Hi Alumni!
If you are planning on heading up to Ithaca to Reunion this year, June 4-7th, come out and spend some time with the band! There is more specific information in the Events Section, but here is an overview at where the band will be playing. Please be aware that times listed are report times for the band, the band will be playing at the events 30 minutes after the reported time.
Friday June 5th
- 6:30PM – Class of ’80 Dinner (Pep Band)
Saturday, June 6th
- 11:30 AM – All-Alumni Lunch* (Marching Band)
- 2:30PM – 150 Fun in the Sun Parade (Marching Band)
- 6:30 PM – Class of ’85 Dinner (Marching Band)
- 7:30PM – Class of ’70 Athlete Recognition (Pep Band)
- 8:15PM --Super Sesquicentennial Supper (Marching Band)
- 9PM – Procession to Cornelian Night (Marching Band)
We will also be holding a Big Red Bands Alumni reception at the Fischell Band Center (Right behind Schoellkopf Football Field) on Saturday, June 6th, from 11:30AM to 2PM. Directions to the facilitate are in the map below.
*If you are interested in playing with us at the All Alumni lunch please fill out THIS form to let us know! Or fill it our right below!
We are super excited to see you all there!
Read More →
Hi Alums!
Its time for Band Notes: Spring 2015 edition. You got to hear a little about us Alumni Chairs in January.. but let us formally introduce ourselves.
Hi everyone! I am Angie Estevez Prada and I am currently a sophomore in the ILR School, working towards minors in Law & Society and Inequality Studies. I am extremely passionate about women’s rights issues and politics. Fun fact about me: I am originally from Colombia, South America but have lived in a small town in North Carolina for most of my life. Band has been a huge part of my life since I was eight years old. Surprisingly, I thought about not doing band when I came to Cornell, but when I saw the chalkings around campus and the band being so passionate to recruit members during O-Week, I was sold! Currently, I am a member of the Big Red Saxes, but you can also see me carrying around a Horn these days too. Outside of band, I am involved in various women’s rights and empowerment organizations mostly a new organization on campus. I also help publicize Slope Studio, a free arts studio in Willard Straight. You can also find me blabbing on about the news of the day. Marching Band and Pep Band have been so great to me during my time here, and I am excited to have the chance to keep you all updated about band news and events!
And I am Jeff Crosby, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. I am currently a Psychology major, but I am still exploring in areas that interest me such as education and the medical field. I am from Reading, Pennsylvania, a city that is known for the Reading Railroad in the Monopoly board game and the place where Taylor Swift was born and raised. I also had the great pleasure of being raised right in between Hershey and Philadelphia. One of the reasons why I chose Cornell was because they were the home of the only REAL Marching Band in the Ivy League. I am currently a member of the Big Red Saxes for Marching Band and you can also spot me playing Tone for the Pep Band. Joining the Big Red Marching Band was the best decision I made freshman year. I am so excited to see where my journey as a member of the Big Red Bands will take me in my years to come at Cornell. Even though my time on The Hill has just begun, I am ready to join Angie in being an Alumni Relations Chair to help give back to the Marching Band and Pep Band that have given so much to me already.
We are proud to present this semester’s Band Notes to you all. Included in this edition are tales of Managing a Pep Band through a blizzard, beating the hockey team for a good cause, and creating a brand new BRMB promotional video, as well as updates from our Head Manager and Drum Major! We look forward to seeing some of you for Reunion (June 4-7) and at Homecoming! Check for more information on our events page!
If you have any concerns, questions, or anything you want to let us know about please feel free to reach out to us at ake38@cornell and jjc369@cornell.edu.
Sincerely,
Angie Estevez Prada ‘17 and Jeff Crosby ‘18
Happy spring! We’ve long since emerged from the winter that forced Ithaca enthusiasts to direct would-be travelers to Florida (and crashed a site in the process), and I want to update everybody on the latest happenings in the Big Red Bandiverse.
The Advisory Council had its first meeting of the 2015-2016 term on Saturday, February 21. As a reminder, you can find the membership of the Advisory Council – made up of the Alumni Association officers, student leadership, and at-large members (as well as advisors and other folks) – here.
The issues discussed in the greatest depth were Pep Band travel expenses and guidelines, punch-list items for the Fischell Band Center (including both functional and aesthetic additions), and acute Marching Band capital needs.
The discussion about the Pep Band was long overdue. Historically, the Pep Band has never been skipped a postseason trip that the students have wanted to take. In some years, this has lead to great costs, and in other years… less so (if you pay attention at all to the Band budget, the silver lining of any athletic heartbreak is the bottom line). Things tended to balance out over the years. Over the last decade, however, the number of NCAA hockey appearances (and tournament games out west – thank you, selection committee), the rise of women’s ice hockey in both stature and popularity, and a consistently strong lacrosse team have created financial challenges. A rolling playoff reserve system based on historical data was implemented about 12 years ago, but has never allocated enough funding over its life, resulting in excess expenses. There is also the issue of student well-being, although admittedly, how onerous the repeated travel is depends on who you ask. There was a lot of good discussion, and we reached consensus on our recommendations for regular-season pep band travel as follows:
- The Pep Band will return to staying with the host band for at least some of their hockey trips (pending risk management approval)
- Given the popularity of the fall Thanksgiving game at Madison Square Garden, we will explore options for paid performances
- The Pep Band will take four non-playoff trips each year: Harvard/Dartmouth, MSG, and two others based at the discretion of the students
Additionally, we will start a dialogue with the various team coaches about the pressures on the Pep Band to explore other funding options at playoff time. We hope that team friends and parents would consider offsetting the expenses to allow for uninterrupted support during the various post-seasons. Our goal is to both reduce costs and increase revenue as well as provide a guideline and expectation for the Pep Band from year to year. Ironically, the main cause of the issue – the unprecedented success of Cornell’s sports teams – wasn’t apparent this spring. Cue sad trombone.
Read More →
Lena Grace Janiga, born April 7, 2015 in New York City, joins Kim Salsbury ‘02, Nick Janiga ’00, and big sister Sofia in Brooklyn, NY. In between changing diapers, tummy time and late night feedings with Lena, mom and dad are nudging Sofia, a violin player, to take up a more sensible marching instrument like trombone.
Congrats to Paul Husserl ’03, who wed Carlye Waxman, a registered dietitian whom he met in the Chelsea Market four years ago. They recently moved to Long Island, where Paul is in private practice as an OB/GYN.
Lowell Frank ’99, MD ’03 was named Director of the Cardiology Fellowship at Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC. You know, in case any of you are pediatric residents looking to apply. Hit him up!
Got any interesting updates? Let us know!
