Looking Back on the September 23rd Chapter Meeting

The traffic mess outside caused some men to be late this week, especially with the new 6:30 pm start time.  But the risers were full for the solid work session in prep for fall contest.

In that regard, here is the reminder about the District Contest Retreat this coming Saturday at the First Baptist Church of Alexandria from 9:00 – 5:00. With 105 men competing, the risers should be nearly full. Morning refreshments (coffee, doughnuts) will be available at 8:30. The Chorus should bring scarves and the Front Row should bring jackets (all) and vests (only the 10 men assigned). As a special treat, we have arranged a coaching session with Steve Tramack (arranger of “Someone like You”) via Skype. There will be morning and afternoon breaks and an hour or so for lunch. Please wear comfortable clothing & shoes and bring your best game.

Musical leadership welcomed us to the risers playing some of the guest groups that will be on the Harmony on the Harbor show.  This week it was the GROWING GIRLS.

Our warm up period included a session with choreographer Carlos Barillo, then assistant director Mike Kelly conducted the vocal warm ups.

Before we started on contest songs, we sang happy birthday to Peggy Wagner via cell phone.

Director Joe Cerutti listed the many upcoming shows on the chapter calendar, then used some warm up time to teach us a new tag and finally went right to work then on the contest songs.

Part of the nite was used to make further progress for the holiday show songs including “Thriller” which will magically be included in that show!

Operations vp Bob Blair conducted the chapter meeting. President Terry Reynolds announced word that Keith Jones’s father died recently.

Terry also clarified that if a Harmonizer wants to sit in the audience for any part of the Harmony on the Harbor show, he will need to purchase a ticket.

Wearing his assistant director hat, Terry reminded all singers that the deadline to submit a Make Me Better eval form and recording is Sept. 28^th.

Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewals to TJ Donahue for five years, Clark Chesser for five years, and Troy Hillier for 24 years.

Membership vp Jeremy Richardson with help from Rich Hewitt welcomed and introduced the guests this week.

There was a break as usual – by the way, YeEd reports that we need more of you to drop in a dollar or so now and then to help cover costs.  The cupboard is empty, so you may bring goodies too.

After break, we continued musical work for the shows and contest.

In other chapter news, the Chapter Nominating Committee has selected the following to stand for election at the annual chapter business meeting on October 7, 2014, as chapter officers for 2015:

 

    President – Terry Reynolds

    VP Chapter Development – Rich Hewitt

    VP Marketing & Public Relations – David Branstetter

    VP Music & Performance – Steve White

    VP Operations – Todd Ryktarsyk

    VP Shows – Nick Leiserson

    Secretary – Chris Buechler

    Treasurer – Carl Kauffmann

    Board Members at Large for 2014-2015 Ross Felker and Michael Gilmore (not subject to election)

    IPP – Alan Wile (not subject to election)

 

Each of the above has been contacted and agreed to serve in the positions indicated. The Committee will continue to identify successors for each of the officers identified above.  Those that were previously “on the list” (but are not on the 2015 slate because the 2014 incumbents are being asked to continue to serve for one more year) have been contacted and have agreed to continue in their separate capacities. 

In addition to those on the above slate, four members of the community have been identified as potential At-Large Board Members.  If they agree to serve, two will be asked to join the chapter as non-singing members and two will serve as non-Society members.

Secretary Buechler reminds all that our bylaws provide that any chapter member not on the slate wanting to run for a board position or nominate another member (with their permission) needs to advise the chapter secretary of their intent by September 30. There can be no nominations from the floor during the October 7 annual meeting. All members, not just current singers, are invited to attend the annual meeting if at all possible.

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 September 16^th Chapter Meeting

This week’s chapter meeting and rehearsal was a hard-work session and no one seemed to mind. We are hungry to do well at the fall contest and more importantly, we love the new ballad and the arrangement by Steve Tramack. Each time we work the song gets more exciting – the musical team added many little nuances tonite that were great!

As usual, the 6:30 start was hard for some guys, and the new limited parking was hard too.  But the risers were full soon after 7.  The musical team also asked guy to take a cue from assistant director Terry Reynolds when he asked guys to move to new riser locations based on a plan developed by associate director Tony Colosimo and Terry.

Choreographer Carlos Barillo started the warm up session with movements and facial animation drills.  Then we continued the chapter’s plan to audition new directors for the vocal warm ups.  This week Reed Livergood was up front.  He did great and turned the chorus over to our master director Joe Cerutti.

We worked on both the uptune and ballad for contest most of the first half of the nite.  Before break, we took time to make self recordings as part of the Make Me Better plan.

Operations vp Bob Blair conducted the chapter meeting. President Terry Reynolds offered the chapter’s sympathy to Dick Hall in the recent passing of Dick’s oldest brother, Jim, in Arkansas.

Terry also acknowledged the work by TBD who sang at the Arts Festival on King Street this past weekend. 

And he reminded us of the chorus retreat Saturday, Sept. 27^th  at First Baptist, 292 King St., Alexandria 22302, from 9 am – 5 pm.  Coffee and donuts will be there at the start and cold drink in the afternoon.  Water provided too. Suspect we will be encouraged to bring lunch or plan to leave the church campus for a noon meal.  Also those guys who travel via Metro should plan ahead and ask someone to pick them up, as the church is too far to walk from Metro.

Finally Terry alerted us that there will be a special rehearsal on Monday Oct 6 in Dundalk with the Pride of Baltimore Sweet Adelines for the song we will sing together on the Harmony on the Harbor show Nov.3^rd.

Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Randall Eliason for 19 years, Mike Schwartz for 20 years, and Jack Cameron for 45 years.  Jack also was given his 45-year lapel pin.

Membership vp Jeremy Richardson with help from Rich Hewitt welcomed and introduced the number of guests and applicants with us for this week.

After break we hurried back to the risers to get in more time before the 9:30 closing hour.  We worked on some of the new holiday show music.

The guys put things away quickly so we could make the closing deadline and a good crowd made it to the afterglow at LaPorta’s at 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 September 9^th Chapter Meeting

We all knew the challenge had been thrown out to the chorus for this week – to start the nite at the high level where we left things last week.  So the musical team helped us and prepared for that goal.  And it worked.  Joe was happy – and we responded in spades.

Choreographer Carlos Barillo did physical warm ups getting us headed to the right brain side for the nite.  Later he presented a skit to help us understand the story or scenario of the ballad that we had discovered last week with coach Cindy Hansen.  It worked. (Thanks to Peelee Clark, Reed Livergood and Robyn Murane – improv actors!)

Vocal warm ups were conducted by Rich Hewitt.  Since long-time assistant director Will Cox has retired as warm up director, the chapter will be auditioning new directors for this task.  We learned some new exercises with Rich.

When director Joe Cerutti took over the ready-chorus, we jumped right into the ballad and made tons more progress to raise the performance bar.  We took time to self-record as part of the “Make Me Better” program before chapter meeting.

Operations vp Bob Blair conducted the meeting. Ken Fess, chairman of the Harmony on the Harbor show Nov. 3^rd  just before the start of the Sweet Adeline International convention in Baltimore, reported what kind of tickets are still left.  He announced plans for an afterglow.  He announced incentive prizes for ticket sellers and he reminded us that we need a ticket to get into the hall after we sing to see the major part of the show. Ken is also asking for help to sell ads for the printed show program.  This is a good way for guys to help Ken and the team. 

Did you know that our online auction will go live in just 6 weeks! We need to add at least another 100-150 items to our auction and it takes time to write descriptions and photograph items for the auction...please bring in your auction donations and give them to either Randall Elliason or Brad Jones as soon as possible. Let one of them know in advance if you have a larger item to donate. At chapter meeting on Tuesday, Randall announced the auction needs items to be valued at $25 or more and that gift cards or certificates from business firms or tourist spots are good ideas.

 

President Terry Reynolds invited Rick Wagner to the mic to explain his health concerns.  We are all pulling and cheering for Rick and his medical team as he resumes his battle with the returning cancer.

 

Terry also reported that the reason some guys are not here tonite – our a cappella group TBD had a paid gig to represent the chapter tonite.

 

NOTE:  our TBD guys also invite us all to come see them at another gig this weekend:  TBD's performance is this Saturday Sept. 13^th from 3-4 pm in Market Square for the King Street Arts Festival. If any Harmonizers are area in the area, they’d love to have them drop by (and the King Street event is a lot of fun!).

 

Rich Hewitt introduced the guests for the evening and welcome them to our rehearsal.

After the break, it was back to work on the risers.  A chunk of time was used on our contest uptune, and then some time on the newest songs we are learning including “Thriller” and a couple holiday show songs.

At the end, we rushed to put things away.  The afterglow was fun 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 66^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)

 

Looking Back on the September 2^nd Chapter Meeting

Everyone arrived knowing we had a busy nite ahead of us.  It was a great to discover the new parking spaces around Durant and the new school building. Thankfully the AC unit was working well on this really hot summer nite.

Associate director Tony Colsoimo did the vocal warm ups and then director Joe Cerutti welcomed our friend and coach, Cindy Hansen Ellis.  He told the new guys about Cindy’s success as a coach and how she had become part of our chapter family along with her husband, David.

Joe also kicked off his time in front with news about “all the goings on in Harmo-land lately – Steve Murane and Robyn McQueen were married Aug. 30^th; Jeremy Richardson and Andy Woo were married in DC on Aug. 22; and Chuck McKeever retired from the blood bank in Inova Hosptial after about 42 years. Cheers for congrats from all to them.

We worked briefly on the song we will sing with Pride of Baltimore SAI chorus on the Harmony on the Harbor show we are hosting prior to the SAI contest, and one of the new songs for the holiday show, “Welcome Christmas.”

Then we reviewed the new tag for the contest ballad and launched a fantastic session with Cindy and our choreographer Carlos Barillo to build the story, emotion and presentation package for “Someone Like You.”  We worked hard and even officially skipped break (although the guys managed to eat all the goodies anyway!) so we could take advantage of having Cindy in house with us for the nite.  We also worked on “Anything Goes” adding new fresh aspects to that plan as well.

We did take time for chapter business. Ops vp Bob Blair conducted the meeting. Ken Fess spoke about tickets for the Harbor show – if you want some you better act fast! Steve White announced plans for this year’s Make Me Better work – watch for an explanatory email. Nick Leiserson announced that there were only 40 tickets left for the December holiday show, and suggested that customers who didn’t get tickets might want to come to the show we are doing Nov. 23^rd to hear most of the same music.  That show is in Calvert County MD.

The events previously scheduled for Sept 20^th and Oct. 18^th have been postponed.

President Terry Reynolds reported that the chapter board took action to add community members to the board for next year.

Secretary Chris Buechler presented new member materials to David Jarzen – welcome aboard. Then Chris gave out membership renewals to Todd Ryktarsyk for 9 years; Jim McConnell for 12 years; Don Thompson for 22 years; Bob Ulibarri for 32 years, John Santora for 38 years and Jack Pitzer for 49 years.  Mick Stamps was given his 35 year pin and renewal card.  

Thanks to the FRIENDS IN HARMONY for cleaning up the kitchen and helping put things away.  BTW – the cupboard is pretty much empty, so if anyone wants to bring in some goodies to share for breaks, that would be great. 

Everyone worked hard to put things away, take care of the 50/50 and head over to the afterglow.

This Saturday is another all-sections sectional at First Baptist Church from 9 til noon.  Good way to catch up on the new music.

In other news, it is time to get out our t-shirts in support of Rick and Peggy Wagner and get back into the cancer battle.  DAMM!  We are all pullin for you guys.  Jim Gammon was in town this week to wrap up affairs after his father died in June while we were in France.  Jim sings in FL choruses and was a long time member here in Alexandria and quartet man.

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 August 26th Dog Days Event

The sing-together-with-our-barbershop-brothers was a huge success.

 

The hall at Sacred Heart Catholic Church was packed with an excited audience.  The host chapter, the Bull Run Troubadours from Manassas welcomed us all and provided great refreshments. The Harmonizer guys brought the risers and sound equipment – thanks to Bob Blair, Dennis Ritchey, Doug White and Mike Kelly. Thanks to regular pitch man, Jim Lake and to John Pence for bringing the song board for the show.

 

Our chorus packed the risers after an effective warm up session conducted by associate director Tony Colosomo.  Director Joe Cerutti fired us up to perform and exceed our own capabilities. Our presentation was great and the audience loved it.  Tony’s solo on “Bring Him Home” was likely a highlight of the nite for everyone there.  Chris Huber used a prepared script to relate our package of songs to the trip to Normandy.  Producer Greg Tepe and crew had developed a slide show also to share some of the great scenes from France and Germany.

 

Dick Dangel helped “warm up” the audience by leading the early arrivals in singing folks songs as he played his accordion.  Christina Ammerman represented our FRIENDS IN HARMONY group and sold scrip cards.

 

It was great to have BHS Foundation representative KJ McAleesejergins in the hall to meet us and spread the message.

 

Great to see all of our members who sing with other chapters in the area such as Harmony Heritage singers and Fairfax.

 

In other news, Joel Golden reports: eight of us Harmonizers, just got back from the Harmony Brigade this weekend in DE which was AWESOME! For example, singing push-out quartets with OC TIMES! If you have questions about the Brigade you can ask the guys that went - including Dick Dangel, Drew Fuller, Calvin Schnure, Dean Martin, Frank Fedarko, Edris Qaeghah, Brian Miller.  Joel brought two German barbershoppers with him to the Dog Days event who also were at the Bridage event.

 

Joel reports further: The Harmony Brigade has been called "Polecats on Steroids" or "Extreme Quartetting". For this event everyone learns 12 challenging barbershop arrangements, as sung by champion quartets. Since I've been doing this for about 6 years in Carolina as well as DE, I now know over 100 champ arrangements. About 120 guys attend the rally, 30 on each voice part. We get together at a hotel near Wilmington, DE. Attendees come from all over the east coast. Some came from Germany. Since everyone knows these 12 songs, we mix-and-match quartets, singing in all parts of the hotel. Guys who sing with every other person get a special award, called the Brigade Tramp Award, and they get a discount on the fee for next year's rally (~$200 for music & hotel). Our own Edris won that award one year. The Harmony Brigade is growing, and now has rallies in 9 different regions. The guys in Germany want to start one there.
See the Brigade web site at http://www.harmonybrigade.org/ahb/

And a special request from uniform chairman Tom Kern: The Harmonizers would like to keep the red / gray tie in the current uniform list for the foreseeable future…however…they are no longer available from any known source. In order to continue to outfit new members…we would like to try to recover as many extra or unused ties as possible. If you have a tie for the cause…please bring it to Durant and hand off to Tom at one of our upcoming Tuesday chapter meetings. If you can’t make it to Durant…you can mail your tie to him.

YeEd just learned that Josh Roots has written two books that are on the market.  Here’s what he shared about his books: I have two books in a series out at the moment. The genre is Urban Fantasy and the series centers around a character named Marcus Shifter who can perform magic, but not very well. Despite his limitations, he tries to follow in his family's footsteps of protecting humanity from the creepy-crawlies that prey upon it. A lot of hilarity and calamity ensues during the process. UNDEAD CHAOS came out in October of 2013 while the sequel, SUMMONED CHAOS, came out three weeks ago. Both are available for all e-readers through any online distributor (i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iBooks, etc). – Josh.

 

There was a lot of email traffic on Monday and Tuesday about the tickets sales for the 2014 holiday show. Great to have our tech guys (YeEd knows that at least Nick Leiserson and Josh Roots were at the ready to respond) monitoring the website purchases to help customers using the site for the first time.  In short, there are tickets left for Friday nite, some for Saturday afternoon but just a handful for Saturday nite.

 

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 August 19th Chapter Meeting and Market Square show

The weather was awesome for this year’s Market Square show on Friday, Aug. 15^th at 7:30 pm in Old Town.  A huge crowd – some of us think it was the biggest in years – was there to hear us sing our hearts out in competition with the airplanes headed for the airport.

 

When we finished, Joe challenged the guys to go and meet all those guys in the audience and round up some guest singers for next Tuesday!  When the chorus arrived at 6:30, the riser and truck crew had done their work already and sound checks for emcees and soloists were underway. The front row worked on some last minute details inside the City Hall and the chorus did their warm ups in the lobby.  Thanks to John Pence again for bringing the song board for the stage. Chorus manager Mark Klostermeyer helped us all get our parking lot tickets approved for free parking! Quite a few guys who are working on getting enough songs learned were in the audience too, as well as many family members.

 

Also the chapter had its first All Sectionals rehearsal on Saturday, Aug. 9^th at First Baptist Church. Other All Sectionals are scheduled for the rest of the year, so check the Harmo calendar.

 

This Tuesday nite rehearsal was pretty regular with lots of work on new music, and continued quick reviews of songs we will sing for the Dog Days of August show in Manassas.  It is the annual event hosted by the Bull Run Troubadours at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 12975 Purcell Rd., Manassas 20112.  The program starts at 7 pm with other choruses from NoVa singing a few songs each.  The Harmonizers sing last, so even if you can’t get there at 7, come on out.  Plan ahead for traffic as well as getting rides since no Metro out there. Plenty of parking tho. And great refreshments.  We will wear black travel shirt, jeans, and black everything else.

 

Associate director Tony Colosimo warmed up the chorus for director Joe Cerutti.  Chuck McKeever conducted stage presence reviews before the meeting began.  Operations vp Bob Blair conducted the chapter meeting. 

 

Show vp Nick Leiserson announced that the tickets for the holiday dinner show will resume sales online on Monday, Aug. 25^th at 7pm. The show is Dec. 5 and 6 at First Baptist. There is some urgency for members to be sure to get their orders in before the show is sold out.

 

Kris Zinkievich, who sings with us and also directs the Germantown, MD, chapter, announced that their chapter is having their fall show on Sept. 13.  Kris has tickets.

 

Assistant director Terry Reynolds confirmed that the new songs are online including revised editions of “Welcome Christmas.”  Terry also announced that since we will be singing “Undecided” with the Pride of Baltimore Sweet Adeline chorus (that Joe also directs), there will be some combined rehearsal – Mon. Oct. 6 in Baltimore and Tues Oct. 28^th here in Alexandria.  The show is on Monday, Nov. 3^rd.

 

Clyde Crusenberry announced for Shawn Tallant that members need to make their reservations for  the hotel for Wildwood, NJ, for the fall contest

 

Secretary Chris Buechler presented a membership renewal card to Rusty Orvik for 10 years.

 

Rich Hewitt welcomed and introduced guests for the evening.

 

After a good break, we worked hard on the new contest ballad and transitioned into doing the contest set.

 

Before we left, Joe lead us in singing “A Place on the Risers for You” to Ben Roberts who is headed off to college in Philadelphia.  His family was on hand for the farewell too!

 

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 August 12th Chapter Meeting

A good riser full of guys was on hand to work on their music for the upcoming shows and fall contest.  There were traffic challenges that made the drive in take twice as long, and the early start at 6:30 pm is tough for many guys. 

 

Director Joe Cerutti and associate director Tony Colosimo did vocal warm ups and got the chorus ready to sing and perform.  Choreographer Carlos Barillo helped us get our “game on” too for performance. Chuck McKeever conducted a review session on the stage at Durant at 6 pm for those wanting to catch up for contest.

 

This Friday nite is the annual appearance at Market Square in Old Town by the court house. Chorus call is 6:30 for the 7:30 show. Parking is under the square for new guys who have not been there before – bring your parking ticket with you for validation by the city staff. Family and friends in the audience will want to bring some chairs for comfort.  This is a good chance to invite potential show patrons to get a taste of our showmanship.

 

Shows producer Greg Tepe was at the meeting to remind us as to uniform and other such details.

 

We did quick reviews of songs for the show – sometimes just getting them off to a good start – with the various directors for the songs, with soloists and choreography changes for the front row for this particular performance.

 

We also dug into the two new songs recently released to us for learning – “Undecided” which we will sing with the Pride of Baltimore SAI chorus on the fall Harmony on the Harbor show; and “Welcome Christmas” which will be a new song for our annual holiday dinner theater show.

 

Operations vp Bob Blair conducted this week’s chapter meeting.  Secretary Chris Buechler reminded us all that it is not enough to report contact info changes, or other personal info, to BHS or on Groupanizer – if you want it correct in the chapter directory.  You need to give Chris an alert too for he can publish correct info in the rosters.  Thanks to Chris for doing that periodically for the chapter. 

 

Secretary Chris presented membership renewals to Duncan Woodbury for 2 years, Ben Roberts for 3 years; Greg Tepe for 23 years; Alan Wile for 33 years; Mike Kelly for 34 years’ and Carl Kauffmann for 42 years.  Ken Fess received his 30 year renewal card and the traditional lapel pin our chapter gives members for milestone years of membership. Alvin Figer was presented his new membership certificate and materials package from the BHS; and Carlos Barillo received a Man of Note for bring Alvin.  Ben Roberts received a Man of Note award for bring David Jarzen.

 

Rich Hewitt introduced this week’s line of guests to the chorus.

 

After break (thanks to Ben for baking the great chocolate cake/brownies and Dick Dangel for the watermelon!), we concentrated on the two songs for fall contest.  Also we are expecting to have coach Cindy Hansen come help us soon, so it is good to get off the music all the way.  Most of us are. 

 

Joe did leak word that the new uptune arrangement by Clay Hine has arrived and will be issued soon.  We will be learning it in preparation for Pittsburgh in 2014.

 

We sang our farewell song to Jeremy Knobel who has finished law school and moving to start his law career in NYC with a large firm up there.  It is always tough to sing “A Place on the Risers for You” when we send off a friend from the chapter. Incidentally, he had the winning 50/50 ticket this week, so he directed “Keep the Whole World Singing” as we ended our nite together.

 

Jeremy and a large crowd of guys were at the afterglow at LaPorta’s on Duke Street.  Director Joe was there too as well as some of our guests. Lots of tag singing too for those who like it, or just visiting and getting some chow.

 

Any Harmonizers who travel long distances to attend chapter meetings or shows are welcome to contact Peggy Wagner about a Bed and Breakfast sort-of plan if they ever need to stay overnite before going home the next day.  This might be good if weather is bad, the show goes late, etc.

Peggy is also eager to hear from any members who are willing to offer a room now and then. Sooo -if you need a place to stay, contact her. If you have a room to spare, contact her at Plw.ged@gmail.com  703-626-1836 or 703-754-0935

In other news, sadly must report that Nancy McKendree, wife of long time Harmonizer and former treasurer and bulletin editor Jack McKendree died August 8th after a battle with cancer.  They retired to Williamsburg VA and often came up for shows and major Harmonizer events.  She was 78.  A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, August 20, 2014 at 3PM, at Bruton Parish Church, 331 W Duke of Gloucester St, Williamsburg, VA 23185. Interment will follow in the church yard.

 

Gary Mankin reports he has been taking Burt Stueve to the doctor recently as Burt is about to get prosthesis after his recent surgery.  Gary says Burt says hi to all!

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 August 5th Chapter Meeting and a Report from HU

As you might expect, the Harmonizers were well represented at Harmony University on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville from July 28-August 3. YeEd’s reporters sent word that it was great event (and the new campus, different from past years, was well received).  Joe Cerutti was dean of the school in his capacity as a BHS staffer (filling in for Mike O’Neal who left the staff recently to take a music educator position).  Joe was emcee for each morning’s general session.  By the end of the week, he was being called “Headmaster Cerutti.” 

 

Tony Colosimo and Carlos Barillo were coaching quartets and choruses during the week.  Mike Kelly was teaching a class on how to use technology at the chapter level and of course was always there for sound and av support at all sessions..  Terry Reynolds was teaching chapter leadership as part of a team to help those chapter choruses there for musical coaching also to address their organizational development.  Chris Buechler and Rich Hewitt attended the director’s college at HU.  Drew Fuller and Randall Eliason were student attendees. 
Drew sang in the Brigade Chorus on Saturday nite. Randall and Rich received Harmonizer scholarships to attend with the pledge to return service to the chapter. They both sang in the “green” rookie chorus that took the rookie chorus championship (everyone who was at HU for the first time got a ribbon designating which rookie chorus they would sing in).

 

About 700 students attended HU including music educators, women barbershop singers, youth as well as quartets and choruses.  It is a huge event and a powerful way to improve as a singer and barbershopper.

 

Besides the HU event, candidates to become certified BHS judges attended a school to help them prepare.  Chris Buechler was on the faculty.  Jay Butterfield is a new singing category candidate.

 

And in other news: our chapter visual team met last Sunday nite at Chuck McKeever’s home.  Carlos was back from Nashville to help Chuck.  The team includes Joe Cerutti, musical leadership (he was not back from Nashville);  Bruce Roehm and Craig Kujawa, front row leaders; Randall Eliason, faces coach; Keith Jones and TJ Jones, assistants to Chuck; and eight row leaders including Don Thompson, Carl Kauffmann, Dave Branstetter, Chuck Powell, Don Dillingham, Ian Poulin, Nick Leiserson and Bob Blair. 

 

This week the 6:30 start was hard for many to make it on time, since the DC area was in gridlock from the big meeting of African leaders in Washington.  But the risers ended up being full about 7 or so.  The welcome music to get us on the risers was one of our new songs.

 

Director Joe Cerutti did the vocal warm ups.  He was fresh back from Nashville and Harmony University – see above.

 

We went right to work on review of show songs since we have another outdoor concert, Friday, August 15^th, at Market Square in Old Town Alexandria. Be sure to invite friends and family to come to this one.  Bring some chairs for comfort.  Make plans for after the show in Old Town.  Metro riders might want to check out the trolley shuttle from King Street station.

 

 

 

Then we also worked more on the new contest ballad as well as some spots in “Anything Goes.”  We are still looking to confirm more singers for the fall district chorus contest in Wildwood NJ during weekend of Oct. 24-26.  Goal is 115 and we are getting close. Members should be sure they have signed in on harmonizers.groupanizer.com that they are gonna sing in the contest.

 

Operations vp Bob Blair conducted our chapter meeting and thanked chapter historian Martin Banks for the displays this week.

 

Bob thanked Calvin Schnure for his work on the successful Put Together Quartet contest last week.

 

Shawn Tallant reported that we have good numbers signed up to use rooms in the chapter’s hotel in Wildwood.  He also indicates we will have a chapter hospitality room in that property if some guys step forward to manage it.

 

Rick Wagner is accepting offers from members who are willing to host a fellow chapter member that needs a place to sleep some Tuesday nites after rehearsal – especially when weather is bad or when we have to be some place early in the morning in the DC area.

 

Ike Evans gave out the Harmo logo brief cases that guys ordered.

 

Several chapter leaders spoke about up-coming calendar items: all sections sectional on Sat. Aug 9^th  at 9 am at First Baptist; Market Square show on Fri. August 15^th; show with other DC area choruses on Tuesday August 26 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Manassas; Cindy Hansen coaching us in Alexandria on Tuesday Sept 2 with emphasis on the new ballad.

 

Carlos Barillo is inviting men who want to be in the front row to speak with him ASAP.

 

Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Carlos Barillo for 3 years; Don Dillingham for 5 years; Tim Buell for 10 years; Ian Poulin for 11 years; Craig Odell for 45 years; and Don Johnson for 46 years.

 

Rich Hewitt welcomed guests this week.

 

At break time, we all enjoyed a big container of banana bread (rumor has it Don Dillingham brought it in for us – Thanks Don). Other folks have also brought in goodies to share including Rick Wagner, Sam McFarland, Dean Rust, Chris Huber, Randall Eliason and Ellen Dellert. (YeEd figures he has forgotten someone – sorry but thanks too.)

 

After the break we had an important presentation by president Terry Reynolds about the future of the chapter – in summary: the board is considering how to transition us into an arts organization and not just a barbershop chorus. We were assured that we would continue to be a member group of the BHS and we would continue to participate in BHS contests and events.  The recent change in chapter bylaws by the BHS board will make some of the transition possible. There was also adequate time for questions and discussion with the chapter membership.

 

A good crowd was at the afterglow again this week with some good tag singing and lots of jokes and stories from Harmony University with some of our rookie faculty guys sharing “tales out of school.”

 

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.)