The Penn
Band Staff
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Greer
Cheeseman,
Director of the Penn Band, has been with the organization for
over 30 years, serving as Director for the past decade. He did his
undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania and leads the
organization both in practice and philosophy.
Greer graduated from the University of
Pennsylvania in 1977, but in effect has never left. He was an active
member of the band as an undergraduate (Treasurer and Drum Major),
became the Assistant Director shortly after graduating, and was
elevated to Director in 1994. In his 30+ years of involvement with
the Penn Band, he has overseen a program that boasts an average
annual membership of 100, and those students perform at upwards of
80 events a year, which includes sporting events and official Penn
events.
Adam Sherr, MSEd,
Assistant Director
of the Penn Band, has been with the organization for over 20
years.
Adam has a degree in History &
Sociology of Science from Penn in 1990 and, in 2000, completed a
MSEd in Higher Education Administration. He is currently
working towards his EdD, also in Higher Education Administration
with a focus in Leadership Development in undergraduate
students. His
"day job" is as an Academic Advisor in Penn's School of Nursing
and serves as their Director of Student Information and
Registration. Adam is an accomplished tubist and is at the
forefront of Student Life on the campus of the University of
Pennsylvania.
Kushol
Gupta, Ph.D.,
Assistant Director of the Penn Band has served as an assistant with the Penn
Band over the past ten years. He earned his Bachelor of Arts
degree in Music from the University of Pennsylvania to complement
his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biochemistry and
Pharmacology. Kushol is an avid arranger, as well as a
trombonist and tubist. In 2006, he was
the lead author of Images of America: The University of
Pennsylvania Band (published by Arcadia Publishing), which
details the first 100 years of the organization's history. During
his tenure with the Band, he has spearheaded the program's high
school outreach efforts, including the establishment of three high
school honor bands: The Palestra Honor Band, Band Extravaganza Day,
and the Southwest Airlines 4th of July High School Honor Band.
In 2004, he established the Summer Music Camp.
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A word from our Director Greer Cheeseman (SEAS '77)
There's
not a whole lot I can add that hasn't already been said better by students. But
having been in the band for way too long, as both an undergrad and an (alleged)
adult, I have a unique perspective on the Penn Band Experience.
My semi-standard response to just what is the Penn Band is that we are equal
parts music/performance, support of Penn and Penn Athletics, and
social. And no one aspect is more important than the others. At times we are a
PR arm of the university, at others the most obvious representation of Penn, and
then we can also be a mobile party on a bus to some venue in New England.
The band is one of the few groups on campus that meets and performs throughout
the whole year. So in 4 years you'll have seen more college campuses than you
thought existed, played for thousands of fans, racked up some Frequent Flier
miles (on a bus; sorry, they don't count towards anything), and made a bunch of
friends that will last a lifetime.
When I talk to Penn and Penn Band alumni, talk often drifts back to some
band-related event: "Remember the Final Four year?" "Remember
when the goalposts came down?" "What ever happened to the Horse's Ass
winner of 19xx?" Don't get me wrong, academics are important and why you're
at
Penn. But I have yet to talk to any Penn alum who wants to reminisce about a
Math 240 class. Extra-curricular activities are all about doing something you
like, and have fun doing. That is the Penn Band.
Greer
Here's an article on Greer from the Philadelphia Inquirer (Fall 1997):
Penn's music man never graduated
from college band
For 100 years, the Penn Band had played on. For two
decades, the
notes have reverberated on the heartstrings of Greer Cheeseman.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer / AKIRA SUWA
Penn's music man never graduated from college band
Greer Cheeseman will hand you a business card that says: Systems
Manager for University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.
Then he'll hand you another one: Greer Cheeseman, magic person,
practicing magic since Tuesday.
And finally, a third one: Greer Cheeseman, director, Penn Band.
Yes, the compact man with wispy blond hair and a penchant for
free-spirited sockwear is, indeed, all those things.
But only one of Cheeseman's titles tops his hit parade -- band
director.
The University of Pennsylvania band is Cheeseman's unchained melody,
his passion, his fixation. Band director is the part-time job he loves
full time -- and the one thing even his wife, Angela, has learned she
can't compete with.
This is the 100th year that the band has provided musical scores for
Ivy League competitions. And in 24 years, Cheeseman hasn't missed a
single downbeat.
Some call him the very soul of the band. Others say he is, if not its
muse, at least its hardest-working fan.
As an undergraduate engineering student in the 1970s, Cheeseman played
the tuba for the all-volunteer music makers. During his senior year,
he led the squad as drum major.
In 1977, he graduated. But not from the band.
"I thought he might stop after we got married. And then I thought
he'd stop after we moved to West Chester," said Cheeseman's wife,
recalling that Cheeseman courted her on dates to band practice.
"I finally decided there's no use fighting City Hall," she
said. "At least this year, I did suggest he take a little nap
before he leaves on Wednesday nights."
That's when the band practices its marching. Then there is music
practice on Monday nights. And the football games on Saturdays.
Every Wednesday, Angela Cheeseman said, her husband spends 45 minutes
driving home from his day job. He eats dinner, plays with 7-year-old
daughter Molly, grabs a quick snooze, and hits the road again, driving
right back to campus, where he usually stays until midnight.
Saturdays? Forget about them.
"Every Saturday, he usually gets downtown by 10 a.m." and
doesn't return until sometime after 4 p.m., Angela Cheeseman reported.
Once football season is over, Saturdays are magic. That is, Cheeseman
often performs as a magician for children's parties.
Other days of the week, he spends accompanying the band to basketball
games, lacrosse games, banquets, and even track meets.
"We once played at the Penn Relays," he said. "There we
were at the finish line of the marathon, playing away!"
After graduating from Penn, Cheeseman turned in his drum-major hat to
become the band's assistant director. That stint lasted 16 years. Four
years ago, he finally got to be the main music man -- the director.
"If it's in your blood, you can't shake it," Cheeseman said.
"As an undergraduate, I thought about band during every waking
moment," he said, only half-joking. "I was at every event,
every rehearsal. I never let band be over."
In many ways, Cheeseman is still one of the college crowd.
At 42, he looks youthful enough to pass as a graduate student. And
when he is around the band members -- most of them half his age -- he
fits in even better.
"Geeky people stick around because they don't have anything to
do, they don't have a life," said Scott Levine, band president.
"But Greer isn't like that. He does this because he loves
it."
The football fans also love Cheeseman, says Christina Webb, the drum
major this year. "There's a cheering section in the stands each
week that does a Cheeseman cheer."
He doesn't perform with the band. He doesn't even really lead the band
-- that's Webb's job.
"I consider myself a coach more than a director," he said,
explaining that his job is that of an adviser, overseeing activities
and running rehearsals. He's also the guy who does magic tricks on the
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Cheeseman is unmistakable on the football
field. There he stands every Saturday, on the sidelines, wearing white
pants, a blue blazer, wingtip shoes, and a funky blue fedora.
Not that there's anything that predictable about the Penn Band.
There's not even anything very serious about it, except the members'
dedication.
Like anything that has lasted 100 years, the band has gone through a
slow evolution.
To recount the official history, it began in 1897 when a freshman
named A. Felix duPont blew his trumpet on the campus quadrangle,
accompanied only by the jeers of upperclassmen.
DuPont hooked up with 26 other melody makers and established the Penn
Band, a mainstay at football games by 1915 -- years before other
colleges
fielded marching bands.
In the 1920s, march king John Philip Sousa came to Penn three times to
conduct the band, which until 1922 had an annual membership of about
30 men.
In 1931, the university decided that students could earn a
physical-education credit for band. That boosted the ranks to 144.
Women asked to join as early as 1937, according to a newspaper
clipping headlined "U of P Band Rules Out Co-Eds to Save
Harmony."
It wasn't until 1959 that the band allowed sophomore Louise Erlich to
join the clarinet section. But the men refused to let her march or
even assign her a uniform.
It took 11 years for them to yield.
Early on, the band performed military-style drills and had baton
twirlers. The group had tryouts and strict membership requirements --
two years in a high school band and good grades.
(Today, Cheeseman said, the band is strictly extracurricular, and he
has only two ironclad requirements: "a good attitude and a
pulse.")
By the late 1960s, the band shed its formal marching style and
switched to "scramble" marching.
Cheeseman explained it this way: "We somehow enter onto the
field, and we wander around. The whistle will blow, and the band will
form a word or
letter and play a song."
It's controlled chaos, saturated with humor.
For example, in a recent halftime show during a game against Lehigh
University, the band scrambled around while the announcer read a
script over the loudspeakers.
The jokes were on engineers: They spend their fall breaks watching
Star Trek marathons, doing slide-rule aerobics, swapping stories about
hot dates.
On the final cue, the Penn Band formed the word NOT and blasted the
tune "I Get Around."
Scripts for the comical halftime shows -- written by band members --
must be approved by Cheeseman and a handful of university
administrators. That's been the rule since an incident in 1972 when
the band made headlines by forming the letters "McG." They
stood for presidential candidate George McGovern, and the band played
"Save the Country."
Then the musicians scrambled to form the initials "ITT" for
International Telephone & Telegraph Corp., to the tune of
"Hail to the Chief." The swipe at then-President Richard
Nixon hit a sour note with university alumni.
These days, the band sticks to four-letter words.
"Not bad ones, just funny ones," Cheeseman quickly points
out.
Currently the band has about 90 members, but on Nov. 8, that number
could swell, like the mythical ranks of the River City Marching Band.
Cheeseman and the university have invited all the Penn Band alumni to
join the group on the field at the homecoming game when the band
officially celebrates its centennial.
Cheeseman is anticipating 500 band members standing between the
goalposts, while the notes of "The Red and Blue" -- the
school anthem -- are lifted into the autumn afternoon.
For Cheeseman, the moment will be pure magic |
Cheesman looks back to check the drum major's instruction. He has been
involved with the band since he graduated from Penn in 1977, as assistant
director and for the last four years as director.
During practice at Franklin Field, Greer Cheeseman works with band
members and, right, confers with Christina Webb, who is drum major this
year. "There's a cheering section in the stands each week that does a
Cheeseman cheer," Webb says.
It's Wednesday night - time to practice marching. Greer Cheeseman, above,
offers encouragement, and Adam Sherr, right, responds with his marching tuba.
"If it's in your blood, you can't shake it," Cheeseman says of
the band.
©1997 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
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