Looking Back on the March 24^th, 2020 Chapter News

The chapter suspension of in-person meetings of the chorus, boards and committees continues until further notice as well as any small group gatherings. This is in recognition of recent mandates by officials and leaders of the BHS and in cooperation with local health authorities. 

Thus there was not a meeting of the Alexandria Harmonizers on March 24^th 2020.  Instead, director Joe Cerutti hosted a Harmonizer Chat at 7 pm via Facebook Live that was purposely morphed into a Zoom video meeting  at 7:15 pm

There were about 45-50 participants in the event which lasted until about 9 pm.

Joe was eager to use this method to keep everyone  informed, to help guys be in touch with each other, to encourage and help singers continue their personal preparation on music – and even choreography.

The music team is eager to receive feedback on the videos created for the chorus and posted on Facebook Live.

Work is about to expand to include “Goodbye” from The Producers.  Associate director Tony Colosimo will be getting out the annotated copy. 

Joe reports that choreo coach Cy Wood has created a plan for “42^nd Street” and there will be videos to help members prepare themselves to perform it when the Harmonizers get to reconvene as a chorus on risers.   This work will lead to a method of visual recordings of the singers’ performance.

Joe was also excited that David Wright has just sent the new contest ballad arrangement of “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma to our music team.  As soon as they have reviewed it they will contract to have the learning tracks produced,  and then post them on Groupanizer.

At this point in the evening, members asked questions or entered in the discussion. 

There were many points made about submitting recordings to appointed listeners.  A detailed chart of those matters and other music releases was previously sent to all members. It was reported that listeners have continued to refine their procedures and schedules and services

.

There was a brief chapter meeting period. Executive director Randall Eliason reminded all that Spring2ACTion is coming up soon.  He wanted all members to have it on their calendar – even if we can’t meet in person since that event is our chapter’s largest income producing event of the year.

President Stan Quick encouraged all members to submit their Census form they received recently.

Then Joe and the guys tried some singing – but it didn’t work too well.  So there will be more experimentation before next week’s gathering via Zoom at 7 pm.

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler reported the follow men had renewed their membership recently:  Bob Bowman for 66 years, Terry Jordan for 56 years, Chuck Hunter for 48 years, Tom Hansen for 44 years, Andy Smith for 44 years, Bede Bender for 44 years, Will Cox for 42 years, Dean Rust for 40 years, Rick Wagner for 39 years, Bill Sowers for 38 years, Al Hanenbaum for 34 years, Jim Lucey for 31 years, Chris Huber for 28 years, Brad Jones for 28 years, Peter Frank  for 27 years, Tom Frederick for 27 years, Calvin Schnure for 25 years, Bob Rhome for 19 years, Joe Cerutti for 19 years,  Dave Branstetter for 15 years, Andrew Havens for 11 years, and Chris Odell for 11 years.

In other news, the M-AD has decided to cancel Harmony College East this year. Everyone who has registered thus far will be reimbursed in full.  According to Glenn Phillips, the district education leaders are planning a huge HCE comeback in 2021 where all members can safely gather in fellowship and song. To that end, they intend to resurrect the HCE Facebook page (which has been dormant for several years) in order to provide members, on a regular basis, with educational snippets and instructional segments to glimpse what we have planned for next year.

Harmonizers, let’s stay in touch with each other during this period of no meeting or no singing together. Before the meeting was closed, Steve White shared that from his prospective as an employee at the National Institute of Health – “this pandemic situation is gonna last a long while. Please be safe, sensible and in touch.”

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 71^st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the March 17^th, 2020 Chapter Meeting Situation

The chapter has suspended in-person meetings of the chorus, boards and committees until further notice and discourages any small group gatherings as well. This is in recognition of recent mandates by officials and leaders of the BHS and in cooperation with local health authorities. Thus there was not a meeting of the Alexandria Harmonizers on March 17^th 2020.

The music team has worked hard to provide continued materials and tools so all singers can work at home on their music and study. More new songs are being released for members via Groupanizer. Terry Reynolds, who handles the administrative issues for the music team,  sent a detailed message to all members in this regard. This includes an update on submitting recordings. Singers should be sure to read it over.

In case you have not heard, the Mid Atlantic District leaders have also cancelled the Southern Division Contest and Convention originally set for June 5-6 in Baltimore.  That contest was a preliminary qualifying event for the district contest in the fall. Society contest and judging leaders are working on a plan to determine who will be eligible to sing at the fall district chorus and quartet contests in Lancaster, PA, Oct. 23-24.  Similarly, the M-AD has cancelled the International Prelims Contest and Convention that was scheduled this spring, and a plan will be developed for deciding which quartets go to the International in 2020 from our district.  

Recently president Stan Quick reminded members to register for their trip to Harmony University this summer.  In that regard, he also explained our chapter’s tradition of maintaining an Angel Fund that is available to help any members who may need financial assistance to participate in a Harmonizer activity such as attending Harmony U.  Any members interested in being an Angel, just write a check made out to Alexandria Harmonizers and give it to either Stan or Dave Welter.  Be sure to put a note of "Angel Fund" on the check.  If you'd like to use PayPal, send it to Chapter.Payments@Harmonizers.org.   Be sure to select "Friends & Family" and not "Purchase." As with checks, if you use PayPal, add a note to let us know this is for the Angel Fund.

If you so need financial assistance for an activity (such as HU), please send Stan an email , text or call him at 703-629-3835.   All requests will be strictly confidential and those who need the help should not hesitate to talk to Stan.  Over the years we have found a way to help many members go with the chorus.  This might be especially important with the shutdowns in our area from the virus. 

If you have been talking to someone about visiting the chapter, explain to them about our current status and offer to keep them posted as to when we resume our meetings.

Let’s stay in touch with each other during this period of no meeting or singing together.

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 71^st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the March 17^th, 2020 Chapter Meeting Situation

The chapter has suspended in-person meetings of the chorus, boards and committees until further notice and discourages any small group gatherings as well. This is in recognition of recent mandates by officials and leaders of the BHS and in cooperation with local health authorities. Thus there was not a meeting of the Alexandria Harmonizers on March 17^th 2020.

The music team has worked hard to provide continued materials and tools so all singers can work at home on their music and study. More new songs are being released for members via Groupanizer. Terry Reynolds, who handles the administrative issues for the music team,  sent a detailed message to all members in this regard. This includes an update on submitting recordings. Singers should be sure to read it over.

In case you have not heard, the Mid Atlantic District leaders have also cancelled the Southern Division Contest and Convention originally set for June 5-6 in Baltimore.  That contest was a preliminary qualifying event for the district contest in the fall. Society contest and judging leaders are working on a plan to determine who will be eligible to sing at the fall district chorus and quartet contests in Lancaster, PA, Oct. 23-24.  Similarly, the M-AD has cancelled the International Prelims Contest and Convention that was scheduled this spring, and a plan will be developed for deciding which quartets and choruses go to the International in Cleveland for 2021 from our district.  

Recently president Stan Quick reminded members to register for their trip to Harmony University this summer.  In that regard, he also explained our chapter’s tradition of maintaining an Angel Fund that is available to help any members who may need financial assistance to participate in a Harmonizer activity such as attending Harmony U.  Any members interested in being an Angel, just write a check made out to Alexandria Harmonizers and give it to either Stan or Dave Welter.  Be sure to put a note of "Angel Fund" on the check.  If you'd like to use PayPal, send it to Chapter.Payments@Harmonizers.org.   Be sure to select "Friends & Family" and not "Purchase." As with checks, if you use PayPal, add a note to let us know this is for the Angel Fund.

If you so need financial assistance for an activity (such as HU), please send Stan an email , text or call him at 703-629-3835.   All requests will be strictly confidential and those who need the help should not hesitate to talk to Stan.  Over the years we have found a way to help many members go with the chorus.  This might be especially important with the shutdowns in our area from the virus. 

If you have been talking to someone about visiting the chapter, explain to them about our current status and offer to keep them posted as to when we resume our meetings.

Let’s stay in touch with each other during this period of no meeting or singing together.

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 71^st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the March 10^th, 2020 Chapter Meeting

A good number of chorus men were present this week.  Director Joe Cerutti started off the nite with the members in seats so he could brief them on registering for Harmony University on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville. He stressed the early bird pricing deadline is March 15^th and saves a person big bucks.  He also explained that after you get registered, you can begin to sign up for workshops/classes/activities and that you can fill your day as you please except for the time slots when the chorus will be coached as a group (3:45-5:30 and 7-9).

Joe also took time to review the plan ahead for the new meeting nite schedules and subsequent recordings by the members. These plans are a result of great feed-back from members after the first pilot session we have been thru.  Also the complete music team had a lengthy meeting to iron out some changes and improvements for all.

A summary of a couple points he made – the new expectation for the Alexandria Harmonizers Chorus is that (1) you will need to do lots of work at home. If you have a concern about that, for sure speak to a section leader or the director or associate director. And (2) the chorus is developing a significant culture change to lots of self recordings that are designed to determine if you are riser ready (not to qualify or to purge singers).

For those who express concern about “why no quarteting” during meeting nites, you should begin to consider using the elective periods for that as much as you’d like (small groups, breakout sessions, and even getting coached someplace by someone from the chapter).

Joe’s report from the music team meeting included assurance that there will be more choral singing on the risers each week, small group work session will be improved with trained leaders for each group, with a pitch person for each, and a timer for each. Certainly the music team will also have provided detailed lesson plan outlines for those sessions.

As part of improving the recording process, one of the electives tonite is for listeners and sections leaders to meet for training, standards development about what to listen for and how to suggest improvements or corrections.  For now singers are asked to only submit one recording of one song per week – and don’t submit anything until after March 17^th.

The singing time started this week with sectionals on “Defying Gravity” before the chapter meeting period.

Communications director Steve Murane reminded everyone about the upcoming social events and explained Spring2ACTion in Alexandria on Wed. April 29^th.

Steve suggested members review his recent email to get the new email address that a member can use to send a non-official message to the whole chapter such as to sell an item or suggest a concert or seek input on a project.

He also reviewed the chapter’s plans/suggestions to cope with the virus situation:

Like all groups in the DC Metro area, the Harmonizers share an awareness of the growing concerns about the COVID-19 virus. Although there are still relatively few reported cases in our immediate area, we all want to be safe and responsible regarding the possible spread of the disease.  Chapter leadership conferred and asked executive director Randall Eliason to me to relay the following info to members:
1) Rehearsals will go forward as scheduled unless leaders announce otherwise.
2) As we do during bad weather events, we ask that each of you make your own decision about attendance, with your personal safety (as well as the safety of your fellow Harmonizers) as your top priority.
3) If you personally don't feel well, or have traveled to a high-risk area or have other reason to believe you may have been exposed to the virus, then consistent with the CDC recommendations we ask that you stay home to avoid any risk of spreading any illness to others.
4) During rehearsal, we will implement other recommended measures, including encouraging regular hand washing, using "elbow bumps" or other alternatives to avoid handshakes, and coughing into your elbow rather than your hands. We will also spread out more on the risers and during sectionals.
5) Consistent with our pre-existing plans, the sectionals will be recorded and put on Facebook, so you will be able to watch remotely if you choose not to attend. We will also record Joe's opening remarks concerning the pilot rehearsal program and modifications we will be making, so you will not miss out on those. Consistent with our new commitment to make better use of technology, tomorrow and every week we will do everything we can to make it possible for you to learn remotely even if you are not at rehearsal.
6) We will continue to monitor these events as they unfold and will respond accordingly. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me or any of your chapter leaders.

President Stan Quick gave emphasis to members getting their registrations taken care of for Harmony U and for the Southern Division contest in Baltimore, June 5-6 (every member needs a registration to sing on the contest stage there, and the chorus must sing at the Division contest in order to qualify to attend the International contest in the summer of 2021.

Stan also thanked Dixie Kennett for her many years of service taking attendance for the chapter.  The chorus applauded and thanked her.  Jerry Jayjohn will assume those attendance taking duties.

Secretary Chris Buechler presented a membership renewal card and a 35 year pin to Ken Ives.

Membership director Jacob Broude welcomed two first time guests – Aaron Wilkes, friend of Turner Arndt, and Matt Pearce, a former barbershop singer from Ohio living in the DC area now and working at the Kennedy Center.

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 71^st year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd