“If you’re looking for community, why don’t you join the band?”
That was the first thing a sorority sister asked me during a dirty rush event last fall. Granted, I entered with my flute and piccolo in tow on the way to orchestra rehearsal and proudly declared I was one of nine music majors at Penn.
The Penn Band is one of the largest and most active student organizations at Penn. Their performances at Quaker Days and orientation events are often a Penn student’s first introduction to the admittedly slim performing arts offerings at Penn.
However, unlike many other performing arts groups affiliated with the Penn University Life system, the Penn Band prides itself on being a non-audition group since its inception in 1897. The organization primarily functions as “the guardian of all things Red and Blue” — supporting student athletics and the Quaker community at large through its passion and commitment to all things Penn.
As any Penn Band member will tell you (and as many have told me), playing at games is just the beginning. Late nights spent at Franklin Field and courtside at the Palestra lead to genuine appreciation and engagement with student athletics, rarities among Penn students.
“I think there’s a common misconception that band kids don’t understand sports — it’s almost the exact opposite,” junior and outgoing Penn Band vice president Rachel Breon said. “I never watched basketball growing up, but since being in the band I have become the biggest fan, to the point I’ve painted myself red and blue for games, worn a blue morph suit, and probably made a complete fool of myself at every game yelling and heckling at the other team.”
Breon joined the Penn Band her freshman fall after some trepidation about not being good enough for a college group. After realizing the Penn Band had no audition requirement, Breon signed up and hasn’t looked back since.
The psychology and criminology double-major balances her coursework alongside planning the band’s planned tour to Ireland, as well as her responsibilities as co-drum major. Breon still makes an effort to show up to every game she can — especially women’s basketball, which she believes will make it to March Madness this year.
“[The women’s basketball team] are the sweetest group and are always so nice to the band,” Breon said. “We’ve made rollouts for them, followed them to the Ivy League tournament, and cheered our hearts out every season for them and it’s clear how much they appreciate it.”
Despite a tough loss at the Big 5 Championship game last weekend, junior and co-drum major Pati Martinez believes that Penn men’s basketball will dominate Big 5 pod play in the McCaffrey era. She fondly remembers when Penn men’s basketball triumphed over Villanova her freshman fall during Big 5 pod play.
“My favorite part of this game was how the student section ran onto the court to celebrate with the basketball team after they had won,” Martinez said. “It was just a surreal moment to be a part of.”
Martinez joined the Penn Band as soon as she got on campus in August 2023. The architecture major served as a low brass section leader and conducting assistant to current Penn Band director and 1977 College graduate R. Greer Cheeseman III during the 2024-25 school year.
Although Martinez is involved with other communities and the Penn Chamber brass quartet, she continues to stay involved with Penn Band because of the community.
“The community within Penn Band is like no other on campus,” she said. “I have been lucky to find some of my closest friends here, and I have enjoyed every moment so far.”
While this sense of community may be echoed by other student organizations on campus, it’s a core part of the Penn Band’s identity. The very first Penn Band allegedly consisted of A. Felix DuPont, a cornet-wielding menace living in the Quad, and twenty-seven student volunteers who gathered in support of the freshman after ridicule from peers and upperclassmen.
This group of volunteers expanded from a student concert band to a full marching band complete with color guard corps before transitioning into a more flexible scramble band arrangement in the late 1960s. The scramble band arrangement lessened the burden on students’ schedules while still allowing the Penn Band to change its half-time repertoire from week to week.
Although athletics might not be a primary focus of the student experience at Penn, the Penn Band makes every effort to support student-athletes both on and off the field. Win or loss, the band still stands.
“At the end of every game, win or loss, we perform Red and Blue for the team, so it’s nice that we help keep that tradition alive,” senior and outgoing Penn Band president Jeremiah Ntiamoah said. “We also get applause from the teams from time to time, especially after big wins, which is nice because we appreciate the recognition from those that we are supporting.”
Ntiamoah fell in love with the clarinet the first time he put the instrument to his mouth in the fourth grade. Band was an instrumental part of his life throughout middle and high school, so Ntiamoah sought out the Penn Band and Penn Wind Ensemble his freshman fall to find community in something familiar.
“I joined the Penn Band because I wanted to find something at Penn that I was familiar with, but I stayed because of the sense of family I found here,” Ntiamoah said. “It’s interesting because even though we are the Penn Band, the music is almost just another thing we do.”
Music might be what the Penn Band was founded on, but community, continued support, and a sense of found family is the glue that stands the test of time.
Maybe that sorority sister was right — if I want to find community as a musician, I should look no further than the Penn Band.
