Looking Back on the 2022 Harmonizers’ Events and Milestones
This was an amazing year filled with challenges and changes for the Harmonizers and at the end of the year the members were singing together in-person, were wearing a third place medal, and had several great shows under their belts. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to influence chapter operations and forced many changes in weekly meetings, shows and even the contest. The last part of the year, the weekly meetings were hybrid sessions with both in-person and Zoom or Facebook.
There was no chapter meeting the first two weeks of January and then for the first meeting of the year, it had to be held via Zoom because of upticks in Covid cases in the area. That first meeting was the traditional launch for the new year with reports from the music team and artistic director Joe Cerutti.
The music team and chapter leadership worked hard to promote good singing, add great new arrangements, involve many of the younger members in musical leadership, and prepare for musical involvement in the community and in Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) events.
Several major administrative projects were accomplished in 2022 including combining the two chapter boards into one; deleting chapter dues with the expectation that members would make tax deductible donations to replace their dues; launching a new Harmonizer website thanks to Donell Torres; and hiring Susan Fitzpatrick as general manager for the chapter.
The chapter’s annual awards were presented at chapter meetings in the early spring and covered both 2020 and 2021. A new award was added this year called the Sandy Stamps “Open Arms” Award and was presented to Mick Stamps as the first recipient. This year’s Harmonizer Memorial Award went to two members this time, Tony and Joe, for their superior dedication and leadership to keep the chapter healthy during the Covid era. The other Harmonizer award recipients were New Note Award. – Turner Arndt; Dick Hall Spirit of Harmony Award – Ben Watsky; Harmonizer Honor Award – Jason Lee; Oz Newgard Memorial Award – Tessa Walker; Ibbianne and Wilbur Sparks Award – Joe Sr. and Janet Cerutti. Five meritorious service awards were given too – Mike Kelly, Dennis Ritchey, Joel Golden, Terry Reynolds and Randall Eliason.
The Harmonizers also presented their 2022 Award of Harmony to a community leader whose life and efforts best represent the truest meaning of harmony. Past president Stan Quick and artistic director Joe Cerutti presented this prestigious award to Joi Brown.
She is the Vice President Programming/Artistic Director at Strathmore, a cultural and artistic venue and institution in North Bethesda, MD. Joi invited the Harmonizers to perform at three major events at Strathmore in recent years. The first was I Am Anne Hutchinson/ I Am Harvey Milk, which starred Broadway luminaries Kristin Chenoweth and Andrew Lippa. The second was Iron & Coal, a powerful theatrical concert by acclaimed composer and performer Jeremy Schonfeld. The third event was Strathmore’s production and hosting of the annual Harmonizers’ Holiday show.
The unified board for 2022 for the AH Inc. organization and the BHS chapter took office January 1, 2022. Noah Van Gilder was elected president; David Kohls was elected vice president; Devin Gerzof was elected board secretary; Terry Reynolds was elected treasurer. Joshua Baumgardner, John Greene and Carolyn Griffin were elected as community board members at large. Bruce Roehm was named immediate past president and joined Frank Shipp as chapter members at large.
The day-to-day work of the chapter is done by an Ops Team. The 2022 team was headed by Randall Eliason as the executive director; and included Joe Cerutti, Jr., artistic director; Carl Kauffmann, finance director for AH Inc.; David Welter, finance director for the BHS Chapter; Robyn Murane, volunteer coordinator; Sam Whiteoak, communications director; Nick Murane, contest director, with Craig Kujawa taking this job in the summer; Sheryl Berlin, education director; Ken Rub became development director mid-year; Jacob Broude, membership director; Doug White, shows director; Gary Cregan, operations director; Jack Pitzer, historian for part of the year and Don Harrington historian for the remainder of the year; and David DesPortes, chapter secretary.
The 2022 music leadership team included Joe Cerutti, artistic director; Tony Colosimo, associate director who conducted warm up sessions nearly every week; plus section leaders Randy Lazear for tenors, Tessa Walker, Ben Watsky and Lance Fisher for leads, Jason Lee for baritones, and Ryan Mextorf and David Breen for basses; and Turner Arndt as visual leader. Retired assistant director emeritus Will Cox sometimes filled in for warm up sessions.
A major thrust of the music program for the year included a change in the notion that “a good Harmonizer will sing every note, every song, but instead take pride in knowing what he won’t sing and when.” A several-step process was used to add a song to the repertoire that included small group work sessions, sectionals, each singer getting heard by a music leader, then each singer self-assessing his readiness for performance.
Music for the early part of the year included “Help from My Friends,” “Something’s Coming,” “Chorus Line Medley,” “Never Fully Dressed,” “Oh What A Beautiful Morning,” “Bridge Over Trouble Water,” and “42nd Street.”
The chapter-appointed Covid advisory committee from 2021 (some of the men actually work in the health science field) continued to help leadership make decisions as to masks, in-person or Zoom or hybrid; and helped establish procedures and policies plus communicate with members and their families. The team was headed by Jason Lee plus Randall Eliason, Chris Huber, Stan Quick, Frank Shipp, Steve White and Noah Van Gilder. The committee was often asked to consult with BHS and Mid Atlantic District (M-AD) leaders.
The music team developed a new plan for meetings in January to deal with Covid issues. It called for an ensemble of singers actually singing at the chapter meeting place, Scottish Rite Temple (SRT) on Braddock Street in Alexandria, and the rest of the chorus attending via Zoom. After the first week of this, leadership made certain someone was at SRT that was also tuned into the Zoom call so that any fixes could be made.
Another option to make meetings safer during the year was to move the chorus from one meeting space to another after 30 minutes or so when meeting at SRT. Sometime that included singing outside on the steps in front of SRT – even when it started to get dark and we added lights. Thanks to Mike Kelly and Dennis Ritchey for all the months of crazy tech support for Tuesday night meetings. And kudos to Terry Reynolds, who kept the whole chapter meeting operation going as the administrative coordinator for the music team. He routinely send messages to members, provided links for Zoom, placed “spots” on the floor for singers to stand on to ensure they were six-feet-apart, signage at SRT, and he made sure both those on Zoom and those attending meetings in-person were well served. He also helped the Covid team coordinate vaccination records as the chapter maintained a ‘vaccination required’ policy. Guests and visitors also were required to sign in and show proof of vaccination.
It was Tuesday, Feb. 15, when the chorus sang on risers at SRT. Robyn Murane restarted uniform replacements as shows were on the calendar. Our black casual camp shirts with the chapter logo are now created by Tyler Carpenterand his company, Weave and Notion.
Also in February, President Van Gilder reported results from last year’s “Giving Tuesday” campaign – over $17,000 was collected. Bruce Roehm was campaign coordinator and thanked chapter leadership for their matching fund donations of $7,500.
Our first coach for the year was Steve Scott. During 2022 the chorus also benefitted from coaching from Kevin Keller and David Wright as arrangers of our contest songs “42nd Street” and “Oh What a Beautiful Morning,” respectively;” from Cy Wood as choreographer for the contest package; from Chuck Hunter for a deeper insight into the meanings of the contest songs; and from David McEachern and Jim Henry at the pre-International retreat.
During the year, Joe would share a Harmonizer Hero Factoid at a Tuesday night meeting about one of the members on the risers taken from the Harmo Hero forms members had submitted. Alan Wile continued his work at interviewing members for this project to be posted on the chapter’s website. When the chapter was back in-person, he dutifully brought the notebooks to display Harmo Hero forms of all the members who have submitted them.
Joe continued the annual interviews of every active chapter member and community board member with help from the section leaders. Monthly “pulse” surveys were distributed electronically to keep track of how members were coping personally and to collect feedback from the members.
Again in the spring of 2022, the chapter hosted the Yale Whiffenpoofs and sang on the show with them. It was the first in-person show for the chorus albeit with masks. This show was at the Scottish Rite Temple in DC on 16th Street.
Joe continued to host afterglows at the Hamro House – his home on Stevens Street – with many chorus photos and chapter memorabilia on the walls. Pizza was often the bill-of-fare, but once each month the attendees celebrated chapter member birthdays for that month with a birthday cake. Tag singers usually found their way to the basement to belt out tags for the night.
The following quartets from the chapter competed in the Southern Division contest March 25-26 in Wilmington, DE. Southern Division winner was FIRST TAKE with Alex Courson, Tony Colosimo, Drew Wheaton and Andrew Havens. Other chapter quartets were FANTASTIC 4, BREAKTHROUGH, BREAKFAST BLEND, THE ELDERLY BROTHERS and JEFFERSON PLAID TIE. Two Harmo quartets were in the top five at the Central Division contest – B&B and TAYLOR MADE.
BETTER TOGETHER quartet, with Tony and Elizabeth Colosimo plus Andrew and Heather Havens, was mic tester for the quartet contest in Wilmington. The chorus did not sing in this contest. The Virginians from Richmond, directed by Erin Odell, were Southern Division chorus champs.
Special guests attended the April 5th meeting. Norbert Hammes, director of the Heavy Medal Chorus in Germany, who visits the chapter when he comes to the USA to judge a BHS contest; and Brian Lynch, BHS communication staffer, who was in town and was interviewed by an Alexandria Times reporter at the chapter meeting. That interview yielded great coverage in local media as the chapter heads toward its 75th anniversary in 2023.
The chapter’s first big show of 2022 was for the Rappahannock Concert Association (RCA) on April 9 in Heathville, VA. About 40 members made the 3-hour bus trip, and several singers who live closer to the venue than to Alexandria drove themselves. A true chance to sing for an audience again!
The RCA provides professional artists for the Northern Neck area. This concert was supported by the Virginia Commission of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts to help the RCA hire the Harmonizers. B&B Quartet and BETTER TOGETHER joined the chorus for this show. The songs for this show included “There Must Be a City,” “Impossible Dream,” “Ave Maria” with Lance Fisher, Tony Colosimo and David Breen as soloists. There was a sing-along with “God Bless America” and audience members were invited to salute or stand when the chorus sang the medley of Armed Forces theme songs. The opener was “Never Fully Dressed” and the closer song was “Circle of Life” with rhythm from Bob Blair and lots of choreography and color. It brought the audience to its feet! Singers joined in the effort to load the risers and sound equipment back onto the buses for the return trip to the SRT where members left their cars.
Whenever possible Alan Wile and Walter Page sold 50-50 raffle tickets at chapter meetings during the year. One half of the money goes to the winning ticket holder and the other half goes to the M-AD Endowment Fund in the chapter’s name.
In April the Harmonizers participated in Spring2ACTion (S2A) that is a program of the City of Alexandria to help not-for-profit groups raise funds. Our overall chairman was Randall Eliason this year with help from development director Ken Rub and chapter general manager Susan Fitzpatrick. In the end, the chapter raised over $35,000 in donations, and $1,250 in prizes from the organizing group because, for example, the Harmonizers had the most donors during the 3-4 pm power hour! The top ten S2A fundraisers in the chorus were Randall Eliason, Joe Cerutti, Jason Lee, Jim Kirkland, Dean Rust, Brad Jones, Ken Rub, Jacob Broude, Michael Schwartz and Dave Welter.
Another fund raising effort in the chapter is the sale of scrip cards. For example, when pizza is ordered for the afterglow, a scrip card is used. When members needed hotel rooms at convention, they bought scrip cards for that hotel. In the end, the chapter makes a percentage on all purchases members make with scrip cards. Craig Kujawa is coordinator and promotes participation.
Routinely during the year, chapter secretary David DesPortes presents BHS membership renewal cards to the members who have paid dues recently. This year he asked the members to give one “clap” for each year the guy had been a member. There was a lot of clapping when the man has been a member 40 years or more!
In mid-May, there was an uptick in Covid cases and so the chapter asked attendees to wear masks inside SRT. It also meant we sang more outside on the steps and held our announcement and meeting time outside.
The chapter brought back the crawfish boil in May – this year as a thank you to members and their significant others who had raised at least $250 for Spring2ACTion. Former member Scott Kahler came up from New Orleans to serve as chef at the Harmo House. HOT PURSUIT quartet sang outside on the lawn. About 3pm Joe emailed all members to come help eat the food. Chapter development director Ken Rub organized the event.
The Harmonizers held a pre-International Retreat June 3-5 at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. The weekend -long work session was back at McDaniel College in the student center where it had been in past years. This year, however, the singers stayed at the Best Western near campus.
The contest chorus of about 65 drove up on Friday night to begin rehearsal, then continued working all day Saturday and Sunday morning on the contest package for BHS International Convention in Charlotte, NC, in July. The package included “Oh What A Beautiful Morning” arranged by David Wright and “42nd Street” arranged by Kevin Keller. Choreography for the uptune was created by Cy Wood.
Special coaches for this year’s retreat were Jim Henry, director of the Ambassadors of Harmony and bass of gold medal quartets GAS HOUSE GANG and CROSSROADS; and David McEachern, from Toronto who had been at our retreat in the past.
Artistic director Joe Cerutti conducted the work/rehearsal/coaching sessions. Associate director Tony Colosimo conducted major warm up sessions and assisted Joe. Turner Arndt was often asked to review riser choreography for the uptune and he even held a couple review sessions during the weekend. The front row worked several times during the weekend on their choreography while the rest of the chorus took a break.
Craig Kujawa coordinated the retreat weekend. Music team administrator Terry Reynolds orchestrated the schedule and work times. The riser crew set up things on Friday evening early enough so that the front row could rehearse at 6:30 pm. A stage crew marked the floor for dimensions of the Charlotte stage. On Sunday, everyone pitched in to help load the Harmonizer truck with risers, sound and operational equipment.
There were refreshment breaks during the weekend including a fun ice cream treat break Friday evening. The university had added a relaxing patio area outside the hall where members could spread out and visit during breaks. That was also where most singers celebrated and enjoyed the goodies served at the usual Saturday night party.
There are 21 members of the Class of 2022 – members who had never sung at an International Contest with the Harmonizers. The class included: Turner Arndt, Scott Beach, Michael Berkson, Jacob Broude, Tyler Carpenter, Gary Cregan, Lance Fisher, Devin Gerzof, Ryan Mextorf, Josh Myers, Duncan Peacock, Tessa Walker, David Breen, Michael Pugh, Cy Shuster, Frank Shipp, John Sifuentes, Dylan Smith, Tony Amante Schepers, Ben Watsky, and Zak Sandler.
There were several bandana checks of the Class of 2022 with wrangler Mark Klostermeyer to be certain the class members were displaying their bandanas whenever the chorus met. This year’s bandanas were created by Tyler andCody Carpenter. As has been the tradition, the class presented a funny skit during the Saturday party that started after the evening work session. They conducted a typical chapter meeting scene and members of the class portrayed the usual cast of characters from a Tuesday night meeting! The rest of the chorus roared with laughter as the skit progressed!!
Another fun event at the party, after the skit, was the first-ever ‘Stump a Harmonizer’ contest. Joe and tech guy Mike Kelly filmed about 30 members while they were arriving on Friday evening - some new guys, some leadership guys, some longtime members. Each person was asked a question about a variety of topics or opinions (such as who is more organized – Terry or Craig; or how to spell COLOSIMO; or what is SPEBSQSA?). When the guy made a funny face and was about to answer, the recording stopped.
Joe then asked the chorus to vote by walking to one side of the room or the other to indicate how they thought member would answer the question – right or wrong. Then the video continued to great cheers if the most singers agreed with the member. The game also brought tons of great laughter. (Credit goes to a bunch of guys who thought up the questions on a Tuesday night at a Harmo House afterglow.)
After the program Saturday night, it didn’t take long for tag singing to break out among members scattered everywhere.
Also during the weekend, there were sectional breakouts, front row breakouts, Class of 2022 meetings, and tons of fellowship among the members and the coaches. Chapter general manager Susan Fitzpatrick was on hand for the Saturday morning session for her first retreat. Alan Wile brought the notebooks of Harmo Hero forms for guys to look through during the weekend.
The retreat had it challenges for the attendees and the staff. Based on current COVID statistics, everyone wore a top quality mask whenever inside. All attendees had to show a negative COVID test on Friday and that meant a few members had to stay home as well as some who had been exposed and had to quarantine. There was graduation on campus that caused some glitches in room reservations which Craig and his carpool teammates managed. The retreat was not on Zoom but was on Facebook and several members tuned in for all or part of the sessions.
Joe spoke to the chorus to wrap up on Sunday and shared his enthusiasm and thanks for the work of his chorus members and the music team. Both coaches spoke and shared deep thoughts about “the power of working as one” to make music. The final music for the weekend was the traditional singing of the “Friends” tag as singers locked arms on the risers. The saying continues – “It Is Great to Be a Harmonizer!”
On June 21 the chapter celebrated the 74th anniversary of the Charter Night of the Alexandria Chapter of SPEBSQSA which was June 29, 1948. Members of the chapter’s history committee spoke about the original charter, signed by O. C. Cash, that was on display for members to see.
Cy Wood, choreographer and coach, was in Alexandria in early June to work with the front row and the seven members of 17th Street Dance from the Washington, DC, Gay Men’s Chorus who joined the chapter so they could perform with the Harmonizers in Charlotte. He worked with them to create the plan for the choreography for “42ndStreet.” Then he was back at the chapter meeting place, Tuesday, June 14, to fine-tune the entire package. The dancers were Danny Aldous, Sean Cator, Craig Cipollini, James Elzy, Jeffrey Holland, Cole Jaconski and Darryl Pilate. This was the first time the chorus members had met them and cheered and applauded the dancers for their addition to the contest package. Front row captain, Bruce Roehm, made them official name tags and Joe gave them a Class of 2022 bandana to welcome them to the Harmonizer family.
June 28 was the traditional send off before going to the International contest. The concert was at SRT in Alexandria. Family and fans were invited to witness the performance of the package after the chorus worked for a half hour. Covid cases were on the rise again, so the chorus had all tested negative for this performance and guests were asked to do the same.
At International, the chorus sang on Friday, July 8, but had to wait until the final round of choruses sang on Saturday for the results to be announced. In the end, the Alexandria Harmonizers were back “in the medals” with their third place finish in Charlotte. It was a great success story of team work, coping with COVID, terrific work by members on their own, great support of family and friends, two fantastic arrangements, a fabulous front row with the tap dancers, an active music team, and a huge infusion of new talent with the Class of 2022.
The Harmonizer score was 2788 – 92.9 % (all of the Harmonizer scores were in the 90s). There were 37 choruses in this year’s contest – six were mixed voices and one was treble voices. There were 68 on the risers for the Harmonizers and only a few other choruses had 80 or 90, most were under 35.
Artistic director Joe Cerutti was emotional when the chorus came off the stage and happy to finally have the experience that the best performance was on the stage – not back in the rehearsal room! He thanked the music team and crew for strong efforts to prepare the chorus.
Craig Kujawa earned the praise and thanks of all the Harmonizers for his support as contest coordinator for the chapter. His regular publications, Queen City Count Down, were informative and helped everyone make their plans for going to NC. He helped members get contest photos, make room reservations, buy convention tickets and participant t-shirts; and even helped guys order gift cards to use in paying their hotel bill at the Marriott City Center (which earned the chapter extra income in the chapter’s scrip program).
The COVID team worked hard to keep the chorus safe and eligible to sing, travel and eventually perform on stage without masks – the whole chorus tested negative on Thursday and they rehearsed and performed from that time on without masks indoors for the first time in months. (It is fair to report that a large number of our members tested positive after they returned to Virginia.)
It is also important to recognize the fantastic success of chapter quartets in Charlotte! FIRST TAKE with Alex Courson, Tony Colosimo, Drew Wheaton and Andrew Havens took a fifth place medal in the contest! It has been years since both the chorus and a quartet medaled from the chapter in the same year!
Cy Wood sang with HALF AND HALF in the semi-finals round as did former member Sean Devine in THROWBACK. Former members Spencer Wright sang with MADHATTEN and Will Daniel Simmons sang with SECRET BEST FRIENDS in the quarter-final quartet round. Earlier in the week, Tony and Andrew sang with their wives, Elizabeth and Heather, in BETTER TOGETHER, as mic testers for the first quartet contest session.
This is good place in the story to also cheer for the success of choruses from M-AD in the contest – Alexandria, third; Parkside Harmony from Hershey, fourth; GOTHAM, a mixed voices chorus, eighth, Parkside Melody treble chorus from Hershey, tenth; and East Coast Sound from NJ, eleventh! Some of our new members also sang with other choruses in the contest: David Breen and Lance Fisher sang with Parkside Harmony; and David, Lance, Michael Berkson and Josh Myers sang with East Coast Sound.
Also during the convention there was the Next Generation quartet contest for singers age 27 and younger. Lance Fisher sang with JEFFERSON PLAID TIE and they tied for first place with CLEMENTONES from Denmark and the Society of Nordic Barbershop Singers (SNOBS). The tie was broken by the singing score and so Lance got a second place medal with his pals Francesco Logozzo, Nick Ruiz and Cay Outerbridge.
Also singing in that contest were Michael Berkson in NEW SOCKS (appropriately they wore no socks on stage); Donell Torres in ON THE WIRE (he recently redid our chapter website); and Julian LaFlore and all the guys in THE QUIN-TONES who are frequent visitors at our chapter meetings.
The first Harmonizer meeting at convention took place on Tuesday night at 8:30 pm. It was great to see every one of the contest chorus on the risers for this session (often we don’t all make the first session). That was a lucky break this year, with I-95 traffic, rain, and airline stoppages. Everyone had self-tested for COVID before heading to Charlotte and was negative.
The riser crew had done their work early and unloaded the Harmo truck with risers and sound equipment. Thanks to Doug White and Don Thompson who were the drivers.
The second rehearsal was on Wednesday at 2:45 pm. Tony did the warm up session. Robyn Murane was already busy helping guys with last minute uniform matters. Jim Henry and his wife were there and he was pleased with the progress since retreat. He offered a few great comments, too, before scooting out. And Jim got to witness this year’s joke to surprise Joe – at a certain point in the rehearsal, they all started singing the tag and tossed the colored dots in the air and pasted some of them on Joe’s new BHS sport coat. He was shocked as usual. When Joe asked Jim if the AOH did that to him, he said something like – “they better not!” (By the way, the colored dots were the ones used all during COVID to indicate where guys could stand to be safely distanced. It was good to get rid of them.)
The Class of 2022 had to have a bandana check and three guys had forgotten theirs. So those three all sang “I’m A Little Tea Pot” together. Our dancer guys wore their bandanas too all week. The convention team asked men to post their hotel room numbers on a list on the back table – and as could be expected, family fans of the chorus put personal notes of encouragement and support under the door of each singer before the contest on Friday night.
Joe announced the plan “to take the risers on your own time and style – check out the stage, the lights, see how big the hall is.” This was a big change for the chorus versus walking in by riser rows. Many guys commented they liked it and that it helped them be relaxed.
Friday morning was an exciting day with the traditional Togetherness breakfast in our rehearsal room in the hotel. Contest chairman Craig invited guests to the buffet line by table. It was good food and a full house. Speakers for the morning sat at a reserved table and came to the mic after a welcome by chapter president Noah Van Gilder. Class of 2022 president Michael Pugh pledged that his classmates will continue to bring new members into the chapter.
Dave Reyno provided a cancelled postage stamp in honor of the convention being in Charlotte. Each singer was given one. Other guests at the breakfast included family members and friends from home. Chris Huber spoke about his 25-year membership of friendships and family with the Harmonizers. He paid tribute to some of the men who have gone on before us. He complimented the Class of 2022 for their talent and work ethic and leadership within the chapter already.
Chuck Hunter spoke again about the poetry and important message the chorus will deliver from the stage “in a Breathless Moment on a Beautiful Day.” Cy Wood, too, stopped in for a brief visit and we sang Happy Birthday to him. He spoke from his heart about the welcome he has received from the Harmonizers!
At the end, Joe spoke to express his many appreciations, and he shared a message he received from former chorus coach and good friend Cindy Hansen.
After the breakfast guests left, the chorus worked on their package until noon. Then they changed into their blue suit pants, white shirts, orange tie and blue vest. The front row guys all wore orange socks!
At 1 pm they reassembled in the room to finalize and to participate in the traditional ‘taking the risers in order of longest singing Harmonizers.’ There were three guys from the first class in 1978 – Rick Savage, Randy Lazear andSteve White. The bandanas went away! These events are special moments in the Harmonizer year!
The chorus rode busses to the contest venue, Spectrum Center, and after going through backstage, took their place on the risers and blasted a wonderful performance for all to see and hear! They earned standing ovations for both the ballad and the uptune. People cheered and screamed forever.
That evening, the chorus met back in their rehearsal room to be joined by the Bloomington, IL, Sounds of Illinois (SOI) chorus. SOI guys knew Joe as a coach and Zoom instructor, and wanted to see and hear Alexandria’s package up-close-and-personal (since they were in the competitor queue and didn’t hear it). The two chapters sang tags and old songs, and when everyone got there (through a hard rain storm,) each chorus performed its contest package for the other.
After the chorus contest ended on Saturday afternoon, the Harmonizers waited in Section 104 (no matter where you were sitting, you came back to be with your fellow singers). And when the Alexandria Harmonizers chorus was named third place, there was great bedlam all around Section 104. Tears of joy and hugs of fellowship continued out into the lobby.
It didn’t take long for everyone to find their way back to the rehearsal space in our hotel (thankfully the chapter had implemented a notification system that went to each person’s cell phone to alert them as to time and place for events like the medal distribution system). Of course, Terry had a list of the singers and Joe presented each member his medal after a big bear hug. Everyone cheered and applauded when he spoke about the pride of current singers standing on the shoulders of those men who have done it all before!
Then it was back to the contest venue for quartets. Because of COVID infections, Joe was pressed into service to judge the semi-final and final rounds of the quartet contest in the music category. He looked sharp in his tux he rented that Saturday to join the fellow judges.
All week long there were visits with former and current Harmonizers from the 5,000 plus convention attendees. Past M-AD president Bob Eckman stopped by a rehearsal session to present a financial gift to the chapter and to FIRST TAKE from the district. John Santora stopped by after having been elected as incoming Society president, to wish his Harmo friends good wishes. The chapter was proud, too, that Tony Colosimo and Tessa Walker directed the Mass Sing at the convention during the week.
President Noah Van Gilder said it well in his letter to all the members just as they were getting home from NC – “Now more than ever, It’s Great to Be a Harmonizer!
A couple weeks after Charlotte, the annual BHS Harmony University was held in New Orleans and Joe Cerutti, Tony Colosimo, Terry Reynolds and Tessa Walker were all on the faculty. Each of them taught in a different segment of the school, but on one day they team-taught a session on “So You Were Thinking of Starting a Treble Chorus in Your Chapter.” Clearly they were able to share the work done by them all in Alexandria to prepare for the launch of the new treble chorus, METRO VOICES.
In August the chapter was scheduled to perform for an outdoor Fairfax County Park, but it was rained out – just like so many of our summer appearances over the years! The fall chapter schedule of rehearsals helped prepare the chorus for the 2022 fall show, Sept. 10, at Schlesinger.
Theme for that show was ‘A Beautiful Morning’ and all the songs helped tell the chorus story of rebirth or returning to happier times after Covid. Joe summed it up best in his remarks in the show program: “This show was three years in the making! The chorus began learning much of this music in late 2019, in anticipation of our 2020 fall show. Then of course the pandemic shattered those plans and plunged us into a world of Zoom rehearsals and no live performances. As the months moved along, the chorus started work on “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” and that quickly became the perfect theme for this show.”
At the show, the chapter honored First Responders/Front Line Workers who served early in the Covid outbreak with free tickets; and recognized Harmonizer family members and patrons we lost during the pandemic with photos projected behind the chorus.
Uniform for the show was blue suit pants and vest. Guest talent for the show was Drew Tepe for a return engagement on a Harmonizer show as a singer and piano artist. This time he was asked to lead the audience in singing popular happy songs using projected lyrics. The BETTER TOGETHER quartet was guest performers during the second half of the show too.
Tessa Walker made the first public special announcement about the formation of a new soprano/alto chorus to be called METRO VOICES as part of the Harmonizers. The new chorus will be launched in earnest in January, 2023.
The chorus was excited to have been invited to sing at Wolf Trap on Sunday afternoon, Sept 13, at a “community powered singing celebration” with several other choral groups from the DC Metro area. The Harmonizers shared the program with seven other groups: Children’s Chorus of Washington, Duke Ellington School of the Arts Concert Chorale, Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and GenOUT, The Heritage Signature Chorale, Towson University Singers, The Washington Chorus, and the Washington Performing Arts Gospel Chorus. All of these singers combined to perform two numbers as a group – “We Are Love” and “United in Purpose. ”
The show organizers asked the Harmonizers to sing “Circle of Life” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” from their repertoire.
The first meeting of METRO VOICES treble chorus project was on Sept. 27 at 7 pm at Scottish Rite Temple in Alexandria. About a dozen voices attended. They began work on music to sing on the Harmonizer Holiday show. Both Tessa Walker and Joe Cerutti worked with the project group.
It was great for the Harmonizers to sing again at the Mid Atlantic District contest and convention, Oct 7-8, in Lancaster. PA, after the years without a convention. It was also great to have another Harmonizer quartet win the district quartet championship! FIRST TAKE earned 3178 points (or 88.3 %) to capture the top slot.
The Harmonizers did not compete in the chorus contest at Lancaster, but presented a master class from the main stage Saturday before the start of the quartet finals; provided a chorus for the district’s chorus director development class; and appeared as a guest on the Saturday night show wearing their third place medals earned in Charlotte.
Songs for the weekend included “Never Fully Dressed,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Circle of Life” for the Saturday night show; plus a couple songs – “Sweet and Lovely” and “Heart of My Heart” – for the directors training class; and parts of “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” and “Something’s Comin” for the master class.
Handouts for the master class gave an outline for the one-hour session with presenters Tony Colosimo, Terry Reynolds and Joe Cerutti. They explained the demographics of the chorus – ages and career fields; presented a significant session on vocal pedagogy; and shared a transparent report on how the chapter does things to prepare the chorus for performance, to gather feedback, to communicate, and to manage operations.
The next event on the calendar was a sing and social night the chapter hosted with Alfred Street Baptist Men’s Choir on Oct. 12 at SRT. Our chapter invited singers from other local barbershop chapters. Alfred Street invited other gospel singers. The groups took turns singing for each other in the auditorium. Then there was a social time with lots of refreshments in the cafeteria coordinated by Clyde Crusenberry.
An ensemble of the Harmonizer chorus sang on Friday, Nov. 11, at the Veterans’ Day event in the Del Ray area of Alexandria. The event was at the Mount Vernon Rec Center on Commonwealth Ave. and the singers wore suits and ties. Artistic Director Joe Cerutti directed. Dean Rust coordinated this community service activity. It was a proud moment when all veterans were recognized, and eleven of the sixteen Harmonizers present stood up. The Harmonizers sang the National Anthem as well as “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” the “Armed Forces Medley,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and closed singing “God Bless America” with event participants joining in.
This is an annual event co-sponsored by the Alexandria Recreation Department and the Friends of Rocky Versace. Rocky Versace was from Alexandria and received the Medal of Honor posthumously for heroism during the Vietnam war. The “Friends” group established a Memorial outside the Rec Center to honor Versace and 67 other Alexandrians who lost their lives fighting in Vietnam. Mayor Justin Wilson attended as did former Mayor and Harmonizer fan Allison Silberberg. About 100 people were present including a contingent of Girl Scouts from a local parish who handed out programs and led the Pledge of Alliance.
The remaining weeks of the year were used to prepare music for the chapter’s holiday events starting with a show at Schlesinger on Fri., Dec. 9. This year’s holiday show theme was “Comfort and Joy – A Harmonizer Holiday.”
Members brought two brightly colored wrapped pretend-packages to decorate the stage, and over the weekend, the chorus operations manager, Gary Cregan and a crew from the chorus, got holiday decorations from the chorus storage facility. Dennis Ritchey drove the Harmo truck to haul decorations and risers all weekend.
During the tech rehearsal, Mike Kelly and Dennis set up the sound and other tech equipment, and other members and volunteers helped unload the truck and set up the stage. Joe Sr. and Janet Cerutti were house managers, assisted bySusan Fitzpatrick. Greg Tepe was stage manager. Craig Kujawa and Alex Chen were in charge of selling tickets at the door. Others from the Harmonizer family volunteered as ushers.
Uniform for the singers was the green, red, and blue holiday sweat shirts with the white felt scarves. There was a show program available from a QR code that included a list of singers, donors to the chapter, and some advertising to include membership promotion.
The show song list included all great chorus numbers, some which were new to the chorus; plus there was a lot of audio visual support for the show including a “man-on-the-street” feature used to entertain before the concert began, and to introduce the songs. Alex Chen was the host for the interviews on King Street in Old Town Alexandria. He asked the folks on the street questions such as “What was the best Christmas present you ever got?” or “What’s your favorite thing to do when you are snowed in?”
Chapter technical coordinator, Mike Kelly, with help from Doug White and some staff at Schlesinger, were busy keeping it all going during the show.
Also the newly formed METRO VOICES project chorus, that is now part of the Alexandria chapter, sang one song. Tessa Walker directed that ensemble. This was the first appearance for this new ensemble! These members sang on the show for the first appearance of METRO VOICES - Kirstin Pugh, Elizabeth Colosimo, Caitlin Towers, Alissa Fernandez, Tallulah Dropkin, Jeanne Hillinck, Sheryl Berlin, Alex Pierce, Heidi Krukowski, Cadence Flaherty and Ali Bonebrake Esquea.
The opening song on the show, “Caroling Caroling,” was really a medley that included a verse or so from other holiday carols. Those pieces were sung by small ensembles of chorus singers. A new song for the Harmonizers was “J-I-N-G-L-E Bells” with the accompaniment from Steve White with his family’s heirloom sleigh bells. After “Let It Snow,” a quartet of Dennis Ritchey, Reed Livergood, Paul Grimes and Steve White sang an intro to “Santa Claus is Comin To Town.”
While the chorus sang “Grinch,” the tech team showed a video of the villain in action, and Michael Pugh did a narration about the story. While the chorus sang “White Christmas,” color photos from Harmonizer family holidays were projected as our way of saying “Happy Holidays to You.”
Special guests for this show included BETTER TOGETHER quartet that sang a great set of holiday songs for show patrons. After BETTER TOGETHER sang their set, the chorus entered the auditorium and lined the center aisles to join the audience in singing two favorite carols. Tony directed.
The chorus returned to the risers to be ready for an audience quiz game – ‘THIS or THAT – the Holiday Edition.’ Joewas game host and challenged audience members to answer some of the same questions that the man-on-the-street had asked such as – fruit cake / yes or no?; white lights or colored lights? or real tree or plastic tree?. The tech crew showed the responses of the street folks and the crazy answers and laughs it brought.
Tony directed “Joy to the World” featuring David Breen, and “Mary Had a Baby.” Michael Berkson introduced a tribute song for Hanukkah that was sung by an ensemble of Michael, Turner Arndt, Tony Colosimo, Devin Gerzof, Kellen Hertz, Troy Hillier, Josh Myers, Terry Reynolds, and Ben Watsky.
A quartet of Lance Fisher, David Breen, Josh Myers and Ryan Mextorf sang the intro for “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” that lead into “Silent Night.” After that song, there was a fantastic performance of “Gloria.”
The show finale was a Harmonizer tradition - “Do You Hear What I Hear?” Solos for the verses were Harmonizers Frank Fedarko and Terry Reynolds and Alex Pierce from METRO VOICES. Both choruses sang together for this song with added music for METRO VOICES prepared just for the show by Tony Colosimo and Ben Hawker. This spectacular number brought the audience to its feet.
The traditional “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” greetings closed the show. There was an afterglow at TGIFridays around the corner from the show venue.
On Saturday, Dec. 17, the show was repeated at Scottish Rite Temple in DC, located at 2800 16th Street NW, Washington, DC, at 2 pm. Patrons were offered free valet parking for this event.
The chorus did not meet in Dec. after the show except for the annual Carol Crawl when the chorus walked down King Street from Market Square to the Torpedo Factory singing holiday songs in restaurants or at entrances to buildings. The singers wore Santa hats and drew great crowds. Afterwards, there was a holiday afterglow at the Harmo House.
The chorus was chosen to sing via recording on the WETA PBS “Songs of the Season” broadcasts during December. Producers chose the chapter’s Dec. 2021 performance of “Joy to the World.”
The annual election for officers/board members was Oct. 18. President Noah Van Gilder was presiding officer for the annual chapter meeting election. Executive director Randall Eliason confirmed that a quorum was present. A motion to elect was passed and the following members were elected to serve in 2023: president: Noah Van Gilder; vice president and also a community member at large: Carolyn Griffin; board secretary: Cy Shuster; treasurer: Terry Reynolds; community board members at large: John Greene and Dave Kohls; and chapter members at large: Turner (TJ) Arndt and Devin Gerzof.
Membership of the chapter as of December 31, 2022 was 156. The chapter added several new members who joined during this unusual time in the history of the chapter including the dancers for the contest set: Danny Aldous, Sean Cator, Craig Cipollini, James Elzy, Jeffrey Holland, Cole Jaconski and Darryl Pilate; and the following singers – David Hilinick, Nic Petersen, Michael Pugh, Zak Sandler and Cy Shuster.
Sadly in 2022, several members of the Harmonizer family died during the year: Greg Lyne; Shirley, widow of Bruce Bolstad; Doug Abt; Cecil Ashford, father of Jeff and Phil Ashford; John Adams; Linda, wife of Craig Odell; Susan Williams, wife of Ross Johnson; Bruce Minnick; and Terry Jordan.
Until next time – editorjack!
(This message is prepared for your review as a historical record of the great things that happened during the 74th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd)
