Today will be the second performance in Memorial Union Program Council’s Javacoustics series. This series of events invites student performers to play music for their peers at the Javastop coffee shop in the MU.

The first of these performances occurred this past Thursday, Nov. 12, featuring two student performances. As acoustic music filled the small cafe, nearly every seat in Javastop was occupied. Many attendees had come specifically to support the performers while others enjoyed a break from their studies and a cup of coffee.

This is exactly the kind of crowd that MUPC Music and Concerts Coordinator Sarah Sutton is hoping to draw. Sutton and her fellow coordinator Calvin Nguyen are excited to be taking the lead on this series.

This year, Sutton and Nguyen hope to take Javacoustics above and beyond what it has been in the past by making the series more focused on helping and promoting student musicians.

“That’s the core of this event for Calvin and I,” Sutton said. “The purpose of Javacoustics is for the musicians and everything that we do is tailored toward them.”

They have increased the number of performances in the series in hopes that that will allow them to showcase more performers. There will be performances throughout every term this year. Additionally, they have been working to reach out to more student performers and connect them more to the campus music community.

“Something different we’re doing this year instead of last year, we’re asking musicians if they want to collaborate with each other,” Nguyen said.

Thus far, Sutton and Nguyen have been pleased with the turnout and look forward to continuing the series for the rest of this year.

Whether a performer is looking to share their passion or lay foundations for a career in music, the Javacoustics community is open to all. Gabe Fleck, junior graphic design major and student musician, has performed on campus many times before and is always happy to work with MUPC.

“As much as I help MUPC, which I don’t know how significant that is, they give back ten-fold,” Fleck said. “They make me feel like I’m a musician and that I’m important.”

The performances for the rest of fall term are booked and the interest list for winter term is already growing. Anyone interested in performing can contact MUPC and ask to be part of a performance. For more information about attending or performing, visit MUPC’s website.

“We feel super thankful that we can do this for student musicians,” Sutton said. “I don’t think there’s a lot on campus right now for student musicians, which is why we expanded this event to 14 performances over the course of fall and winter term In the past, I think last year they had maybe five performances winter term, so we really looked at our goal to expand that and make it for the musicians.”