For senior Alex Rosenberg, being a part of the Colgate University student band Children at Play is a way to continue his love of music that he has held since childhood. Having started this year’s practices, the band is welcoming new members in a time of increased musicality at Colgate.
Rosenberg, who has played the keyboard, guitar and piano for Children at Play, has been interested in making music since he was young.
“I’ve been playing music since I was eight. It’s always been a dream to be in a band,” Rosenberg said. “I taught myself guitar my sophomore year of high school, and I think that’s when I started to really enjoy music.”
Children at Play was the brainchild of several Colgate alumni who started the idea when they were first-years. It remained only an idea, though, until Rosenberg’s interest in starting a band led to several members getting the band off the ground.
The student community support that comes from performing is especially gratifying to the band.
“[Music] is a nice outlet for our everyday endeavors. It’s just a nice way to bring people together and pursue the things we love,” Rosenberg said.
Colgate has many different outlets for musical creativity that students can choose to take part in depending on their interests. For junior Bridget Looby, that means being a part of the Swinging ’Gates, Colgate’s only all-female a capella group, as well as Floating Shirt, a student band.
“We all just come together and love to make music. It’s great that there’s this innate love for things like the bands on campus,” Looby said. “At the brewery [concert], we had so much overwhelming support for the band. It’s so amazing because I wasn’t really expecting this organic and implicit love and respect for the arts. Floating Shirt is a great example of really talented kids that feel uplifted and amplified by their student body and feel that they can express themselves.”
Looby notes that musical communities can be especially helpful for underclassmen to meet new people and find out what they love.
“As a freshman, being a part of [the Swinging ’Gates] was so helpful and reassuring, especially because freshman year it’s kind of tough to reach out to older kids that are living down the hill,” Looby said. “As a freshman in September, meeting these people assured me that I was in the right place. I felt like I had a lot of them as mentors to guide me through Colgate.”
For Nick Enders, a member of the Colgate 13 and Floating Shirt who also runs a show on WRCU, Colgate’s student-operated radio station, the world of music at Colgate is important for bringing the student body together around the universal enjoyment of music.
“It’s such a special thing to be able to not just have that talent [for music], but be able to showcase it and have people come to support you,” Enders said. “I think that for a lot of people, it’s very meaningful to be able to express themselves in that way and have the support of the community.”
Rosenberg notes that since last semester, there has been an increased enthusiasm for music at Colgate.
“I think that started about last semester,” Rosenberg explained. “Something just happened, and there was a spark in the music community. More groups started forming, which has been really nice, especially the live music collective. It’s a really nice thing to see.”
The live music collective, which aims to build “a network of faculty, staff, and students who are committed to bringing live music to Colgate University and the surrounding community,” according to their website, is another part of the music world at Colgate.
“I think that through the Colgate 13, and also the band, I’m certainly plugged into the musical scene on campus to some extent, so I feel like I know a lot of the people who are musically inclined,” Enders said. “I’ve been fortunate to get connected with the kind of world of music at Colgate. I think it would be great if there [were more] ways to connect people who are excited about music.”
Enders encourages everyone who is interested in music to seek out experiences where they can learn and have fun.
“The best choices I’ve made at Colgate are the ones that have felt a little scary to do — to get up and sing in front of people,” Enders explained. “And it feels very daunting. But getting up there, feeling the rush of it and committing to doing something like that has been just the best experience. I hope that other people who are interested in that will pursue it and be able to find those opportunities for themselves, too, because it really is a great feeling and such a fun thing.”
