditorium at TC Williams High School.

President of the AH, Inc., Chapter, Liz Birnbaum, reported that we have raised nearly $55,000 toward our $70,000 goal for this anniversary year.  An important step toward helping us achieve that goal is the matching gift of $10,000 from Bill and Charlie Sowers.  All gifts received during this last few months of the year will be matched up to that amount.  Many thanks to these long-time chorus friends!  

Also Liz reports that we will be collecting significant gifts for the silent auction to be held at the holiday show – mostly gift cards, and high-value trips or vacations, and services are suggested. 

Then we were entertained by a mixed quartet from James Hubert Blake High School in Montgomery County, MD.  Their music educator is Sandra Zinkievich (wife of Harmonizer - Kris!) who is teaching the barbershop genre to her students this year.  A huge part of their plans is to travel to the Youth Chorus Festival at this year's BHS midwinter convention in Nashville.  The high school barbershoppers sang several songs for the chorus and then, at the encouragement of Joe, made a pitch for donations as they passed their hats.  

Membership chair Calvin Schnure introduced Adam Shepherd (who passed his audition this week), and singer guests Mike Weber, and Kevin Hacker.

Before we adjourned, we watched a video of Happy Birthday from our friends in Koln, Germany, who filmed a greeting for our 70^th.

Then we watched the recently released video of our contest performance in Orlando in July.
We wrapped up the nite with a song for our Arts on the Avenue show in the Del Ray community, Sat. Oct. 6^th.

Director Joe also paid tribute to and thanked the men who worked hard to do the terrific performance at Strathmore over the past weekend.

In other news, congrats to Alan Wile who earned three medals in the NoVA Seniors’ Olympics senior’s category last week!!

After the meeting, the men who will sing at the wedding for Joia  Hertz, Kellen’s sister, practiced their performance of “Ave Maria.”
 

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