By Duda Maciel

Student Entertainment Events hosted the return of Cozy Concerts Thursday, showcasing three student music acts performing acoustic sets.

Cozy Concerts took place in the Baltimore Room at Stamp Student Union. NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts inspired the event, which gave student musicians a smaller and more informal space to perform while allowing other students to listen between classes, SEE Concerts Director Gabby Rowley said.

“It’s a cozy, chill environment for students to both perform music and showcase their talents, but also for other students to just enjoy the music,” Rowley said.

SEE usually features three to five performers at each Cozy Concerts event. Rowley said the number allows several students to perform while keeping the event short enough for students to attend between other activities. The number of students interested in performing has also been higher than the number of available spots.

“Every time we’ve done Cozy, we’ve had to turn a couple people down just because we have so many applicants,” Rowley said.

For students who perform, the event provides a way to continue pursuing music alongside their academic work. FoolFish, one of the acts at Thursday’s event, formed about a year ago at a Jammin’ at Maryland club meeting.

The band includes senior neurobiology and physiology major Maxwell Skolnick on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, senior electrical engineering major Quinn Chisholm on drums and sophomore bioengineering major Anusha Kurra on lead guitar.

For Chisholm, performing with FoolFish gives him a way to keep music in his life while studying a major unrelated to music.

“I’m an EE major, no music involved there, so this gives me something musical to do in my spare time,” Chisholm said.

FoolFish members said they want to continue performing at as many events as possible. The band has also played events such as NextNOW Fest, and members said students have approached them after performances to ask how they can get involved with music on campus.

On-campus events can also make performing more accessible for students who do not want to travel outside College Park. FoolFish members said opportunities such as Cozy Concerts can help connect students with the local music scene.

“Having all these on-campus opportunities makes up for the lack of off-campus opportunities,” Skolnick said.

For some students, the concert offered a chance to discover musicians they had not encountered on campus before. Kendall Shaw, a sophomore psychology and African American and Africana studies major, attended with her friend Virtue Oluwinka, a sophomore psychology major.

“I didn’t even know we had people who did music on campus,” Shaw said.

For Oluwinka, the concert was also an opportunity for students to connect with one another outside of the classroom.

“It just helps bring everyone together, kind of,” Oluwinka said. “Like, we’re all here, we’re all listening to music.”

As SEE looks ahead to future Cozy Concerts, Rowley said the organization is considering ways to build on the event’s current format.

“I also just kind of want to grow Cozy Concerts maybe into something more than just performances,” Rowley said.

SEE has not yet announced the date for the next Cozy Concerts event, though Rowley said students can expect the event to return, with updates to be posted through SEE’s Instagram account.

Featured Image: FoolFish performers, Anusha Kurra (left), Quinn Chisholm (middle) and Maxwell Skolnick (right), during SEE’s Cozy Concerts in the Baltimore Room at Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland on Oct. 1, 2026. Photo by Duda Maciel.