Looking Back on the July 7^th Chapter Meeting

We celebrated our busy and successful week at the International contest last week in Pittsburgh.  But there was work to do in preparation for upcoming major shows and events in the months ahead.

 

We were also busy welcoming a lot of guests who want to sing. 

 

Associate director Tony Colosimo did the warm up sessions and then worked on another new song for the Icon show in September.  Altho director Joe Cerutti was under-the-weather with a cold, he made it in later to help Tony with the new music.

 

We sang in sections for the new music.

 

Ops vp Todd Ryktarsyk conducted the chapter meeting.

 

Shawn Tallant announced preliminary plans are underway for our going to the district contest this fall. Watch for info and the need to respond regarding housing in Ocean City the weekend of Oct. 23-24 (NOTE this is a bit later in Oct. that usual.) We will be using the Holiday Inn Ocean Front.

 

Don Thompson has your competitor t-shirt if you ordered one. Ken Fess is taking orders for Normandy shirts and Ken has left over things from the Hideaway like coolers and crock pots.

 

Bob Blair explained that process for getting your new Pittsburgh medal engraved with your name, the year and the chapter logo. $8 each.  Bring them in the box next week, be sure your name is in the box too.

 

 President Terry Reynolds distributed the gift pins from the Vocal Majority they gave our chorus last week. He welcomed former director John Hohl. He read a great message from Bill Sowers and his wife which included a generous check for the chapter.

 

Terry says we are still helping host the German barbershop singers – offer to help by contacting Stan Quick.

 

Anyone who enjoyed the Hideaway may help defray the room rental costs by donating to Ken Fess.

 

Next week we will watch the video of our Pittsburgh performance.

 

Membership vp Rich Hewitt had a long line of guests to introduce and welcome. Tom Jackson was announced as our newest member.

 

We had lots of goodies to share for the break – thanks to those who brought back the leftovers from the Hideaway.

 

After break, Terry provided his usual barbershop geek report and analysis of scores for the chapter.  After that Joe offered his comments, thanked the chorus for its work and invited members to make comments.  Many men offered comments, reactions, discoveries or thoughts about the convention appearance and experience.

 

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 June 23rd Chapter Meeting and International Send Off

We celebrated and proudly performed our contest package for a huge crowd of fans and family and many other barbershoppers on Tues. 23^rd at Durant. It was our 25^th send off!!  Most of our guys and guests managed to get parked and inside before the heavens dumped huge rain and brought heavy winds to the area.

 

The ops team headed by vp Todd Ryktarsyk and many volunteers set up the rises backed up against the stage, then all the chairs we could get were set out facing the risers.  Sound guys managed to get that all set in too – tho many of the sound crew are also in the front row that was practicing early.

 

Some guys met with riser coach Chuck McKeever too.

 

The FRIENDS IN HARMONY also helped Jack Pitzer and Kevin Kaiser get the refreshments ready to put out during the evening break.  The FIH also cleaned up! Thanks to them for that.

Also the FIH helped usher and help guests find their way around Durant, they helped cover the meeting room windows so guys could use those rooms for changing, and many of them are costume wranglers so they were busy sewing or fixing uniform parts for the guys. Thanks to Robyn Murane for her leadership and the FIH support of the Send Off.

 

Our props team this year gets many kudos – Dennis Ritchey created the bamboo poles (with accents) and Steve White took the boxes Dennis made and painted and sanded and decorated them.  Great job – over-and-above your leadership jobs in chapter and district.

 

Former chapter president Terry Jordan did the announcing of the chorus just as it will happen in Pittsburgh. It was great to see him since his fall on the ice last winter.

 

The chorus assembled on the risers at 7pm  with associate director Tony Colosimo doing the warm ups.  Director Joe Cerutti helped us with our exercise tags and then worked on important spots in the ballad,”Some One Like You,” and the uptune “Me Ole Bamboo.”

 

At about 7:50 we stopped and guys finished dressing into their costumes.  We took the stage from the lobby with directions from chorus manager Mark Klostermeyer.

 

After doing the set one time, president Terry Reynolds welcomed the fans and Joe spoke to the crowd explaining the contest situation, sharing how the chorus has grown in 8 years, and shared with the audience how they could support us further.

 

We did the set a second time and then joined the audience for refreshments of lemonade and coffee and cookies in the lobby.  We changed back into cooler clothes to work more the second half.

 

During break there were many business matters to be taken care of like Togetherness Breakfast tickets distribution, t-shirt sales and contest photo orders.

 

Rick Wagner thanked guys for signing up to bring things to Pittsburgh for the Harmo Hideaway.  He suggested that coolers and heavy items could go on the Harmo truck to convention.

 

Thursday nite is our special rehearsal at Bolling Anacostia in the Air Force Band facility. Everyone needed to get their name on the list for the entrance onto the base.  Thanks to Stan Quick for working on those details. And thanks to Shawn Tallant for coordinating the use of the facility at Bolling.  Shawn shared that the entrance we are to use will be near the Harmo truck parking spot – look for the sign.

 

Secretary Chris Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Duncan Woodbury for 3 years and Jeff Berman for 33 years.  In an recent email to all, Chris shared that the following men who don’t sing with us regularly have renewed: Paul Greiner 45 years - and a new lapel pin; Bill Colosimo 39 years; Bob Bates 37 years; JT Price 36 years; Al Herman 32 years; Dave Ellis 29 years; and Wayne Adams 12 years.

Stan Quick has also agreed to coordinate hosts for the Ladies First chorus from Barbershop in Germany (BingG) that will be visiting Washington, Jul 21-25 on their way to Harmony University. They fly in on Tuesday and will join us at rehearsal. They fly out on Sunday to go to HU in Nashville. We are primary looking for Harmonizers that can host 2 or more ladies for some or all of the five days. We are also hoping to host an informal get together / barbecue on Friday evening July 24.

 

Looking ahead to after International, here is important info from music and performance vp Steve White: Our first full rehearsal when we return will be on Tuesday, July 7. The INOVA hospital strolling sing out will be later in the in lieu of “summer camp” when many guys are at Harmony University/Director’s College in Nashville. We have just 1 summer concert scheduled this year … Market Square in Old Town Alexandria on Friday, August 7. This show will feature some of our standard patriotic songs, the contest set, and 1-2 teaser American Icon Show songs. The summer rehearsals will be primarily focused on preparing you for the American Icons Show. Our off-site all-parts Saturday Sectionals have been highly attended this year (60-65 men each time). There are 2 more scheduled for the summer … July 18 and August 15 from 9 – noon in the Music Suite at the First Baptist Church in Alexandria.

 

 

In other news, Kathy Kauffmann’s mom, Mary McCarthy, passed away Tuesday, June 16, at age 92. She was in hospice care.

 

The audience drifted out as we continued to practice until closing at 10.  We dismantled and a big crowd made it over to LaPortas for afterglow, including some singers from the audience. Joe, Terry and Tony were there and there several tag groups singing away.  The chow is good and the atmosphere is fun.

 

There will not be a Looking Back column/blog after our Thursday June 25^th rehearsal.

 

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 Harmony College East and Our Parade Gig in June

Barbershoppers from all over M-AD and beyond gathered at Salisbury University June 18-21 for the annual Harmony College East for a weekend of classes, coaching, good food, shows, and most important – singing! New this year was a dedicated Tag Room, complete with tag sheets.

 

As you can well imagine, Harmonizers were very much involved all week. Singing in quartets on the Friday and Saturday night shows were Mike Wallen in YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT, Mike Kelly in LAST MEN STANDING, Bruce Minnick in  SURPRISE, Rick Taylor in  BSQ, and Pookie Dingle, Mike Pinto and Ken White in MAYHEM.

 

The Mt. Vernon chapter chorus, Harmony Heritage Singers, also came for a weekend of coaching and appeared on the Saturday night show.  Several Harmonizers appeared with that chorus included Chris Buechler, Drew Fuller, Chuck Harner, JT Price and Bob Wachter.

 

The Richmond Virginians were also coached and appeared on the Saturday evening show. Mike Wallen was director and Mike Geipel and Jim McConnell who are also singing with the Harmonizers were on stage.

 

Also at HCE for the weekend were Martin Banks, Bill Colosimo (faculty), Bob Eckman (staff) and Alan Wile (staff). Former Harmonizers and coaches at Salisbury included Gary Plaag (youth camp director), Mike Louque (faculty), Bob Hirsh, and Steve Tramack (faculty). The fun weekend lasted long into the evenings and even an appearance by the tropical storm on Saturday didn't dampen the singers as chords rang in the courtyard well into the morning hours.  (YeEd appreciate the write up from the weekend from Bob Eckman and notes from Alan Wile.)

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Also this month 48 singers sang Saturday June 13^th for Marriott Corp. in the Capital Pride Parade in DC.  The afternoon temperature was in the 90s and there were huge crowds.  But the crowd loved it when we burst onto the parade route and sang and danced to “Happy”.  Our guest soloist was Mark Allen. Greg Tepe helped coordinate the appearance that day – with two contingents of us spread out on two sides of the street in the crowds!! We were sponsored by Marriott and appeared as part of their #lovetravels campaign.  We met at one of their hotel properties at Rhode Island Ave., reviewed our plan, got ideas from choreographer Carlos Barillo for our appearance,  tested singing the song to a recording and got our t-shirts and sunglasses issued as part of the Marriott campaign. Director Joe and about a dozen guys met us their too after they had done the sound check on P Street. Chorus manager Mark Klostermeyer helped Greg move men into positions on the parade route.

 

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 June16^th Chapter Meeting

Clearly this week was a work session in preparation for Pittsburgh. BUT a traffic accident on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and a bad one on I-395 had the streets in Alexandria and all roads leading into Alexandria at a stand-still.  Only a few guys were there at 7, but a huge crowd managed to make it eventually.  Several of the Special Forces guys were in town too.  Thanks for that extra effort from all – some guys took several hours for a 30-minute trip.

 

The Durant Center was busy tho with costume wranglers at work helping many guys, chorus visual drills on the stage with Chuck McKeever, front row drills with Carlos Barillo in Room 2 and a bunch of guys raiding the cookies since they had to skip dinner to get to the meeting this week.

 

Associate director Tony Colosimo did the vocal warm ups and then director Joe Cerutti, along with Chuck, did drills for the uptune visuals. When a good number of singers made it, we went right to work singing spots in the songs and did that all nite.  At the end we did a package run-thru.

 

There were a lot of guests this week and many of them are prospective members.

 

Operations vp Todd Ryktarsyk conducted the chapter meeting about 8 pm.  Shawn Tallant reminded guys of the Thurs June 25 rehearsal at Bolling.  And he reviewed how to get onto the base.  Thanks to Stan Quick for collecting all the proper credentials and preparing the list for the guards at the gate. We are being hosted by the US Air Force Band in their facility for this rehearsal.

 

Pittsburgh chairman, Craig Kujawa, reminded us of important matters to manage: registration, Togetherness breakfast tickets, chorus photos, and helping with stocking the Harmo Hideaway with Rick and Peggy Wagner. A riser crew will be needed at our hotel on Tuesday afternoon – help if you can. Don Thompson is taking orders for Pittsburgh International Competitor t-shirts.  All sizes are $14. They come in all sizes. These shirts are not a Harmonizer uniform – just a way to show your support of the convention and that you are in a contest chorus.  Guys wear them around convention week.  Many of us will wear Harmo gear most of the week to help promote our image.

 

Ken Fess reported that he will be reordering Normandy t-shirts. Tell him if you want some.

 

President Terry Reynolds asked for families to help host a BING (Barbershop in Germany) ladies group.  Stan Quick will be coordinator.

 

And Terry reminded us of the major event next Tuesday nite at Durant – our International Send Off. We will wear our costumes and do our package at 8 pm for guests.  Members should arrive at 7 as usual. A large crowd is expected to come see us at our best.  We will be dressing at Durant.  There will be refreshments for all.

 

Membership vp Rich Hewitt introduced the many guests with us for the evening.

 

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler presented a membership renewal card to Don Dillingham for 6 years and first-time new member materials to Ron Precup.

 

In other news, huge kudos for our fellow Harmonizers connected with the West Potomac High School musical “Next To Normal” they held this past weekend.  Both David Jarzen and Ben Roberts were major players in this musical/play about mental health.  Director Peelee Clark told this audience before the performance that the school had decided to bring awareness to mental health for families and especially students.  Congrats to our men for their work and great performances.

 

More tough news for Bob Wachter. Bob received a call that his brother was not doing well. He flew to Pittsburgh and saw him in the morning and afternoon. His brother couldn’t talk but when he opened his eyes, Bob felt there was recognition. Twenty minutes after leaving, he received a call that his brother had died. Bob’s wife, Jean, was moved back to Fairfax Hospital recently too.

 

This week’s meeting ended and tag singing broke out right away with the guests.  Then a huge crowd made it over to LaPorta’s for an afterglow and more tag singing and good eats.

 

 

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 June11^th Extra Rehearsal and Meeting

Here  is a brief report from the extra rehearsal we held on Thursday, June 11^th at First Baptist Church.  It was a very productive drill time and review.  Plus director Joe Cerutti taught the “soft” tag he promised us last week – we have a loud tag and a soft tag we will sing every time we meet til we go on stage in Pittsburgh. You gotta be here to learn it – no learning tapes or printed music will be issued.

Reed Livergood did the vocal warm ups.  After the chapter meeting time, the riser guys left the risers so the front row could practice in front of them.  The riser guys, with coaching from Joe and Chuck McKeever, cleaned up the many details of the uptune visual plan.  It was very productive.

Ops vp Todd Ryktarsyk conducted the meeting. Robyn Murane asked guys who where getting uniform work done by the wrangler team to pick em up after the meeting.

Nick Leiserson gave some more details about the flash mob gig on Saturday. The call time is now 4:15 pm. Details to be released via email.

Rick Wagner announced that he and his wife Peggy are gonna head up the Harmo Hideaway at the convention in Pittsburgh.  Thanks to them for that.  Soooo – stay tuned for how you as a chapter member can help such as bringing snacks, contribution napkins and supplies, etc.  The Hideaway will be open Wed, Thurs and Fri nites only.

Ken Fess announced more details for those guys who wanna get a Normandy shirt.

Rusty Orvik explained the volleyball accident he had – suggesting his fellow Harmonizers not use power tools or play tackle football etc. between now and International.  He says his sprained knee will allow him to dance in front row by convention!!  Here’s hopin!

President Terry Reynolds welcomed Lew Klinge who was in the house this evening. And Terry stressed the need for guys to get their official contact info to Stan Quick in order to attend the extra rehearsal at Bolling on Thursday June 25^th.

We ended the nite with a complete package performance. Then reloaded the Harmo truck. sSome guys made to LaPorta’s for an brief afterglow 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 67^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.

 

Looking Back on the June 9^th Chapter Meeting

This week’s chapter meeting and fantastic rehearsal was at First Baptist Church because our usual meeting place was being used for a voting place.

With so much work in preparation for our appearance at the International convention in Pittsburgh, July 3^rd, the hall was packed early – front row in front of the risers from about 6-7 with choreographer Carlos Barillo, other guys doing visual reviews with Chuck McKeever, costume wranglers at work in a side room at the hall, and other guys welcoming guests and former members on hand this week.

There were a lot of men who made special trips to be here for this important rehearsal time: Peter Hubbard from Atlanta, Alan Lamson from CT and feeling much better after his back problem on retreat weekend, Bill Conway from SC, Mike Geipel from Richmond, and Len Dornberger from DE.

Associate director Tony Colosimo did the vocal warm ups and then director Joe Cerutti took the reins and went right to work on spots in our contest songs. We worked all evening on those songs – only once doing the whole set.  Carlos and Tony assisted Joe by injecting ideas and reminders and teaching points to help us perform even better.

Mid-evening, ops vp Todd Ryktarsyk conducted the chapter meeting.  Josh Roots did an update and challenge from the newly formed development committee. They are seeking donations or contributions to match a $1000 gift. All of this toward a larger goal of $10,000 for the new CD project.

Todd announced the play at West Potomac Hi School this coming weekend.  They are doing “Next to Normal” at 7 pm on June 11-12-13, at 7 pm at West Potomac Hi Kogelman Theater, 6500 Quander Rd., Alexandria 22307.  Tickets are $12 and available at the door.  Our own member David Jarzen is appearing as Gabe in the play and Ben Roberts is appearing as Dan, The director is our front row guy, Peelee Clark. 

Shawn Tallant reminded everyone of the International send off appearance as part of the Tues June 23^rd meeting at Durant.  Best time for guests to come is 8 pm.

Shawn also stressed the need for guys to have their important personal info on the list for getting into Bolling base for our special Thurs June 25^th rehearsal at the Air Force Band rehearsal space.  It is get you name on the list, or you can’t get on post for the event.  Send it to Stan Quick today.  They have to get the list turned in to officials several days in advance.

Nick Leiserson and Terry Reynolds promised details about the special appearance on Sat June 13^th for Marriott.  Singers need to get Nick their t-shirt size ASAP.

Steve White recapped the results of the M-AD division contests for us.  See below for news from this past weekend.

Craig Kujawa reminds all to get your Togetherness breakfast tickets from Steve Murane ($30 for any guest you are bringing) and Randall Eliason (free for any chapter member going), order Pittsburgh photos from Frank Fedarko, and look to receive your convention registrations (tickets) from Craig in the next week.

Secretary Chris Buechler was excited to report that all competing chorus members have renewed their membership.  He presented membership renewal cards to Carlos Barillo for 4 years, Peter Hubbard for 4 years, Stan Quick for 4 years, Steve Szyszka for 4 years, Jim Lake for 22 years, Tony Colosimo for 22 years, Mike Edison for 24 years, Greg Tepe for 24 years, Bob Wells for 24 years, and David Welter for 39 years.

Doug White reports his promotion to Lt. Colonel came thru and so he brought cake for a little celebration during break. Congrats Doug!

President Terry Reynolds reminds us that there WILL BE a chapter meeting on the Tuesday after International, July 7^th and the next week on the 14^th.  This is a change from past years when we didn’t meet at Durant the week after convention.

Terry saluted Ross Felker for his recent retirement from the Air Force. See below.

Membership vp Rich Hewitt welcomed some members in house what we don’t see regularly: Ross Johnson, TJ Jones, Bob Caldwell. Greg Tepe, our producer of shows, was in house too.  Rich then welcomed some singer guests with us this week.

After eating cake and making contact for many points of chapter business, it was back to work on our music.  Joe had taught a great new tag, “What a Day” earlier in the nite and so we reviewed it after break. He wants us to sing it every time we meet this month.

The members all pitched in to put things away into the Harmo truck.  We will return to First Baptist on Thursday nite this week again. The afterglow crowd had fun as usual at La Porta’s.

In other news, the final two M-AD division contests (Northern and Western) were held June 5-6 in Cherry Hill, NJ, combined into one weekend.  Joe Cerutti was a music judge on the panel.

In the Western Division contest, a Harmonizer quartet, WAREHOUSE FLATS with Brett Thomas, Jay Butterfield, Adam Porter, and Steve White, took second place. Also there were a number of current and former Harmonizers who directed choruses in that contest:  Sean Devine and Jay Butterfield are directors of the new Hershey PA chorus that took first place.  Rick Taylor directed the Dundalk MD chorus that took second.  John Santora was acting District contest and judging chair and sang with Patapsco Valley, MD. Pookie Dingle sang with the Hershey chorus.

In the Northern Division contest, another Harmonizer quartet HERSHEY TRANSIT CO. with Bill Keet, Pookie Dingle, Frank Resek and Steven Matuszewski, took third place.

In other news, Bruce Lauther reports that the chapter has a contract signed for the chorus to sing at Ashbury Methodist Village, 201 Russell Avenue, Gaithersburg MD, 20877. This will be a full performance starting at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, September 26th, 2015. Our sponsors by donation are former members of the Alexandria Harmonizer family, Hal and Margaret Gaut, who reside there.

Also in other news, Lieutenant Colonel Ross Felker was honored at a retirement ceremony at Joint Base Anacostoa-Bolling Friday June 5^th at 2pm.  Several of his fellow Harmonizers were there and remarked about his amazing Air Force service career that was explained during his many recognitions at the event. At the end of the ceremony, Ross lead everyone in singing the “Air Force Song” and our guys joined in the fun. Ross and his wife Gail will be moving to their home in Texas after the contest is Pittsburgh and some vacation time in Michigan.

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 June 2^nd Chapter Meeting

The chorus arrived ready for work and work we did.  But it was a hugely successful rehearsal – one of the best ever.  Many of us figured we would have to catch up from the retreat, but there was a pretty good retention and adaptation of the suggestions from our coaches.

Ops vp Todd Ryktarsyk set up the hall a little differently – the risers all the way backed up to the wall so there was adequate room for the front row routine to use the same space as the stage will be in Pittsburgh.  As usual, the front row was there at 6 pm to work and a lot of new members worked with riser coach Chuck McKeever on the stage to review their stage moves.

Most of the guys had seen the notes from the retreat, taken by Dean Rust (thanks Dean) and sent to us with comments by director Joe Cerutti. They were very thorough and helped.  When asked how many guys had worked 15 minutes each day on the package, there were tons of hands in the air!!

Associate director Tony Colosimo did the important warm up session for the chorus. And then we jumped right into working on sections of the contest songs.  Joe reminded us that June will be dedicated to work on the contest package.  We did several run throughs of the whole package before the nite was over.

For the chapter meeting, Todd called each guy up who had a message to announce.  Pittsburgh chairman Craig Kujawa asked if anyone had any questions about the most recent newsletter for convention which he published.  And he needs helpers for the chapter hospitality room at convention. Bob Blair needs two guys to drive the Harmo van to Pittsburgh. Music vp Steve White needs a couple men to tally the names and credentials for the chorus so we can enter Bolling military base for rehearsal on June 25^th. Frank Fedarko was selling International pictures and Steve Murane and Randall Eliason were handling tickets for the Togetherness Breakfast.

Chuck Powell extended an invite to the chorus to sing as this wedding Sept. 4. 

Todd reminded everyone – the next two meetings, Tues, the 9^th and Thurs, the 11^th, are at First Baptist Church, 2932 King St.

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler offered a chapter 50-year history book to anyone who has not gotten one yet. He also presented membership renewal cards to Edris Qarghah for seven years; Nick Murane for 10 years and Ike Evans for 28 years.

Ken Fess asked if anyone wanted a shirt from the Normandy trip.  He took note of the hands that went up.

President Terry Reynolds announced that Steve Szyszka had a death in the family and had to miss tonite. We welcomed Wayne Adams and Joe Sawyer.  And he called for the board to meet for a few minutes at break.

Terry then introduced the “wranglers” who have helped us get our costumes ready.  The chorus rose for a standing ovation in appreciation for all their help and work.  The official list of “wranglers” YeEd received from Greg Tepe includes Clark Chesser, Clyde Crusenberry, Ellen Dellert. Don Dillingham/Sandra Dillingham. Gail Felker, Mark Klostermeyer, Robyn Murane, Stan Quick, Rick Savage, Mick Stamps, Ginny Wells, plus help from Ninamarie Maragioglio.

Speaking of uniforms, there was a bandana check for the Class of 2015 – all passed.

Membership vp Rich Hewitt introduced guests and welcomed them all.

After the break, it was back to work on our music. Dick Hall gave his annual pre-International pep talk about Harmonizer pride!  At 10 pm, everyone helped clear the hall.

Before we left, Joe and Terry confirmed that the chorus will do the job on Saturday June 13^th in DC.  We will do a few quick reviews of “Happy” before then.

The afterglow crowd had fun as usual at La Porta’s.

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 2015 International Retreat May 29-30 Westminster MD

This year’s retreat was a huge success from every aspect.  There were 119 singers on the 11 sets of risers. 

Coaches David Wright and Brandon Guyton were top-notch and taught us all so much more to do in making our performance exciting.  We also learned more about our arrangements and the music we sing and how to use our instruments to produce the best barbershop harmony. Our songs, for the record, are “Someone Like You” from “Jekyll & Hyde” and arranged by Steve Tramack; and “Me Ol’ Bamboo” from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and arranged by Clay Hine.

Supporting these coaches was our top-notch in-house crew: director Joe Cerutti, associate director Tony Colosimo, assistant director Terry Reynolds, choreographer Carlos Barillo, riser coach Chuck McKeever, section leaders Rick Savage, Josh DesPortes, Reed Livergood, Andrew Havens, Jim Lake.

Retreat chairman Chuck McKeever and his team made it all run so smoothly.  The staff at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD, was a great help too in setting up breaks, preparing for our arrival in the dorms and having the cafeteria open early each meal .  We stayed in air conditioned dorms this year vs the suites where we had stayed in recent years.  There was plenty of food for sure.

Chuck’s crew included a sound/AV team of Doug White, Mike Kelly and Dennis Ritchey who worked hard all weekend to mic the coaches, film the weekend and help show videos.  Several non-singers were there to help with admin details including Sam McFarland and Keith Jones.  John Pence did work to produce the weekend printed program. Howard Nestlerode collected our registration fees.  Chuck’s logistics team also included Len Dornberger, Jack Cameron and Rich Hewitt.  Drew Fuller was Harmo van driver and Bob Blair and many other guys helped unload and reload the truck with risers and all of our other equipment. This meant getting things set up Friday afternoon for the early rehearsals.

Friday nite, about 50 guys accepted the invite to come up early to get settled in and prepared to start first thing on Saturday.  A large contingent of guys ate at the Irish pub in town and then as the evening rolled on and more and more guys arrived there was a nice gathering of guys in the dorm to socialize. However, the front row had committed to all be there at 8 pm and they worked for two hours on their routine.

Speaking of commitment, there have been some great stories emerge about our guys making the extra effort to attend – such as Peter Hubbard taking the bus up from Atlanta where he has moved in the last few weeks, guys who drive from Delaware like Len Dornberger and Mike Fasano; Gene Swartz who drives from Roanoke to Richmond and rides the rest of the way with Craig Odell and Mike Geipel and then they meet guys in Fredericksburg; Alan Lamson (who had to miss the retreat because of a back problem that happened on Thursday) who flies to DC from his home in Connecticut; and TJ Donahue who flew in from Denver.

Saturday morning’s kick off at 8:30 am following a continental breakfast in the hall with started with welcome remarks from Chuck.  Then Tony did a long and solid warm up session for us before turning things over to an excited Joe who proudly welcomed our coaches and told the newer guys more about the barbershop backgrounds of David and Brandon.

After that it was solid singing and working on making improvements all day.  There were some mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks, and lunch of course. Often there were meetings of small groups such as the front row, or the Class of 2015 (that is the guys singing with us in Pittsburgh who have never sung with the Harmonizers at an International – which means some are brand new barbershop singers and some have earned medals with other chapters and are new to our chapter). Their president this year is Spencer Wight.

The official class list is 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.

President Terry Reynolds served as emcee for the weekend and coordinated announcements during the weekend.  Pittsburgh coordinator Craig Kujawa announced that Frank Fedarko would be photo sales chair at International (see him to make your reservations starting on Tuesday nite); Randall Eliason will be distributing the free tickets to any Harmonizer who wants to attend the Togetherness breakfast in Pittsburgh; Steve Murane is selling the $30 tickets for any guests a member will bring to that breakfast.  Tickets distribution began at the retreat and will continue on Tuesday nite. Craig also had handouts from the Pittsburgh convention bureau for each of us.

There were some guests during the weekend besides Keith and Sam including Walt Page, Joe Sawyer, Bill Sowers, Tom Griffith, the director of choral activities at McDaniel College and some family members of guys who came by. Great to have Michael Schwartz back singing with us.


 Before dinner David refreshed the “Friends” tag that we would use at the end of the weekend. And we were reminded to wear our Pittsburgh costumes to the evening rehearsal.

It was fantastic to see all of the nifty outfits the member had created (with their wranglers). As we continued to work on the uptune, Carlos reviewed each man’s costume and offered suggestions to some to enhance or add color or the like.

About 8:30 pm on Saturday nite we took off the costumes and prepared for the annual party at our retreat.  The college provided a good buffet of warm and cold things and plenty of liquid refreshments for all.

Terry kicked off the eve by inviting one of our chapter quartets, BRAVADO with Doug White, Kevin McKenzie, Chris Odell and Todd Ryktarsyk (recent fourth place quartet in the Southern Division contest) to sing.  Then there was a new Pittsburgh logo shown – “Sing Softly & Carry a Big Stick” which included some rods of bamboo in the design – that is available to order on t-shirts and other items.  Stay tuned for more details on how to do that from our website.

Joe remarked about the many wonderful highlights of being a Harmonizer to include our wonderful trip to France last year.  Recently the folks in Les Ventes France sent a video to us thanking us again for coming to their village and inviting us to come again someday.  Peter Hubbard did the translation and our av team added the subtitles.

Also our friend Peggy Harris (the widow of Billie D. Harris and who we sang to that day in France) sent a special greeting to the Harmonizers. (Chris Huber reports she will be 90 on June 25^th.) Those two warm and emotional videos were shown for all to see.

Then Joe had us take a look at some videos of the Harmonizers progress from our last gold medal performance, to the first International with Joe as director and to our third place performance in Toronto. Then as comparison, a video of our Ambassadors of Harmony friends doing “76 Trombones.”

Then finally we got to see the much anticipated skit by the Class of 15!  And it was fantastic!!!  The funny script was written, YeEd hears, by their class president Spencer.  Ron Precup was narrator in his best fake British accent.  Marvin Evans did the commercial breaks. It was the evolution of the Harmonizers from cave man days til now.  Many of the class had starring parts in the skit and some even sang!!

To wrap up the fun nite, Terry organized a game where the chorus formed ten teams of about 12 guys each and did a fun contest of singing B flat songs in three-quarter time (an idea stolen from Steve Delehanty).  It was fun.  David and Brandon were judges and declared the best barbershop song and best entertainment song.  Of course those groups of guys are still gloating from their success(?).

But truthfully, the party continued back in the dorm.

Sunday morning, we turned in our keys to Chuck and Sam before entering the cafeteria for breakfast.

And then back on the risers at 8:30 to recap and continue to polish points that had been discovered on Saturday. Tony did another good warm up for the tired voices.

Chuck did some parting remarks and thank yous to crews who helped make the weekend flow.

President Terry took a vote on a show opportunity on Sunday June 13^th in DC.

Then Terry began the wrap up remarks for the weekend including leading the applause for Chuck and his crew.

Joe pledged that we would work totally on the contest songs in June (plus “Happy” for the June 13^th gig).

Someone encouraged each guy to spend 15 minutes each day in June on their performance for Pittsburgh.

Joe thanked our great coaches again and offered them a chance for parting remarks.  David reminded us to be thankful that we could come together in this art form of barbershopping.  He spoke highly of Joe’s musical leadership and reminded us, though, that the end result is up to us. The “power to make it even better is fun with the Harmonizers where the heart is in the right place.”

Brandon spoke too of the special attitude and love  for this art form and for each other.

We concluded the session, locked arms, singing the “Friends” tag (that is for those who could sing it and not get too emotional doing so)!

Everyone pitched into haul the risers, av things, props and signs out to the truck. Then they headed to their homes – with some stops for chow or ice cream en route.

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.