{"id":66042,"date":"2026-02-10T11:32:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=66042"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:13:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:13:44","slug":"love-big-red-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/love-big-red-band\/","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful Music: Celebrating the Big Red Band’s (Many!) Love Matches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Valentine\u2019s Day, Cornellians<\/em> spotlights an iconic East Hill group whose members famously couple up\u2014and stay that way<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Beth Saulnier<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his recent book, Bonded by Evolution<\/em><\/a>: The New Science of Love and Connection<\/em>, psychologist Paul Eastwick \u201901<\/a> describes the optimal way to form romantic attachments: by spending time with the same smallish group of reasonably like-minded people over the course of weeks, months, or years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And OK, he doesn\u2019t actually mention the Big Red Band as a canonical example\u2014but when it comes to having love bloom, the group is the romantic equivalent of a dozen long-stemmed red roses and a heart-shaped box of chocolates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
No\u00ebl Heaney \/ Cornell University<\/figcaption>
Nathaniel Olson \u201905, MS \u201908, and Brianna Bamford Olson \u201907, MPA \u201909, with daughter Eliza at Homecoming \u201923.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe band provides a great opportunity to come together, meet people, and relieve stress in what can be a pressure-filled environment,\u201d observes Mary Sue Page Youn \u201994, who married fellow bandie Joseph Youn \u201991, MEng \u201993. \u201cI can\u2019t think of another organization that brings together students from all colleges and majors in quite the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As active band alum (and clarinetist) Scott Pesner \u201987 reckons it, there are more than 80 married or otherwise committed couples in which both are former band members, including his own brother and sister-in-law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I can\u2019t think of another organization that brings together students from all colleges and majors in quite the same way.<\/p>\nMary Sue Page Youn \u201994<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a notable record\u2014especially when you consider that those 160-plus people were bonded not just through a shared love of musical performance, but via an organization that only has about 250 members at any given time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(And for what it\u2019s worth, Pesner adds, the two-bandie divorce rate is far below the national average.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there are so many band-member couples because you develop really great friendships with all the time spent together at rehearsals, games, and road trips,\u201d observes Marci Braunstein Arnold \u201989, who\u2019s married to Mark Arnold \u201988. \u201cThese occasions give you a chance to get to know a person really well. There are so many inside jokes and funny traditions that keep us connected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A cake topper from the wedding of Tory Bredt \u201909 and Jordan Epstein \u201908, BS \u201907.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This year, Cornellians<\/em> is devoting its annual Valentine\u2019s Day feature to love in the Big Red Band\u2014with profiles of more than a dozen couples who answered our call to share their amorous backstory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a few of the pairs coupled up after graduation\u2014or even before matriculating on the Hill\u2014many were struck by Cupid\u2019s arrow during undergrad band parties, long bus rides to away games, hours of weekly practice, regular performances, or time spent in shared bandie housing off campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

There are so many inside jokes and funny traditions that keep us connected.<\/p>\nMarci Braunstein Arnold \u201989<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you take so many positive, dedicated, amazing people with common interests,\u201d Tom Baxter \u201988, MS \u201989, and Jill Schiffhauer Baxter \u201991 wrote us, \u201cand put them together in an energetic, happy environment where they perform together, travel together, and socialize together\u2014you can do the math.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our single favorite meet-cute, among many: the gentleman who repeatedly stomped on the lady\u2019s foot during a backward march, but nonetheless won her heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJoining the band feels like instantly gaining 200 friends,\u201d married couple David Kelly \u201914, MEng \u201915, and Kaiya Provost \u201914 report. \u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly welcoming environment that encourages you to be your full self. This makes it really easy to make connections and\u2014apparently\u2014find partners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scroll down to meet our Big Red Band lovebirds!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Fischell \u201975, PhD \u201980 (piccolo) & Sarah Thole Fischell \u201978, MEng \u201979 (bells and cymbals)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n

They started dating even before Cornell\u2014having met when Sarah was an East Hill-bound high school senior (through David\u2019s brother, fellow bandie Tim Fischell \u201978, MD \u201981). \u201cBy the time she came to the Hill in fall 1974, she was dating a senior with a car,\u201d David recalls, \u201cso I had a nice advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They dated all through college, their relationship cemented by band trips. \u201cI knew she was the one, and decided to stay at Cornell for my PhD because of her,\u201d David says. They wed in June 1977\u2014former drum major Kip Said \u201977 played the organ\u2014and settled into married student housing in Hasbrouck.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"David<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Both of their children would go on to play in the band (Erin Fischell \u201910 on flute and Jennifer Fischell \u201913 on tuba) and marry fellow Cornellians. And if the couple\u2019s name is familiar to Big Red music fans: they were the primary sponsors of the band center, which is named in their honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Adam Mangano Drenkard \u201911 (trumpet) & Lauren Mangano Drenkard \u201911 (clarinet)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Adam<\/figure>
\n

They recall precisely when they met: at 7 a.m. on the second day of classes freshman year, at the Appel Commons eatery on North Campus. They were introduced by Adam\u2019s friend (and fellow trumpet player) Mark Vigeant \u201911, who\u2019d met Lauren the day before and invited her to breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their first kiss: on a bench atop the Slope, after dinner at the Ivy Room following Pep Band rehearsal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a long-distance relationship between NYC and Boston, Adam proposed on Lauren\u2019s birthday while hiking in Acadia National Park. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

They married in Sage Chapel in 2016\u2014the processional tune, \u201cPictures at an Exhibition,\u201d was a Marching Band field song from their senior year\u2014and held the reception at the Statler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mark Arnold \u201988 (trombone) & Marci Braunstein Arnold \u201989 (clarinet)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n

They met on Marci\u2019s first day at Cornell: he was the orientation counselor who helped her roommate move in. \u201cWhen Mark found out I was trying out for band, he offered to walk with me up to Barton Hall for band practice each day,\u201d she recalls. \u201cHe lived on University Avenue and I lived in U-Hall 2, so he\u2019d pass my dorm on the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until the following semester\u2014after a friend arranged for Mark to be her secret date for a sorority event\u2014that things turned romantic. He proposed in the Botanic Gardens on a snowy day in February during her senior spring.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Mark<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Julia Kelly \u201916 (baritone horn) & Rohan Acharya \u201916, MEng \u201917 (trombone)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

They played in the same section\u2014a.k.a. the \u201cbones\u201d\u2014and had the same major, biological engineering. They started dating in 2014, shortly after becoming section leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Julia<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne section member told us not to break up,\u201d they note, \u201cat least until the following year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They kept up a long-distance relationship while Julia, now an endocrinologist, attended med school. Since graduation, Rohan has never missed a Cornell Homecoming\u2014and in 2025, they both attended along with their son, Simon, then six months old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Arthur Pesner \u201985 (clarinet) & Gail Fischman Pesner \u201985 (clarinet)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Arthur<\/figure>
\n

While they were in the same graduating class and even played the same instrument, they never dated as students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they met up in NYC in fall 1988, when both attended the Cornell-Columbia football game and the Sy Katz \u201931 Parade; after exchanging phone numbers, they started dating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur proposed on Libe Slope at sunset during Homecoming Weekend 1989; his brother, fellow bandie Scott Pesner ’87, was the best man at their wedding. Their two sons include a Cornellian, Eric Pesner \u201915.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe attended our 40th Reunion this past June,\u201d Arthur says, \u201cand continue to go strong after 35 years of marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Brendan Duffy \u201917 (trombone) & Hayley Sopko Duffy \u201916, BS \u201917 (baritone horn)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n

\u201cThe first time I met Hayley was during Orientation week, by Barton Hall,\u201d Brendan recalls. \u201cShe jumped out and gave me a quarter-card about joining band. She doesn\u2019t remember.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They became friends\u2014not only after he joined the band, but through shared classes in mechanical engineering and a PE course in ballroom dancing\u2014before they started dating, and married in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re now based in Virginia, where they have two toddlers and both work in engineering.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Brendan<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Tory Bredt \u201909 (tuba and sousaphone) & Jordan Epstein \u201908, BS \u201907 (trumpet)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After they met on a Pep Band hockey road trip to Harvard and Dartmouth, he invited her over to watch the Academy Awards; their first date was to see the Best Picture winner, The Departed,<\/em> at Cornell Cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many band trips followed, including March Madness in Anaheim, CA; the first Red Hot Hockey game at MSG; the NCAA lacrosse finals in Baltimore; and the Sy Katz \u201931 Parade in NYC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tory<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After they got hitched, the reception featured a cake topper depicting the couple wearing Big Red hockey jerseys and toting their instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based in NYC, they\u2019re still avid participants in band performances at away games, including the May 2025 lacrosse national championship in Foxboro, MA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

David Kelly \u201914, MEng \u201915 (bass drum) & Kaiya Provost \u201914 (cymbals)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"David<\/figure>
\n

Was it kismet? The couple not only shares the same birthday\u2014but it\u2019s February 14! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They met at band auditions their first day on campus, becoming friends and housemates before romance blossomed their junior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He proposed on the banks of Lake Michigan in February 2022\u2014amid a beautiful sunset and a freezing wind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They now live on Long Island, with Kaiya on the faculty at Adelphi and Dave working at Google as a software engineer.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Emily Isenstein \u201916 (flute) & Louis Widom \u201916 (trumpet)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n

They started dating their junior spring, and stayed geographically close after graduation\u2014including both pursuing advanced degrees in the same city (Emily an MD at the University of Rochester, Louis a PhD at RIT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They started cohabitating during the pandemic, eventually buying a house and adopting a dog (named Nellie, as in Cornell), who has been known to sport a Big Red coat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their wedding ceremony\u2014at a winery on Seneca Lake\u2014was immediately followed by a Marching Band performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Emily<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Brian Adelman \u201909 (tuba) & Shayna Gerson Adelman \u201910 (trumpet)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Just a few months into their dating life, they got to visit Disneyland together while on a March Madness trip with the men\u2019s basketball team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brian<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They further bonded in having leadership positions in the band, with Brian as head manager and Shayna as drum major. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They now live in a Chicago suburb with their two daughters, Annabel and Sophie, and a senior dog named Zoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Joseph Youn \u201991, MEng \u201993 (tuba) & Mary Sue Page Youn \u201994 (mellophone)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Joseph<\/figure>
\n

During a road trip to perform at halftime at Giants Stadium, they chatted on the whole bus ride back to Ithaca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe asked me out after that,\u201d says Mary Sue, \u201cand the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary in May 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now living in suburban New Jersey\u2014where they play with a community band and volunteer with the local high school marching band\u2014they have two daughters and two dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Their younger daughter, Sammy, followed in her dad\u2019s footsteps by learning the tuba\u2014which she now plays in the marching band at Syracuse University. \u201cSo now, we also cheer for the Orange,\u201d says Mary Sue, \u201cexcept when they play Cornell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Nathaniel Olson \u201905, MS \u201908 (trumpet) & Brianna Bamford Olson \u201907, MPA \u201909 (flute)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n

Her first impression of him was suboptimal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why? Due to their positions and the relative size of their strides, he\u2019d regularly run her over during the backward-marching portion of \u201cFirebird Suite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Says Brianna: \u201cI still get a little grumpy every time I hear the song.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they overcame their differences and started dating the winter of her freshman year\u2014staying together throughout undergrad and grad school and marrying in August 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Nathaniel<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe band didn\u2019t have a specific involvement in our wedding, other than being about 80% of the attendees,\u201d she says, \u201ca statistic that still holds true at nearly every event we host or attend in the Boston area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple has two \u201cfoster fail\u201d rescue dogs and a four-year-old daughter, Eliza\u2014who has set her sights on being a Big Red drum major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Vincent Sheppard \u201917, MEng \u201917 (bass drum) & Victoria Dye \u201916, MEng \u201916 (bells)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

They met in 2013 by virtue of being in the same section, the drumline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVincent swept Victoria off her feet,\u201d they recall, \u201cliterally, by picking her up and running around a practice gym during a band trip to Montr\u00e9al.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Vincent<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They started dating the day after Valentine\u2019s Day 2016, after a bonding episode involving the making of homemade gnocchi in the off-campus band house where they both lived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was messy, tedious, and time-consuming, but at least it tasted good, and was a great kickstarter to their relationship,\u201d they report, adding: \u201cNo gnocchi has been made since.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Chris John \u201908 (trumpet and percussion) & Sara Paddock John \u201907 (alto sax)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Chris<\/figure>
\n

They first spoke at a soccer game, where they were playing with the Pep Band: it had been raining that day, and she offered him a towel to dry off his seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hit it off, and soon went on our first date at Eat Dessert First in Collegetown,\u201d they report. \u201cA couple of weeks later, while standing outside of Sage Chapel after a Marching Band rehearsal, Chris asked Sara to be his girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight years later, their wedding was held at\u2014you guessed it\u2014Sage, with cocktail music during the reception provided by the band\u2019s trumpet and saxophone sections.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now living in a Boston suburb, they\u2019re expecting their first baby in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Nick Janiga \u201900 (baritone horn) & Kim Salsbury \u201902 (flute and baritone horn)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

They lived on different floors of a house on Highland Avenue full of band members; he\u2019d leave flowers and poems outside her door. Since Kim\u2019s brother, Joe Salsbury \u201999, MBA \u201905, was friends with Nick, she sought his seal of approval for her suitor before agreeing to a first date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nick<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They married in Connecticut on an October weekend that happened to coincide with Homecoming 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Marching Band alumni association reported lower than average Homecoming attendance that year,\u201d they say, \u201cpartially due to the more than 20 Big Red Band alumni attending our wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Tom Baxter \u201988, MS \u201989 (trumpet) & Jill Schiffhauer Baxter \u201991 (flute and piccolo)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n

\u201cWe are an unusual BRB love story in that we were never actually in the Marching Band at the same time,\u201d they report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMutual band friends and the abundance of social activities attended by bandies brought us together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being introduced at an Alpha Phi party, they hit a very \u201980s roadblock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTom tried calling Jill every night that next week, but never connected, as Jill was always at the library studying and didn\u2019t have an answering machine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Tom<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

They eventually had a first date at two now-departed Collegetown eateries: pizza at the Chariot, followed by live music at Oliver\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Tom graduated and settled in Boston, he made the six-hour drive to Ithaca every other weekend for nearly three years; he proposed during Jill\u2019s senior fall, and they married a few months after she graduated. One of their five children, Kristen Baxter ’17, followed in their footsteps as a bandie, playing mellophone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Gus Faucher \u201988 (mellophone) & Amy Crawford-Faucher \u201988 (clarinet)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Gus<\/figure>
\n

She was a student at nearby Wells College who\u2019d already applied to transfer to Cornell\u2014\u201cso I didn\u2019t<\/em> move for him!\u201d\u2014when they met at a party on her campus their sophomore spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They continued to date after she matriculated on the Hill, tying the knot in Ithaca in 1990. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They now live in Pittsburgh and have four grown kids, a grandson, and a great Dane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their favorite band memory: a Cornell-Princeton football game when it was so cold that their instruments froze. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we exited the field, the word got out that the men\u2019s bathroom was large and warm,\u201d they recall. \u201cThe entire band crowded in and we played there. The acoustics weren\u2019t bad!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Top: Illustration by Ashley Osburn \/ Cornell University. (All photos provided, unless otherwise indicated)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published February 10, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Valentine\u2019s Day, Cornellians<\/em> spotlights an iconic East Hill group whose members famously couple up\u2014and stay that way<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":66028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-66042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni"],"yoast_head":"\nBeautiful Music: Celebrating the Big Red Band's (Many!) 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