Joe Cerutti - The Director's Cut

My first holiday season with the Alexandria Singers, I selected a Nightmare Before Christmas medley for our winter concert. Purely for the joy of it. The chorus was skeptical. There was grumbling. There was resistance. And then something clicked, the vision came together, and by performance night the room was electric. To celebrate, the chorus kidnapped Sandy Claws, tied the new director up in ropes and chains, and put a Santa hat on him. I regret nothing. Neither do they.

That moment told me everything I needed to know about this group.

I wasn't exactly a stranger to the Alexandria Singers when I took over as Music Director. I'd been a close friend of Bill's, my predecessor, since moving to Alexandria twenty years ago. I knew the chorus. What continues to genuinely move me is the people inside it. The diversity of thought, the unique passions, the individual talent in this room is far beyond what you’d expect from a community chorus. Many of these singers could hold a stage on their own. My work is convincing them not to. The most powerful thing an ensemble singer can do is sometimes choose silence over sound, restraint over volume, and trust that their voice as one of ninety is more valuable than their voice alone. That is an uncomfortable skill to practice. It is also the one that transforms a room full of talented individuals into something that genuinely moves people. That is the craft. That is what we are building.

I came to choral directing because I believe in the power of harmony, literally and otherwise. In a world that feels increasingly fractured, singing together builds something rare: camaraderie, understanding, compromise. The Alexandria Singers specializes in exactly those benefits. What makes this organization truly unique is that our members are both the volunteers who keep it running AND the community we serve. The joy of singing together isn't just something we offer our patrons. It's something our members experience every single week.

Your support keeps that going. It funds the pay-what-you-wish productions that make live music accessible to everyone, the community workshops that extend our reach beyond the stage, and the operational foundation that lets ninety singers show up every week and do something genuinely special together.

Give today. Any gift, any size. Every donor becomes a part of this community, and every voice belongs here.