Looking Back on the March 20^th Chapter Meeting

This was another hard working Tuesday nite meeting and rehearsal for the Harmonizers.  The weekly gathering of guys to work on Barberpole Cat songs was deferred to attending the choreo review session on the stage with Chuck McKeever at 6 pm.  About 30 guys – old and new members – attended and drilled the moves for “Sweet Georgia Brown.”

The Barberpole Cat Program sessions before chapter meeting at Durant has been a great success. According to music and performance vp Dan O’Brien, “We are nearing the halfway point for many guys on many songs on many parts. Guys who have little or no quartet experience have now sung in many quartets. Guys who simply enjoy singing in quartets and ringing chords have had more opportunity to do so. These are all good things. The program will continue.”

As is the new custom these days, the music team plays a barbershop song by a quartet or chorus starting at 5 til 7 to give the guys a signal to get on the risers.  And it is fun to see if anybody knows or recognizes the performers. This week it was Toronto Northern Lights singing “Brother Can You Spare A Dime” in contest.  This is the group we will be traveling in China with.

Associate director Tony Colosimo did the vocal warm ups.  And then right away, director Joe Cerruti welcomed our performance coach Geri Geis and Royall.  She taught the remainder of the moves and plan for “Sweet Georgia Brown” and then coached the chorus in facial support of the plan for “I’ll Be Seeing You”. While the chorus was working in the main hall, the front row was hard at work to revive the gold medal performance of 1995.

Joe had the chorus review “Great Day” and “Summertime” which we will sing for the guest nite chorus on March 27^th.

Next he had the chorus review and perform “Hello My Baby” with the full plan.  He asked guys to sing it first and not worry about moves.  But YeEd enjoyed seeing the front row revive the hat routines and do the bicycle parts.

Operations vp Scott Kahler conducted the chapter meeting portion of the evening.

Secretary Chris Buechler presented new member Doug White with his Harmo name tag.  And Chris presented membership renewal cards to Noah Van Gilder for 5 years; Joel Golden for 7 years and Chris Huber for 20 years.

Membership vp Phil Ashford introduced our guests: Tom Frederick, Bob Griesemer and Logan Lenhart.  Logan back for his second time and the other two are applicants for membership.

We had a nice long break for refreshments, tag singing with the guests, quartet meetings for the many groupings headed for Southern Division in May, and checking the new riser chart.

The chapter meeting continued with an announcement about the chapter board meeting at 7 pm on Wed eve at Durant.  There was also a plea for anyone who might have an Ipad One that they don’t need now.  The chapter is interested in getting a couple.  See Scott Kahler or Ian Poulin. They will be used for ticket sales and such.  You can make then a donation to the chapter.

Phil Ashford briefed the chorus on plans for the guest nite next Tues, March 27^th.  Bring someone who likes to sing.  Bring some goodies to share.  Wear a Harmo shirt and for sure your name tag and ISing button.  Shawn Tallant and Noah Van Gilder did a demo of how to use your “elevator statement” about why you are a Harmonizer when someone asks about the ISing button you are wearing.

Scott asked all to work on helping get youth to register for the Youth Harmony Festival we are hosting on April 14^th  and to mark your calendar to attend and help as needed.  The chorus is slated to sing a brief show that evening.

President Steve Murane announced word that Len Dornberger’s son-in-law died recently after a fight with cancer. 

Then back to the musical program. Tony conducted another barbershop craft session.  This week’s very useful and educational topic was Every Breath Counts/Breath the Vowel.

Joe had good words about the craft sessions and how important they are to chorus  improvement. He also thanked everyone for making the extra effort to come at 6 pm for visual review with Chuck.

Next the four mini choruses worked for about 15 minutes on the contest package, each with a different assistant director this week.  We regrouped on the risers and performed “Georgia Brown”  with the new moves and lessons learned.

We wrapped up the nite’s singing on the “Jersey Boys” medley.  Joe reminded guys to be ready to audition soon for the solos in this package.  And he teased us with news that he has commissioned creation of another new medley.  But no more clues were given as to title!

Randall Eliason won the 50/50 and was invited to take us out on KTWWS.  He was generous to share his winnings at the afterglow over at the Hilton across from the King Street Metro.  The Harmo gang sat outside on the patio there this week.

Until next time – editorjack!

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

Looking Back on the March 13^th Chapter Meeting

The hall was a buzz right from 6 o’clock on.  There was another swap of old risers/new risers.  Bob Blair shared with YeEd that we have rented our risers for a couple other events locally.  Thus the need to get things on the truck.

Also we were happy to meet and greet and sign in about 15 fellow barbershop singers from the Germantown, MD, chapter for the evening.  They came to see how things go with us on a chapter meeting/rehearsal nite.  Great to have them on the risers part of the nite too. (They got quite a work out singing thru the “Jersey Boys” medley and the new tag!)

There was also a meeting of the FRIENDS IN HARMONY  tonite! 

Sean Devine was in town representing the Harmony Foundation and he made a presentation for our chapter. First he thanked the Alexandria Chapter for its leadership in giving and promoting the Foundation.  We received a Gold Certificate at this past weekend’s House of Delegates meeting during the prelims convention for averaging $242.17 per man giving (considering this is based on our total membership of 200, this is quite an accomplishment).

Two guys in our chapter are regional helpers for the Foundation – Alan Wile and Chuck Harner (who also is on the Foundation’s board of trustees).  They helped Sean pass out brochures explaining the Ambassadors of Song giving program.   A member can pledge to give monthly amounts and also designate up to 30% of that donation to go back to the chapter or district (known as “donor choice”). Quite a few guys filled out a pledge before the nite ended and they got a free DVD of the Foundation’s concert featuring four gold medal choruses held during the Anaheim convention in 2009.

Currently the chapter receives about $5000 a year back from the Foundation based on giving levels of our chapter members who choose the “donor choice” option.  Many men and their partners are Presidents Club members which is another giving program that has special perks for the donor such as special seating at the International contest.

Also Sean spoke highly of the recent Carnegie Hall show with the No Borders Chorus directed by Joe.  He also shared the video footage shot by Mike Kelly of that event.  The Foundation had provided a chunk of support for that Dec. 26^th event.

And then Sean got up on the risers in the lead section to join in the singing fun.  This was his first time to be at a Harmonizer meeting/rehearsal. We hope to see him often as he is now the Foundation staff rep for our district and this part of the U.S.

Assistant director Will Cox did the vocal warm ups before turning things over to musical director Joe Cerutti.

We used the screen and projector for “Jersey Boys” and worked hard and made even more progress on this really fun but long arrangement.  Kudos to our own Dan O’Brien for the new tag he wrote and arranged for this one!  Good job Dan O! Our section leaders – Rick Savage, Tony Colosimo, Ken Ives, Mike Kelly – worked out front to help us catch ourselves on spots  in the medley and also to learn the new tag.

We also sang thru last year’s contest songs for the first time in ages and the music on the screen surely helped all the many new guys and guests.  Associate director Tony Colosimo conducted this week’s barbershop craft session – Every Breath Counts. Joe then had us put the techniques and lessons to use in our singing

Operations vp Scott Kahler conducted the chapter meeting portion of the nite starting with presentations by chapter secretary Chris Buechler of Harmo History Books to recent new members.  Then Chris gave membership renewal cards to the following: Clyde Crusenberry, 2 years; Andrew Havens, 3 years; Bob Rhome, 11 years; Scott Kahler, 14 years (Scott’s Dad, Ray who lives in AZ, also renewed for his 28^th year); Tom Kern, 14 years; Calvin Schnure, 17 years; and Will Cox, 34 years.

Membership vp Phil Ashford had a huge list of guests and many first-timers (almost all of the guys from the visiting chapter) who got a first-time-guest button from Alan Wile. We also welcomed a number of returning singers, many of them applicants already; a couple new prospects from the local area; and some frequent visitors from other chapters around the country: David DeSportes, John Greene, Bob Griesemer, Jeeves Murphy, Tom Frederick, Logan Lenhart, Kevin Lynch, and Ali Hauger, guest of Andrew Havens.  She is lead in GQ – they won the Harmony Sweepstakes recently and her quartet will be singing on our spring show. Ali is also lead in WHOLE LOTTA HARMONY, a collegiate quartet that sang this past weekend at the spring convention’s youth adjudication event and earned a superior rating.

Will was up front to lead the Harmo Welcome song and our president and director personally shook hands of each guest.

Then it was break time for coffee and goodies, a chance to sing a tag with the visitors, time to sign up for things and get relaxed a little to get back on the risers.  Thanks to the folks who chipped in a little extra recently for the coffee kitty – helps keep the cupboard filled.

After the break, Scott continued the meeting with a reminder by Brad Jones to give him your payment for the China trip tonite or you will need to mail it to Canada yourself.

Scott reminded all members about the Youth Harmony Festival at Durant on Sat. April 14^th.  A set up crew is needed the nite before.  The chorus will sing on Sat. nite for the students, their parents and guests.  Scott also asked for some guys to step up and help with food and such for the day. AND he encouraged us to help market the Festival to any young male or female singers under the age of 30

Shows vp Brian Ammerman reported on the very successful meeting with him, community services vp Clyde Crusenberry and the arts departmetn faculty leaders at TC Williams Hi School. They found mutual ways to work together for shows, involving youth, helping the teacher and his department. Good work guys!

President Steve Murane honored and recognized the chapter guys who qualified with their quartets to go to the 2012 International contest in Portland in July.

DA CAPO  – Ryan Griffith, Tony Colosimo, Joe Sawyer, Wayne Adams

MAD HATTERS  – Rob Seay, Scott Disney, Rick Taylor, Steve White

TOP SHELF  – Brett Thomas, Fred Womer, Jay Butterfield, Andrew Havens

MAYHEM  – Matthew Fellows, Neil Dingle, Mike Pinto, Ken White

Now that we know how many of us will be singing out there, maybe you wanna go too.  Call asap to get a room and order a ticket. 

Then it was back to singing.  Assistant director Terry Reynolds helped us find our new risers positions and added all the new guys and returning singers to the chart.  Then the mini-choruses were given about 10 minutes to work on the contest package. Each one was assigned its own director for the work session. These minis will continue to sing together since they all stand in the same general section of the risers.  A couple front row guys were assigned to each mini. Word is that this is where and how singers can expect to show their proficiency on the package vs submitting tapes and such.

The music team concluded the evening with the contest package including stage presence work.  Chuck McKeever reminded us of the details of the moves and TJ Jones offered to help Chuck be demonstrator for each side of the chorus. Coach Geri Geis will be with us next week.

Scott ended the meeting with an invite to the afterglow at the Hilton. Our youngest member, Victor Hills, was home for spring leave from West Point, and won the 50/50!  And then Sean directed KTWWS.  There was a lot of singing in the hall as a number of our guys have formed quartets for the Southern Division in Roanoke.  Have you gotten a room yet?

NOTE:  the next big special guest nite for the chapter is March 27^th.  Start now in getting your candidate for membership lined up, offer him a ride, take him to dinner before the meeting, take off an hour early yourself so you can get there.  If you ride Metro, ask some of us to come get you both.

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 March 9-10 2012 MAD Intl Quartet Prelims

Well as you have likely heard from emails or phone calls or visits with fellow chapter members, the Alexandria guys and their quartets were right on top of the heap.  AND we will have a lot of friends to cheer for at the International convention in Portland in July.

This past weekend was the M-AD International Quartet Preliminary contest.  Our district will be sending more quartets to the contest this summer than we have done in many years.  (YeEd heard that we might even have more than these six, as some prominent quartets are competing in other district prelims to try to earn the 76% score that qualifies a quartet.  Quartets are allowed to do this if they have a conflict and can’t attend the contest in their own district.)

Here are the results of the contest with Harmonizer names in bold face.

1. WHEELHOUSE - 84.8% - Brandon Brooks, Rich Gray, Jeff Gray, Dan Van Wetering

2. DA CAPO - 83.0% - Ryan Griffith, Tony Colosimo, Joe Sawyer, Wayne Adams

3. MAD HATTERS - 78.3% - Rob Seay, Scott Disney, Rick Taylor, Steve White
4. TOP SHELF - 78.1% - Brett Thomas, Fred Womer, Jay Butterfield, Andrew Havens
5. FRANK THE DOG - 77.3% - Tim Knapp, Tom Halley, Ross Trube, Steve Kirsch
6. MAYHEM - 76.8% - Matt Fellows, Neil Dingle, Mike Pinto, Ken White

One of our Harmo family guys who lives in NY state competed in M-AD this past weekend.  George Azzam, whose name most guys recognize from the annual Put Together contest, is now singing bass in THE GENEVA CONVENTION and they made the finals on Saturday nite.

In addition to the quartets from our chapter who qualified, YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT with Mike Wallen, made the finals; and MINT CONDTION with Drew Fuller and Arthur Louis were the mic testers for the Saturday nite finals round.

Harmonizers were working all around the convention as board members, operations team, judges and emcee.  The Fairfax Chapter was hosts for the weekend in Reston.

DOCKSIDE HARMONY from Richmond won the district seniors quartet award. 

John Hohl was honored to have a few of  his arrangements sung this weekend by quartets including “The Unicorn Song” sung by MAYHEM at the Jamboree Sat. nite along with gestures done by some of the contest judges they invited up onto the stage.

Saturday morning there was youth quartet adjudication for high school and college students.  Gary Plaag was in charge of it.  Erin Odell had a guy’s quartet in the mix, KINGS OF CHORDS, from the school where she teaches near Richmond.

Saturday afternoon there was a two-hour session to help M-AD barbershoppers improve their success on individual membership recruitment.  The session was hosted by the district membership guy, Christian Hunter, with guest presenter, Paul Ellinger, from the Pioneer District.  It was well attended and the program was full of great ideas.  It will be on the internet for all to review and use.

YeEd recorded 33 Harmonizers there this weekend, in addition to the quartet singers and all the guys in leadership positions.

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 Harmonizers. —YeEd.)

Looking Back on the March 6^th Chapter Meeting

Our meeting this week was at the new T C Williams Hi School – in the Orchestra Room.  Quite  a nice new facility with its own parking garage.  (That is where the old building was that old timers were in for show for many years!)  Thanks to Bob Rhome for his efforts to get us a good alternative meeting place.

We were there since Durant is voting place for Super Tuesday.  And that allowed us to try this new venue for a recording session. Guess we will get a follow up report next week as to how it worked. There seemed to be some hidden background noises that the recording equipment could pick up.

We worked on “Great Day” and “No More Sorrows” to get them down.  Hope it worked.

Scot Kahler with help from Doug White and Mike Kelly were handling the technical stuff for the recording, tho Joe wore headsets for a lot of the time.  He got a laugh when he looked up to see why he could hear bari out of his right ear and the new they were standing on the other side of the risers – then he discovered he had the headsets on backwards!

Joe did a lot of shifting guys around in their quads or sections to avoid single voices and to improvement total performance.

The riser crew did great job moving in and getting them up in a relatively tight space.  Tho the Harmo truck was parked right outside a level entry way.

Between takes on the songs, various admin things were taken care of since we had to be out of the building promptly at 10. Sometimes section leaders came out front to offer suggestions or fixes that were needed.

Membership vp introduced guests John Greene and Bob Griesemer who are now both applicants. Will Cox was back to direct the Harmo welcome song.

NOTE:  the next big special guest nite for the chapter is March 27^th.  Start now in getting your candidate for membership lined up, offer him a ride, take him to dinner before the meeting, take off an hour early yourself so you can get there.  If you ride Metro, ask some of us to come get you both.

Secretary Chris Buechler presented Ken Ives his 27-year membership renewal.

Brad Jones reminded all China travelers to get in their payment this week!!

Craig Kujawa urged everyone to get their room reservation in Roanoke for the Southern Division contest May 25 and 26 at Hotel Roanoke &Conf Center.  Call 540-985-5900.  Mention barbershop convention.

Steve White led the cheers for all our guys that are competing this weekend at the M-AD International Quartet Prelims at the Hyatt Reston.  The quartets gotta earn a score of 76 to go to Portland in July.  We may have a bunch of guys from our chapter and for sure a bunch of guys from our district that will get to go.

Our chapter continues a long-standing tradition of giving each quartet a small financial gift to help cover contest registrations based on the number of Harmonizers in the quartet.  The boldfaced names are current members.

Harmonizer Quartets in 2010 M-AD District Prelims Contest

DA CAPO  – Ryan Griffith, Tony Colosimo, Joe Sawyer, Wayne Adams

MAD HATTERS  – Rob Seay, Scott Disney, Rick Taylor, Steve White

MAYHEM  – Matthew Fellows, Neil Dingle, Mike Pinto, Ken White

YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT  – Hardman Jones, Mike Wallen, Roger Tarpy, Vic Owen

TOP SHELF  – Brett Thomas, Fred Womer, Jay Butterfield, Andrew Havens

MINT CONDITION  – Bob Rodriguez, Jr., Kevin McKenzie, Drew Fuller, Arthur Louis

As a reminder, the first round of the contest starts at 6:30 Fri. nite. Plan ahead for traffic. There is parking in the Town Center area but often busy on a Fri nite with all the good restaurants there.  Come early and do dinner.  You can get tickets onsite.

Sat am there will be a Youth quartet adjudication at 11 am for 11 contestants. 

Sat afternoon there is a special presentation by fellow barbershopper, Paul Ellinger from the Michigan area, about our personal membership recruitment efforts.  All are welcome.

Then there is a quartet finals round for the top ten from Fri nite and that starts at 7 pm Sat at the hotel again.

There are a number of former member competing, but one, George Azzam, will be there from the Senecaland district to try to qualify in THE GENEVA CONVENTION.  He hopes to see many of the Harmonizer gang.

YeEd found this is BHS email news that came out recently: Looking ahead to our 2013 International Convention in Toronto, Ontario, do you have a passport? Is it current? Do you know you need one to enter Canada? Here's how to avoid the last-minute rush and ensure you have yours in time. Normally you have to make an appointment, but the Department of State Passport Services will open the doors to walk-ins at post offices and clerk's offices on Passport Day, March 10, 2012.

Other news that YeEd can report:  congrats to Rick Savage on his retirement last week after a career in men’s apparel sales.

BHS news is that Masters of Harmony director in CA, Mark Hale, plans to step aside after taking them to do their swan-song appearance in Portland as last year’s chorus champs.  No word on a replacement.  Also word is out about Jim Clancy’s retirement as director of the great Dallas Vocal Majority.  Jeff Oxley is the musical director and Greg Clancy is head of performance or something similar.

Amazing how our chapter members travel so much for work, job and vacation.  Got a text from Ian Poulin who is currently in Honduras for vacation.

Also keep various members of the Harmo family in your thoughts such a Bruce Minnick’s wife, Ginny, who had serious news after a fall recently.

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 February 28^th Chapter Meeting

Back to Durant this week, but a work-crew took action to switch new risers to the truck from under the stage so they could be used next week for the recording session.

Early in the evening we heard from Paul Dolinsky with the Masonic Foundation, and our host for the George Washington Birthday celebration and our concert in the theater at the Temple.  He repeated his enthusiastic appreciation for the chorus work and effort to give a great performance on the 22^nd.  He also reiterated his proposal that his group will want to cooperate with the chapter for future appearances at the Temple and an effort to create our own local venue.  And on top of that he presented an additional cash contribution from the guys in the Federal Lodge #1 for our use with our Youth Harmony Festival work.

Also Director Joe Cerutti was back from serving as instructor/leader at youth festival in another district. He thanked all for their good work for the show.  Then he paid off the $5 he owed Scipio Garling as a result of Scipio knowing the answer to a music question at a recent chapter meeting – HEMIOLA!  Google search says “in rhythm, hemiola refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats.”  Who even remembers the word, at this point, but at least all financial matters were settled!

After musical warm ups by associate director Tony Colosimo, the chorus went to work on the contest package for Southern Division contest in Roanoke, Saturday morning, May 28^th. (There will be a quartet contest on Friday evening with a crew of our guys involved too.)

Geri Geis and Royall were with us and Geri worked to renew the visual plan for “Sweet Georgia Brown” from 1995.  Before we sang, the music team repositioned the chorus on the risers.  Goal was to get the mini-choruses close to each other on the risers.  Those mini choruses will often perform, will be the qualifying units for contest packages, and have their own music team coach. Detail-guy assistant director Terry Reynolds headed up this task.  He will also be adding a bunch of new men to the riser chart.

It went well and with a number of drills, most guys were getting the new visuals.  (Guess it helps that about 30 of us [that is YeEd’s guess] performed it before.)

Joe also had the chorus perform the contest ballad for Geri too. 

Next week the chapter meeting and rehearsal will be a recording session at TC Williams Hi School, 3330 King St. in the Orchestra Room D106.  We can park in the new parking facility that is where the old school was.  We should use Entrance No. 1 and security staff will direct us.  Riser crews will be there at 6:30, chorus at 6:59. Thanks to Bob Rhome for getting us all these details in advance since the school is a completely new complex that most of us have not been in. Metro riders need to plan ahead and get a ride.

Goal is to record “Great Day,” “No More Sorrow” and “Ob La Di.”

We reviewed those songs or at least some “hot spots” that Joe pointed out as needing our attention before next Tues. nite.

Ops vp Scott Kahler conducted the weekly chapter meeting.  His announcements included details as above about next week.

Secretary Chris Buechler announced he has provided renewal cards to guys who are not regular singers but continue membership: 51 years for Ron Rich and 58 years for Bob Bowman.

Membership vp Phil Ashford welcomed a group of guests.  First there was a welcome to Joe’s parents, Joe Sr. and Janet Cerutti; Jim Lake’s friend from MI; Dean Rust and Chris Yates back with us. Other singing guests included David Des Portes, Doug White and Tom Fredericks – all applicants.  First-time guest was John Plotts who is a member of the BHS in Georgia.

Jack Cameron was quick to step up and director the Harmonizer welcome song since Will Cox was not present this week. Thanks Jack.

The chorus then took a 10-minute break for coffee and goodies, quartet planning and organizing (word is out that a bunch of quartets are forming for the Southern Division contest mentioned above), scrip and 50/50 sales, and some applicants making a test run with three other guys in order to be ready for their audition.

After break, Nick Leiserson, spring show producer, announced the theme for that show – Gold Medal A Cappella. Our guest quartet to be OLD SCHOOL.

Then Tony conducted this week’s craft session – “lay it on top of the shelf” concept to improve our singing.

Next Joe and team lead us thru a hard work out session on “Jersey Boys” medley.  YeEd thinks you can tell the guys are lovin this new tune and eager to perform it for a crowd. Wonder if we will do its début at Southern Division?

Gotta give a shout out to TBD with congrats for representing us in fine style at the recent Harmony Sweeps at The Birchmere on Sat. Feb. 25^th.  Jeremy Richardson, Tom Kraus, Noah Van Gilder, Ken Rub, Scipio Garling, Josh Roots, Chris Clark and Nick Leiserson were the eight guys on stage. About 45 folks from the Harmonizer family were on hand to cheer and yell for our guys. Thanks to Craig Kujawa who helped organize a large ticket purchase for our chapter members.

 It was also great to have DA CAPO there as last year’s winner and host for the nite – Ryan Griffith, Tony Colosimo, Joe Sawyer and Wayne Adams.  Tony reports that they will also be going to CA to host the finals as last year’s winner of that event too. Contest winner was GQ – Katie Gillis, Katie Macdonald, Amanda McNutt and Ali Hauger girls quartet.  Another competitor was EPIC quartet with Christina Lewellen as tenor in a Harmony Inc. group.

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 February 21^st Chapter Meeting and February 22^nd Show

Our meeting this week was at the George Washington Masonic Temple in Alexandria.  It allowed the chorus to see and sing in the space at the venue where we will be performing on Wed. eve, Feb. 22^nd for General Washington’s birthday.

For most of our guys, it was the first time inside the Temple, let alone in the elegant 400-seat theater. (Some believe we have sung there before, but we have no proof.  YeEd and Dick Hall  do not recall singing there, but do recall taking a chorus photo with the Temple in the background in the ‘60s when Oz Newgard was our director.)

Parking was good and most guys had fun discovering the entrance driveway. Thanks to the riser crew who had to really “haul” them into the building and up onto the stage.

After warm ups with Will Cox, the chorus worked hard to sing with soprano Alessandra Marc.  She will sing “Battle Hymn” with our arrangement, and the chorus will sing in Italian for the Verde piece, “La Vergine degli Angeli.” 

The risers were set on the stage with the grand piano used for the Ms. Marc and her solo appearances. There is also a classic pipe organ in the theater that was installed in about 1953.  The pipes are all located above an elaborate artistic grate in the ceiling.  The organ will be used for the Verde accompaniment with the chorus and Ms. Marc.

Paul Dolinsky with the Masonic Foundation, the group hosting the George Washington Birthday celebration and our concert in the theater at the Temple, was also present

Associate director Tony Colosimo, and the assistant directors Terry Reynolds, Will Cox and Mike Kelly were up front the whole time this week, as they will be directors for the show on Wed. Director Joe Cerutti will be on travel. He was able to coach and help them prepare the chorus for the show including conduct a complete run thru.  Producer is Greg Tepe.  Mike Kelly was helping the sound and light crew. John Pence had the song boards for the show in place.  The quartet for “God Bless The USA” will be Rick Savage, Tony Colosimo, Steve White and Ken Ives.

It was great to see some of our recent chapter guests present including John Greene and Doug White. Chad Hoseth was in town from CO for work, Chuck Hunter was in town from Baghdad for a conference, and Tim Buell was back on the risers after some knee surgery.

There was a brief break for guys to relax before the final drill and mapping of the show.

Everyone was asked to review the ’95 contest package in order to be prepared next week when Geri Geis will be with us to work on the visuals for “Sweet Georgia Brown” that we will do in at the division contest in May. Take a look at this You Tube video to familiarize yourself with what we did in 1995 … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3AHJQPAjY&list=UUdR_5d9Fx_M8oAxfnaV_16w&index=1&feature=plcp.

Good to see the spring show committee meeting last nite before our rehearsal and meeting started. Nick Leiserson is producer.

It was great to see some references to our guys in the Nov/Dec 2011 issue of The Harmonizer, official publication of the BHS.   Big story about DA CAPO singing at the lighting of the National Christmas tree in DC.

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 February 14^th Chapter Meeting and Singing Valentine Effort

The Harmonizers were busy this Tuesday.

Early in the morning, organizers gathered at Valentine Central (the home of Alan Kousen and Carlos Correa).  Coordinators have worked hard to take orders and form quartets to deliver the Valentines.  Flower supplies and chocolates were delivered.  Eric Wallen helped form quartets for the operation – about 28 guys actually did go out and sing to cover all of our orders – almost 60, YeEd heard.  Director Joe Cerutti thanked all of them for the long day from 7 am til 10 pm singing.   The chapter offered the service all day and evening on the 14^th.  (Actually there were a lot of guys who volunteered to form quartets but were not needed this year. So thanks to them too.)

Chairman for this year was Ken Henderson.  He had to make a fast trip to the Midwest for a family emergency but got home about Midnite on Monday.  Brian Ammerman, shows vp, helped cover the tasks needed. Clark Chesser took orders off the phone line all week.  Steve Lingo was key to the marketing phase of SVs.

As usual guys delivered songs all over the area and surprised a lot of folks. There will be many stories to share about how guys found their “customers” around the area. We also sold Valentine messages via telephone.

Then at chapter meeting we worked hard in preparation for the show on Feb. 22 at the Masonic Temple.  Soprano Alessandra Marc was ill and unable to attend our  rehearsal with the chorus for the two songs we will sing together – “Battle Hymn” and a Verde piece, “La Vergine degli Angeli.”  Joe used the keyboard and Tony directed the Verde piece in our work session.

Paul Dolinsky with the Masonic Foundation, the group hosting the George Washington Birthday celebration and our concert in the theater at the Temple, was also present. Paul offered tickets for the show for $25 each (http://gwmemorial.org/birthday-celebration-2012-concert.php )    He offered for us to wear jacket and tie vs. formal wear.

HOWEVER – we will have our Feb. 21^st meeting at the Masonic Temple at 7 pm!  Riser crew is due at 6 pm.

To celebrate the day, we also presented Valentines to the ladies at the meeting hall in Durant thanks to marketing vp Steve Lingo. Plus there were heart-shaped sugar cookies for all! Thanks to YeEd’s friends at Frying Pan Farm Park who donated the leftover cookies from an event at the Park.

The set up crew was hard at work at 6 pm tonite Chuck McKeever conducted a review session on top of the stage for moves in one of our songs.  Associate director Tony Colosimo did vocal and physical warm ups. 

The music team including all the assistant directors worked and reviewed songs for the Feb. 22^nd show.

A chunk of time was used on the songs in the “Jersey Boys” medley.

Plus we worked in a session on our contest package for spring in Roanoke.

Meeting time announcements included:

Secretary Chris Buechler presented a 14-year renewal card, by mail, to Eric Wallen. And a 12-year card to Kevin Kaiser who is back after about a month in the Phillipines.

See Craig Kujawa for tickets for the Harmony Sweeps event on Feb. 25^th when TBD will compete. DA CAPO will sing as last year’s champs.

Guests this week were Bob Griesemer, a lead applicant; John Oswald Greene, a first timer; and Tim Cash, from Mammoth Cave, KY, chapter.

After the break, assistant director Terry Reynolds announced the meeting location change for next week, reminded us that Geri Geis will be at the rehearsal on the 28^th, and then after that we will meet at T.C. Williams and do a recording session. 

Mike Kelly told the members about our district Harmony College East, what it is about and how to register.  He stressed that the 2012 school will be quite different that the past with simple registration options and class tracks for those attending. Quartets can go too and get coached.  Go to the Mid Atlantic District website www.Harmonize.com/MAD.

Tony conducted the weekly barbershop craft session (craft = techniques).

The good singing was especially good since we only had two tenors most of the evening.

Thanks again to all the guys who went out and did the Singing Valentines.

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.)