The Alexandria Harmonizers have been providing opportunities for singers and audiences in the Washington, D.C. area to enjoy and learn about challenging, high-quality men's a cappella music for nearly 60 years. The chorus currently has over 60 members, performing a range of works by such composers as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Duke Ellington, Lerner and Loewe, in the Barbershop, Broadway, Blues, Jazz, Gospel/ Spiritual, and other styles.
As the chorus is a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society, much of the music in its repertoire is arranged and performed in the barbershop style through the use of dominant or "barbershop" seventh chords that give barbershop its distinctive sound. While the style of music performed by the Alexandria Harmonizers conforms to this standard, we often include more modern arrangements of familiar songs, some in the barbershop style and others in traditional choral and glee club styles. The performance of our music often leaves audiences in awe as the four-parts resonate to produce the most notable characteristic of barbershop harmony - expanded sound. This phenomenon is created when the harmonics in the individually sung tones reinforce each other to produce audible overtones.
Since the chorus is a "performance" chorus, all music is performed from memory. The repertoire includes not only vocal performance plans, but also visual performance plans, which consist of choreography often involving props, costuming and stage sets.
The history of the Alexandria Harmonizers is as rich as the music itself. Formed in 1948 by Dean Snyder and Gene Barnwell, the chorus has had as many as 140 performing members, has won four international barbershop chorus championships, as well as numerous division and district championships within the Mid-Atlantic District of the Barbershop Harmony Society. The group rehearses year-round each Tuesday night at the Durant Center on Cameron Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. The Harmonizers have performed at various venues in and around the Mid-Atlantic region, including the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, and Constitution Hall, as well as at Carnegie Hall in New York and numerous locations across the US and Canada.
A nonprofit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, the Alexandria Harmonizers are supported in part by the City of Alexandria Department of Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Activities and by the Alexandria Commission for the Arts.