With an upbeat tempo and strong dynamics, Niu Musiclub keeps a tight rhythm.
From a wide variety of music, from the sultry sounds of jazz, rhythm and blues to the toe tapping ballads of country and alternative rock, Niu Musiclub aims to foster an environment for students who enjoy music to come together and share common interest at Texas A&M.
“We’re trying to grow the music community at Texas A&M,” Pablo Leon, mechanical engineer junior and social coordinator of Niu Musiclub, said. “It’s cool to see that [students in Niu Musiclub are] finding people who want to do the same thing as them.”
Meeting three times a week, Niu Musiclub incorporates song writing, improvisation jam sessions and music sharing.
According to Leon, songwriting is held every Wednesday night from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the Memorial Student Center. Here members will split into groups and write creative lyrics on the spot.
The organization also hosts improvisation jam sessions that typically meet on Sundays. The group allows members with similar music styles come together and perform.
“I found a group of friends who introduced me to so many different artists and new music that I’ve grown to love,” said Amanda Gibbens, biomedical engineering junior and president of Niu Musiclub. “I have made so many new friends now with so many diverse people.”
Aaron Ross, economics junior, said he has had the opportunity to discover new music that does not limit itself to one culture or time period.
“My favorite part of the organization is getting to meet other musicians and share influences,” Ross said. “Because of the club I was able to find other into similar music and form a band. Also because of the music sharing meetings my taste in music has completely changed, whereas I used to only listen to indie rock, now I listen to hip hop, classical, math rock and metal music.”
As a fairly new organization at Texas A&M Niu Musiclub got their name from Victor Leon, Pablo’s older brother, in 2016. According to Pablo, their organization’s name was made by his brother when he went to the Memorial Student Center’s Open House and asked students to join a new music club.
Eventually the students thought that was the name of the club, ‘New Music Club,’ but Victor wanted to make it stand out so he misspelled the words creating ‘Niu Musiclub.’
Ross said he helped build Niu Musiclub to what it is today because it offered something different than the other music clubs on campus.
“I joined and actually helped found Niu Musiclub because there were a lot of niche music clubs on campus, drumline, Indian classical and more, but not one for the average music enthusiast,” Ross said. “ We wanted to create a space for students who were interested in music to make friends, collaborate and share music.”
The Niu Musiclub has two performance each semester as an organization typically one in Rudder Plaza and on First Friday in Bryan. The performances usually last for three hours and members submit a variety of different genres they want to play during the performance either as a solo act or as a group according to Leon.
“Our concerts are a little bit of everything,” Leon said. “We usually end the performance with a jam and listen to people doing crazy solos.”
In the future, Niu Musiclub hopes to get the word out about performance organization in hope of securing a place to perform and jam according to Gibbens.
“Making organization like ours more prominent to the university will maybe increase A&M’s resources to us,” Gibbens said. “It will be great to have a space on campus where we can meet and store club instruments on campus”