Is it fate? Serendipity? Intervention by a higher power, or simply the stars aligning when two people meet and fall in love? Perhaps all of those forces collided with the awakening power of music to bring Andre and Andrea Sylvester and William and Taylor Reese together while each studied music seriously or for pleasure at Yavapai College.

The four YC alumni found in the college’s performing arts department a community -- a home where their authenticity and talent were embraced, encouraged and honed. It’s also where each found the love of their life…

Andrea and Andre Sylvester’s Love Story

Without a word or a wave, Andre and Andrea (Haywood) Sylvester would walk past each other in the halls of Building 15 – home of the Yavapai College Performing Arts Department – carefree and focused solely on getting better at singing the songs that were always in their hearts.

Within a few months, they would be thrown together -- Andre cast as the lead and Andrea as stage manager and assistant to the director for the musical, “Children of Eden -- become best friends and rarely be apart.

“Art brings joy. There’s so much joy brought by especially music. When you share that with someone who understands, you just connect,” Andrea said.

Andrea felt even more connected to Andre after a trip to New York with a group of YC choirs to perform at Carnegie Hall. Even with Andrea’s mom in tow the two young choir members proved inseparable. “We had so much fun,” Andrea said. “My mom and I clashed a little bit and he saw a little bit of hostility. But we were real and that didn’t scare him.”

While she had already fallen in love with his voice – “he comes alive on stage” -- Andrea resolved in spring 2013 to declare her love for Andre. She also resolved to keep him as a friend if her feelings weren’t reciprocated.

Admittedly prone to indecision, Andre took Andrea’s revelation to heart and took about a month to think about it. Meanwhile, the pair continued to spend time together, working at the same Subway, performing at YC and in the community and just hanging out. “I was on the fence for quite a while, but we were always together,” Andre said.

Then, on June 14, 2013, Andre asked Andrea out – on a “real date,” as Andrea put it. The pair visited a favorite viewpoint near Prescott and watched “Man of Steel” at a local theater. During an ensuing on-again off-again first year of coupledom, Andre set out to try his luck and performance chops in Disneyland. After earning her associate’s degree at YC, Andrea joined Andre for a Disneyland adventure. Andre worked in park entertainment and Andrea as ride host and later in Entertainment Costuming as a supervisor “behind the scenes.” Both enjoyed the Disney experience and their found family of performers. Andre said he learned a lot of valuable life lessons working at Disney and was able to tame some of his social anxiety and fear.

While with Disney, Andre also realized he wanted and needed Andrea in his life. “No matter what happened, I knew I could talk to her... I knew there was support there – something I didn’t have from anyone else.”

Surrounded by their Disney friends at an arranged dinner in December 2014, Andre proposed. The couple married in 2015 and returned to the Prescott area in 2017 while expecting their first child, Aria, now 5. “We couldn't raise a child in Southern California without the support of family,” Andrea recalls the soon-to-be parents thinking at the time.

Andre was performing in "White Christmas" at YC when Aria arrived weeks early with some significant health issues. Although an extremely difficult time for the Sylvesters, their YC performing arts family gave the new parents the support they needed to see Aria through multiple surgeries and hospital stays.

“I love what this department does, even more now. It’s like having a community of people who all share a passion for the arts,” said Andrea, who is now a part-time assistant to Performing Arts Dean Dr. Craig Ralston. “The instructors put everything into their students and create that relationship to mentor and support each student. It’s not just a job to them.”

Since returning to the Prescott area and YC, Andre has starred as the phantom in “Phantom Of The Opera” and the Beast in "Disney's Beauty and the Beast," and has performed in the ensemble for multiple other productions. He sang alongside Andrea in her first musical, "Hello Dolly,” joined the YCPAC team as Operations Specialist and earned his associate’s degree. He and Andrea also welcomed their son, Gregory, now 4.

The Sylvesters are expecting their third child this spring. Whether the baby arrives before, during or after Andre stars as Rochester in “Jane Eyre The Musical,” the couple have the grit, the idealism and the abiding love to successfully juggle family, work and musical theater. In fact, they dream one day of taking their family and passion for music to Broadway.

Andrea is as certain of her husband’s ascendance in show business as she is that she found the “one” at YC. “I couldn’t imagine life without him,” she said.

William and Taylor Reese’s love story

A chance meeting at a brown-bag recital at YC in spring 2017 proved monumental for William and Taylor (Ryan) Reese. William, who was performing a voice solo that day, dropped his bags in an empty seat next to Taylor. “I was like, hey, nice,” he recalled thinking when he asked Taylor if the bag drop was OK. Taylor was in the recital audience because she was scheduled to sing as well. But her accompanist was absent. She briefly considered leaving, but decided to stay, albeit seated next to a stranger’s bags, and enjoy the music. She remembers thinking during William’s vocal performance that he was “kind of cute.” A week later, when she received a Facebook friend request from him, she was surprised by its brashness, but also intrigued. Via Facebook, she suggested the two meet up.

William asserts that he found Taylor’s Facebook profile by accident and, attracted to her “Goth” vibe, extended a friend invite. Taylor set the record straight, saying during an interview with her now husband, “You sought me out.”

The couple’s first meetup entailed a walk through the sculpture garden adjacent to the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, a hike along the YC Trail and a tour of the orchestra pit below the YCPAC stage. In the orchestra pit, William played selections on the piano, including an original piece.

Taylor was smitten. She recalls thinking at the time, “Oh wow. I’m really comfortable with him. He seems like someone I’ve known all my life. I could marry this guy.”

It took a little longer for William’s feelings for Taylor to ignite. “All I knew was how to play instruments (violin and trombone along with the piano) and how to pick up girls,” he joked. The realization that Taylor was someone special in his life came during an orchestra concert later that spring. “When I looked out and saw her in the audience, that’s when I knew that I liked her,” he said.

Fast forward a year and a few months, William proposed to Taylor during a date designed to mirror their first meetup – in the YC sculpture garden. “I had asked her dad three times. The first time he said, ‘no.’ The second time he said, ‘no.’ The third time he said ‘yes’ just so I would stop asking him.”

The Reeses tied the knot in August 2019. Today they’re enjoying a new home in Maricopa, Ariz., working hard and making plans. Taylor, who earned an associate degree at YC, is training for a potential new career as a pharmacy technician. William is working as an environmental technician and aspires to one day finish a nursing career path he started at YC.

The Reeses believe their shared love of music, which they each pursued primarily for fun at YC, brought them together. Taylor said she continued taking YC music classes with William after graduating so they could enjoy them together. The couple still sing together often and enjoy an occasional Karaoke night out. “I make him sing Disney with me,” she said. “Other than that, our personalities just jive.”

“We can be really goofy,” added William.

The couple do still marvel at the serendipitous way they came together. “What if I hadn’t gone to that brown-bag recital? What If I had left when I realized my accompanist wasn’t there? I think about that a lot,” Taylor said.

“It’s crazy how one minute of your life can change the rest of your life,” William said.