Looking Back on the May 12^th  Chapter Meeting Which Was Canceled

The Durant Rec Center was closed by the city because the AC was broken since last Friday.

Cbapter leaders thanked all those guys who had made the effort to get to Alexandria before they heard the news online.

Leaders were quick to schedule a make-up session.  Here is the notice from president Terry
Reynolds: I hope most of you got the message about tonight's cancellation before hitting the road. With the show this Saturday and Cindy coming next week, this is not a good week to miss a rehearsal.

Therefore, we will have a makeup rehearsal on Thursday May 14^th at Plymouth Haven Baptist Church in Alexandria, down toward Mt. Vernon. It's not far from the Aldersgate Church where we rehearsed once last year. Thanks to Harmonizer Rob Nutt for making it available to us.

Plymouth Haven Baptist Church
8600 Plymouth Road
Alexandria, VA 22308
(703) 360-4370

We realize this is short notice, but please plan to attend if at all possible. The plan is to execute the rehearsal plan that was scheduled for tonight, with contest work, recording run-throughs, prep for Armed Forces Day show on Saturday, and work on American Icon repertoire.

Our reservation begins at 6:30. Please don't arrive before then. Therefore we will NOT have early Visual rehearsal with Chuck or early Front Row rehearsal.


Directions (from their website):

From Capital Beltway: Take the Rt 1 / Ft Belvoir exit south, turn left on to Ft Hunt Road. Go 4.6 miles on Ft. Hunt Road (pass Belle View Shopping Center on left, Hollin Hall Shopping Center on right, then Collingwood Rd and Aldersgate Methodist Church). Just past Sandburg Middle School (on right) and Waynewood Blvd (on left), turn left on Plymouth Road. Take the second RIGHT into the church parking lot.

From Alexandria: Take the George Washington Parkway South out of Old Town. Turn RIGHT onto Waynewood Blvd. Turn LEFT onto Fort Hunt Rd. Take the second RIGHT into church parking lot.

From points South: From Route 1 north turn RIGHT onto the Mt Vernon Memorial Hwy. At the Mt. Vernon traffic circle, go 3/4 around to the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Continue North. Turn LEFT onto Vernon View Dr. (just past Cedar Knoll Restaurant). Vernon View Drive becomes Fort Hunt Rd. Turn RIGHT onto Plymouth Road. Take the second RIGHT into the church parking lot.

Other important news – if you have not paid for the chorus retreat here is a reminder from Chuck McKeever.  For those attending Sat and Sun the fee is $55.  If you are coming on Fri, it is another $30.  Give checks to Dave Welter, Bruce Minnick or Howard Nestlerode.

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

 

Looking Back on the May 5^th  Chapter Meeting

The chorus has had several off-site rehearsal events recently.  An all-sections rehearsal was held on Sat. April 25^th at Convergence Church on Quaker Lane til about noon.  A good crowd attended for lots of work on new songs with section leaders.

Also on Saturday May 2, there were “studio” sessions – small groups of singers met with musical team leaders for coaching and personal help with vocal and visual times.

The memorial service for Skip Coburn was held on May 2^nd at Mary Mother of God Catholic Church in DC.  Harmonizer sat in the loft and sang “I’ll Walk With God.” Ken Rub rang the funeral bell at the end of the service == 69 times at 10 second intervals.  The wake was held across the street at Irish Channel. The gathering was impressive with former Mayor Gray, three serving Council members, three former Council members, the Deputy Chief of Police, the head of DC’s Volksmarch club, the president of t he nightlife association and several others, all of whom spoke glowingly about Skip. We all were aware of Skip’s involvement with most of the organizations represented but not the depth – he was truly a force for good in DC! Many city leaders shared with Ken how they appreciated the singing tribute.

Tuesday May 5 we were back at Durant the risers were packed with guys working to improve themselves personally for Pittsburgh. As usual, the front row worked at 6 pm with choreographer Carlos Barillo.  Many chorus members worked with Chuck McKeever worked on moves for the uptune.  Costume wranglers worked with members and with each other to keep things on schedule for Pittsburgh.

Carlos did a warm up session to help us be in the environment of our song.  Then associate director Tony Colosimo did the vocal warm ups in concert with what Carlos had taught us.

Director Joe Cerutti began his time up front of the chorus with glowing comments about David Jarzen’s recent appearance as Gomez in “The Addams Family” at West Potomac High School, directed by Peelee Clark.  Many members and families have already attended.

Then Joe launched a solid work session for the contest songs and some of the new songs for the fall Icon Show.

Before break, operations vp Todd Ryktarsyk conducted the chapter meeting.

Show producer Greg Tepe spoke about our Armed Forces Day performance, Saturday, May 16^th from 3 - 4 pm at First Baptist Church, 2932 King St.  Chorus call is 12:30.  Each guy is asked to bring a package of cookies for refreshments for the audience to go with the lemonade.  A riser crew is needed at noon.  Uniform is black suit, white hidden button shirt, red/white/blue tie, black patent shoes, black sox and belt. The Alexandria Mayor will bring greetings.  Harmonizers are encouraged to invited folks to attend the 3 o’clock show.

Chuck McKeever reminded us to get our payments in to Howard Netlerode for the weekend retreat which is May 30-31 in Westminster, MD.  Fees are $55 per man unless you decided to go Friday (like the front row) – then it is $85 per person.

Community service vp Clyde Crusenberry asked for hands of those who would do the May 17^th singout for the Old Dominion Boat Club at 3:30 pm.

Secretary Chris Buechler presented a Man of Note award to Don Dillingham, and membership renewal cards to David Jarzen for two years and Ian Poulin for 12 years.

President Terry Reynolds reported on that Michael Schwartz is in ICU at Fairfax Hospital after some serious bleeding of the brain. He has avoided surgery and hoping to be released before too long.

Len Dornberger’s mother passed away this week and he has ended his vacation in AZ early to return to DE for services.

Jean Wachter is about the same. Physical therapy is continuing. Bob is cutting back on staying the night at the facility so he can get enough sleep. However he and their daughter are there most of the time during the day, spelling each other.

 

Terry Jordan no longer wears any boots, etc., but his ankle, foot, lower leg are still swollen. Evidently this is a concern for the doctors, and the docs want to find out why the swelling is persisting. He is now able to drive and still hopes to go to West Virginia by the end of the month.

 

Some Harmonizers will recall Wilbur and Ibbianne Sparks -- her birthday is Thursday. She’ll be 96. Doing well but doesn’t go out any more. Congrats to her as a regular reader of the “Looking Back” reports.

 

Terry also announced make-up nite for vocal and visual studios  on Thursday May 7 at Durant – vocal at 7, visual at 8:30.  Terry also thanked all those men who have helped with vocal and visual feedbacks.

Membership vp Rich Hewitt introduced the Class of ’15.He presented each of them their kerchief (a variety of blues this year) to be worn at any Harmonizer event until they go on stage in Pittsburgh.

He preseH

(The Harmonizers started having official international chorus “classes” about the same time we started international retreats (1992). The class is the year each member competes with the Alexandria Harmonizers for the first time at International. This is the case even if they might have competed with another chorus previously. Each year’s class is a somewhat moving target until we actually perform on stage, but we have a good idea prior the retreat (where the class presents its skit.)

Spencer Wight has been named president of the class.

Class members are Blake Albertson, Peelee Clark, Mike Edison, Marvin Evans, Mike Fasano, Ross Felker, Alvin Figer, Garrett Garner, Tommy Garner, David Jarzen, Alan Lamson, Reed Livergood, Jim McConnell, Mike Moncibaiz, Chris Odell, Rusty Orvik, Rich Payton, Ron Precup, Elliot Roseman, Todd Ryktarsyk, John Santora, Aaron Simoneau, Gene Swartz, Spencer Wight and Kris Zinkievich.

After break, we worked more on contest songs, took time for self recordings, and then spent some time for guys singing on the Armed Forces show to refresh that music.  Those guys who can’t make that show worked with Tony and Carlos on the ballad.

Congrats to Reed Livergood who is now musical coordinator of TBD, our chapter’s contemporary a cappella group. Thanks too for the years of work by Tom Kraus who started the group and kept it organized. 

Thanks to the many hands who help clean up refreshments each week so the chorus members can get back on the risers to sing.  And thanks to Ellen Dellert for making coffee and getting the goodies out last 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 during the 67^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.

 

Looking Back on the April 28^th Chapter Meeting

(Thanks to Alan Wile for taking notes last week so we could have a record of things from the chapter meeting.  YeEd was on travel in the Dominican Republic.)

By 6 p.m. Chuck McKeever was set up to help a bunch of guys with their choreography for the contest set.  Meanwhile, Bob Blair and Todd Ryktarsyk were performing corrective surgery on a set of risers outside; others were setting up inside; the front row was going through its paces in one of the breakout rooms; the “wranglers” were conferring with themselves and those they are helping with costumes for international; and Rich Hewitt was welcoming guests.

Warmups were conducted by Carlos Barillo, Reed Livergood, and Don Dillingham, before turning the evening over to director Joe Cerutti.

Joe noted that many new members probably would not know the music we plan to sing at the Armed Forces Day show … saying that’s OK but encouraging any who would like to learn one/some/all to do so.

He also noted that we’ve got lots to do in the next weeks and months and said he will expect extreme discipline in order to focus on all the new music and the international contest set.  He praised the chorus, reporting that the recent recordings were incredibly good.

He praised Peelee Clark on his West Potomac High School show (The Addams Family) and star, David Jarzen (and his powerful voice), encouraging chapter member attendance.

Then he launched into the uptune tag.  He asked that the last “spoken” line be performed in the upper part of our range and that the final word (“bamboo”) end on an “up” voice for maximum effect. Next we worked on the ballad – both vocal and visual.  Carlos reminded us that the beginning should have no body movement, with hands/arms at our sides and introduced some new concepts.

At the break, run by Todd, president Terry Reynolds reminded all that the board has adopted an new mission statement and then passed the mic to Josh Roots (chair of our newly established Development Committee) who briefed on a newly designed fundraising program and strategy.

Rich Hewitt welcomed new member Ron Precup and Chris Buechler welcomed John Smith … and presented membership cards to a few who renewed recently.

After the break, Joe worked “Ring of Fire” while the Class of 2015 had a brief séance with Rich Hewitt, Will Cox, and Tom Kern.  They will meet again next week and should have selected a “Class President” by the end of that session.

Next we worked on the following song sequence:

·        “Nat King Cole Medley”

·        “Something About A Soldier” (with choreo)

·        “Battle Hymn”

·        “Tribute to World Peace”

 

Community Service VP Clyde Crusenberry announced that we’ve been asked to perform at the flag raising of the Alexandria Boat Club (not sure about the name) at the foot of King Street the day following our Armed Forces Day show (i.e., Sunday, May 18^th).

Joe revisited the Josh Roots’ fund-raising presentation highlighting its importance and significance, the possibility of (eventually) having a building of our own, etc. 

Terry reported that Jean Wachter has been transferred to another facility but remains frail.  He also mentioned that Michael Schwartz is in the hospital.  Rich Hewitt mentioned that one of our newer members was also hospitalized. 

Terry announced the funeral service for Skip Coburn will be this Saturday (at St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church, 727 Fifth St. NW on May 2 at 11 a.m.) AND the vocal and visual studios also on Saturday (at West Potomac High 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 67^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.

 

Looking Back on the April 18^th  Harmonizer Youth Harmony Festival

The 2015 Alexandria Harmonizers Youth Festival was a great success.  We had 63 students and 6 music educators participate. 

Our many thanks to the gentlemen of MAYHEM  -  Matt Fellows, Pookie Dingle, Mike Pinto and Ken White, who acted as our teaching quartet for the young men’s chorus.  Pookie also served as the director of the young men’s chorus. They were well received by the students and, as always, their “Unicorn” song was a lesson in how to get enthusiastic audience participation in the evening show.

We also appreciated our female teaching quartet made up of half of SHADES OF JADE and GQ  - Erin Cook, Kasey Cox, Ali Hauger, and Amanda McNutt.  Erin also served as the director of the young women’s chorus. In addition to helping with the young women’s chorus, these ladies found they knew one song in-common, they brought tears to the eyes of some of the audience with their heart-felt delivery of “It Is Well With My Soul”. 

The young men’s chorus (with choreography by Terry Reynolds) performed “Break Up is Hard To Do”.  The young women (with choreography by Erin Cook) performed After You’re Gone.  The combined chorus (with choreography by Joe Cerutti) performed “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better”.  We also had a great young women’s quartet – winner of the local Sing Strong event – AFTERGLOW who performed several songs on the evening show.  

AFTERGLOW participated in the festival as a quartet and was coached during the day activities by Joe.  We also had a great roundtable with our music educators that gave us many ideas for future festivals.  It was great to hear both their enthusiasm for the event and appreciation of the Harmonizers giving their students an opportunity to sing with what was a much larger chorus than they usually do.

Finally there was the great support of TBD who kicked off the evening show with their well-received version of more contemporary a cappella.

Such an event does not happen without the support of many people. Chairman Brad Jones thanked a long list of Harmonizers, FRIENDS IN HARMONY and Durant staff for helping with reservations related to the Durant Center, preparing the hall on Friday night, bringing ice to the Center, helping with signing in students at registration, passing out water bottles and T-shirts, food preparation and service, providing the sound system and audio services, setting up the hall and taking down the risers and chairs at the end of the night these folks all were key contributors to the event:

Bob Rhome

Dean Rust

Jacob George

Alan Wile

Clyde Crusenberry

Dean Rust

Chuck Harner

Randall Eliason

Leland Jones

Keith Jones

Ken Fess

John Smith

Bridgette Cerutti

Lydia Golden

Ellen Dellert

Doug White

Dennis Ritchey

Nick Leiserson

Don Dillingham

Garret Garner

Kris Zinkievich

Bruce Minnick

Gerry Fuller

Cheryl Anne Colton and the Durant Center Staff

TBD members that stayed to help with the riser storage

Terry Reynolds

Todd Ryktarsyk

Elliot Roseman

And the many Harmonizers who came to the show and stayed after to help with cleanup!

 

Congratulations and a big thank you to Brad Jones for providing leadership and coordination for this annual event.  Kudos to Brad.

 

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 during the 67^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.

 

Looking Back on the April 21^st Chapter Meeting

The set up crew moved everything into the center hall at First Baptist great to have a bunch of guys lend a hand to Bob Blair.  Many men brought in carpet or moving blankets for the floor to absorb sound. And the sound guys (Mike Kelly, Dennis Ritchey and Doug White) set up the mics and equipment to do recordings.  We spent the whole time on that this week.  Associate director Tony Colosimo did the vocal warm ups.  We mostly worked on recording “Happy” and “Me Ole Bamboo” – doing shorter pieces.

 

Director Joe Cerutti and Tony took turns directing and coaching us, while the other person listened to the recordings. 

 

Several of the contest uniform wranglers were working in another room to prepare accent pieces for members to take home.

 

The chapter meeting was a little shorter than usual as we did not have guests to introduce. President Terry Reynolds reported that Jean Wachter is about the same in her progress in the hospital.

 

Terry also suggested we support two of our guys working on The Addams Family musical at West Potomac High School this weekend.  David Jarzen has a leading part in the production directed by Peelee Clark.  Check the website westpotomactheatre.org.  Joe encouraged us all to go support the arts locally and for our guys.

 

There were sign-up sheets for vocal and visual studios being held in early May – sessions for guys to be coached in either aspect of their performance.

 

Chuck McKeever, our contest retreat coordinator, instructed us to choose a roommate and report that to him.  We will be in a dorm with two guys per room (not the suited as in previous years).  That means you might need to bring a cooler for supplies. 

 

Joe thanked Brad Jones for his huge effort at running another successful Youth Harmony Festival for our chapter.  This one had the most students ever.

 

As a reminder, this coming Saturday morning will be another all-parts sectional from 9-noon at the Convergence Church, 1801 Quaker Lane, Alexandria VA 22302. We’ll spend much of the working on new music, particularly the “Nat King Cole Medley” and “Ring of Fire”, and boning up on some of the patriotic repertoire for the Armed Forces Day Show.

 

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

 

Looking Back on the April 14^th  Chapter Meeting

This week was more work on the contest set – especially so that we are totally prepared for our coaching retreat in Westminster MD, May 30-31. Will be great to have David Wright and Brandon Guyton on hand to take us further down the road to great singing and performance.

 

Retreat master Chuck McKeever has published a very detailed info sheet for that weekend. Be sure to make plans – such as car pooling, deciding to come early for the Fri nite May 29^th fun too, paying your fee to Howard Nestlerode by May 26, plan your packing list (wear some Harmo gear), and be prepared for the Class of 2015 to entertain us with this year’s skit!!

 

As usual this week, there was a crew practicing stage presence at 6 pm with coaches Chuck McKeever and Carlos Barillo.

 

There are some quartets forming in the wings for the Southern Division contest in Reston, May 22-23. Stay tuned for news about them.

 

The important Youth Harmony Festival is this coming weekend.  Coordinator Brad Jones has published another appeal for helpers since the attendance numbers have jumped pretty high this year. At least be sure to come by on Sat nite April 18^th to see the final results of the weekend for young men and women singers. He could still use a couple more folks to help setup the hall this Friday night, April 17th. The other time he definitely needs help is for 5:30 -7 on Saturday evening so we can put away the dinner tables and reconfigure the chairs so we have the hall set up for the show. TBD will be performing along with MAYHEM  before the students take the stage to show the results of a long day of work on their part. We would like to have a full house for that show.

 

In addition to the contest work this week, we continued introducing work on the songs for the Icon show in Sept.

 

The chapter meeting conducted by ops vp Todd Ryktarsyk including reminders about the recording session next Tues at First Baptist, and the sectionals coming up on a Sat.

 

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented Man of Note pins to Bob Rhome for sponsoring Blake Albertson and to Josh Roots for sponsoring John Roots.  Blake and Rick Payton got new member papers. Chris had renewal cards for Spencer Wight for 1 year and Brad Jones for 23 years.

These Harmonizers renewed their membership recently and secretary Buechler made sure these long-time members know they are still “part of our gang” in the chapter: Tom Hansen 39 years, Andy Smith 39 years, Terry Traylor 28 years, Jim Lucey 26 years and Bill DePuy 25 years - and a service pin!

 

Membership vp Rich Hewitt introduced guests to all of us. Rich also coordinated more auditions for applicants.

 

Choreographer Carlos Barillo asked each contest singer to continue to work with their costume wrangler so that he could move forward with giving a final approval for each costume.

 

President Terry Reynolds reports that Jean Wachter is in the hospital for continued care.

 

In other news, kudos to Jeremy Richardson for his solo appearance and performance as part of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop cabaret this past weekend.  The show was in their center at 7^th and G SE.

 

 

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

 

Looking Back on the April 7^th Chapter Meeting

This week was all about working on our music for contest and shows.  A large crew came early to set up and then work with Chuck McKeever and some of the visual row leaders to review the visual plan for the uptune.  Meanwhile the front row was working with choreographer Carlos Barillo in the lobby on the uptune too.

 

Also there was lots of buzz around Durant with contest uniform wranglers helping guys and also discussing the various cobalt accent pieces for the various guy’s uniforms.

 

Carlos started off the work sessions with a visual warm up and then then associate director Tony Colosimo followed up with a complimenting vocal warm up session.  Director Joe Cerutti  jumped right into working on “Happy” and “Nat King Cole medley” for the Sept show.

 

During the whole evening, Joe and Tony took double quartets of men from the risers to work with them for about 15 minutes.

 

We also had about 15 minutes for sectionals.

 

Operations vp Todd Ryktarsyk conducted the chapter meeting portion of the nite.  Alan Wile spoke to us about the important need for guys to respond to the email from Brad Jones seeking helpers, volunteers, food and snacks and set up workers for the Youth Festival on April 18^th at Durant.  The numbers of students may break our record number of attendees.   Everyone needs to do their part.  Joe also spoke of the importance of this event.

 

Craig Kujawa provided some updates about our trip to Pittsburgh explaining housing and convention registration issues (basically, if you have a room or ticket in the Harmo block and for some reason can’t use it, be sure to alert Craig or Ian Poulin before you cancel).  Be on the lookout for another newsletter from Craig about Pittsburgh too.

 

Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Nick Leiserson for 5 years and Alan Kousen for 48 years.

 

Joe announced that our recent guest, Doug Carnes, is the new director for the Great Northern Union chorus in MN.  Congrats to Doug.

 

President Terry Reynolds gave an update on the continuing rehab for Jean Wachter and reported that Rob Nutt’s wife is recovering from a stroke.

 

Terry also reminded us that attendance requirements go into effect soon – basically don’t miss anything and if  you must miss one for work or something, let Terry or your section leader know.

 

He plugged the May 2^nd visual studio!

 

He reminded everyone of the mandatory attendance at retreat, May 30-31 in MD.

 

Membership vp Rich Hewitt was a busy man this week, helping so many new men get their paperwork in order, get lined up for auditioning, get a place on the risers and get a handle on the schedule in the weeks ahead.  He had a long list of guests to introduce too. 

 

We had a busy break. Thanks to those who have brought in goodies to share – keep em coming.

 

After break, Don Dillingham spoke to us again and fired us up to work after we cross the line and get on the risers.  Get in the moment.

 

We spent the rest of the nite on the contest songs – self eval recordings, visual filming, and visual refinements from Carlos for the uptune tag.  Great!!!

 

Joe asked every man to grab a riser while allowed us to keep singing a few more minutes.

 

Good afterglow this week and news that another guy passed audition!!

 

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