Amherst, Care More About Your Student Musicians

I was excited to walk through the doors of Arms Music Hall’s Room Seven to see my new band ready for their first rehearsal. After all the musicians from my other Amherst College band graduated last year, I felt a strange sense of loneliness in my lack of community with other student performers. I practiced all week for a set of original songs and covers, preparing for an upcoming performance.

But before we could get through one song, the doors of Room Seven opened once again. A faculty member walked in and asked how we, a group of musicians in Jazz Combos, a capella groups, and independent student bands alike, gained access to the room. When we told the truth — that other music department faculty gave us access to the room — their response was that we “must be lying.” We were asked to leave. After we promptly packed up our own instruments and set everything back to where we found it, we were met with a phone in our faces as we left the building. We were being recorded, which made me question whether we would be placed on a “ban list” for using the room. Never, in my four years at Amherst College, had I felt so wrong for simply wanting to play music with fellow students. 

During my time at Amherst, spaces for independent student performances have increasingly disappeared. In fall 2023, Valentine Dining Hall stopped permitting concerts on the terrace. In 2025, Student Engagement and Leadership stopped facilitating Battle of the Bands for the spring concert opening slot. In 2026, Earth Fest stopped inviting student bands to perform during the day. This past fall, practice rooms in the basement of James and Stearns closed down. The booking process for student-hosted event spaces for non-music-department concerts, such as a benefit concert I hosted last semester, is becoming a bureaucratic nightmare. These obstacles discourage student artists from playing shows on campus. Currently, the only opportunity for students to perform original material is at the monthly Coffee Haus events hosted by Marsh Arts House, or by knowing someone who can book them a house party gig. 

My previous band, The Anti Citizens, felt the effects of this discouragement. The campus’ independent music scene seemed to gradually go from sparse to nonexistent, as most attended music events were hosted by school-funded orchestra or jazz concerts. Although a capella groups such as the one I direct, Route 9, host independent concerts, no original music is performed. As opportunities to showcase original material as student musicians were nowhere to be found, we resorted to playing gigs off campus. 

It was as invigorating and rewarding as it was to see positive responses to our original songs during concerts at The Drake, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Smith College, or even clubs in Holyoke, but a disconnect nevertheless persisted between our group and the rest of the Amherst student body. By the time we performed a headline show at Marsh House after winning the Five College Battle of the Bands, it was evident that the majority of the crowd came from off campus. Only through consistent gigging at parties and non-professionally managed events were we able to build a base and eventually perform at the Spring Concert. However, this process was marked by a sense that we were constantly working against the campus’s imposed restrictions on independent student performances. 

The most revealing instance was during preparation for opening last year’s Spring Concert. After winning the vote of the student body, the email to notify us of our nomination was sent to a student completely unaffiliated with the band. After radio silence for days, we reached out to the event organizers directly. Normally, it is standard practice to send the concert organizer a stage plot (where your instruments, amps, and microphones will be on the stage) and an input list (what will need to be plugged in). Either the venue provides a house drum kit, or, for non-touring bands like ours, the headlining artist sometimes shares their drum kit with us, barring breakables (the parts of the kit that are expensive and easily broken). However, we were only asked about “materials” needed, and were told that they couldn’t promise to accommodate any request.

Our questions — whether or not we would need to bring a drum set, our own sound equipment, or general load-in information — were neglected for days. It was only until the night before, when a member of our band and a music teaching assistant called the event organizer, that we were informed of what was expected of us: We would have to bring our own drum set, amplifiers, and possibly microphones, audio cables, and recording equipment. This meant we were tasked with sourcing these instruments ourselves — many of which we did not have — and transporting them by car to the gym, all within less than 24 hours before showtime. At this moment, I wondered: What if none of us had access to vehicles? What if we didn’t have employees of the music department at our disposal who could lend us these instruments as a special favor? It was evident the event organizers had our performance at the very bottom of their priorities. 

The day of the performance was similarly discouraging. When we arrived for load-in at our given time, we were stopped at the entrance of the gymnasium by an event organizer. They told us that, as student performers, we were not allowed to be in the same room as the artists while they were soundchecking. The distinction between “student performers” and “artists” was not lost on us. But more importantly, in our previous experience opening for other artists, some more high-profile than those at last year’s Spring Concert, we were never mandated to maintain distance from the headlining musicians. In fact, the interaction with other artists was usually the best part of being an opening act, and provided a great opportunity to expand our network of acquaintances. Frustratingly, this meant we had to pause our load-in and setup until after all artists were done soundchecking, eating into our own soundcheck time. By the time we were able to finally enter and meet the sound engineers, it was unsurprising to hear that none of them were told a student band was slated to perform until an hour before our arrival. Even in the one opportunity the college gave to highlight our music, we were still being overlooked. 

It is concerning to see the expanding desert of original student performances at Amherst, and even more frightening to see the college’s lack of institutional support towards its independent artists. For an incoming Amherst student wishing to perform original music, lacking the resources or knowledge to build their own musical space, it could be permanently discouraging to need to surpass additional hurdles in merely sharing a piece of art. If I did not have the network of passionate, talented musicians at my disposal with The Anti Citizens, I am not sure I would have been able to curate the performance spaces I did. 

The recent proposal for a Five College Music Festival demonstrates continued student interest in seeing performances by their peers, independent of the music department. The anticipation and strong attendance at student band concerts at Humphries House and student DJ sets at Marsh Arts House also show that the issue is not student participation, but institutional negligence. 

Granted, Amherst offers many opportunities to get involved in musical performances. The college puts on spectacular orchestra concerts, jazz combo performances, and vocal choirs weekly. However, these performances emphasize material already composed, arranged, and reproduced by other artists, and while students are encouraged to compose their own arrangements, it’s often not the main point of the ensemble. 

The re-performance of preexisting music has never been, and never will be, the primary generator of culture. It is only in subcultural, independent music groups such as student bands and songwriters that the next generation of composers, experimental artists, and stars can grow. As a liberal arts institution, it is Amherst’s primary function to provide infrastructure that encourages budding artists to experiment, take risks, and fail without concern to financial liability. 

If Amherst College continues to disregard and even dismiss its independent student artists, then eventually the campus community will find that their musical well has dried up. If we wish to see featured alumni performances or compositions in the decades to come, then the institution needs to start acting seriously in its investment and support of its independent artists. If they do so, then perhaps they’ll come to find that, after long enough, their investment will have provided a new repertoire of jazz standards and symphonies, so that Ellington and Mahler may finally be given a rest.