On Sunday, April 26, the band “One Night Only” performed their set at Brandeis’ Springfest. The band, made up entirely of Brandeis students, was one of three student openers for Notebook P and Zara Larsson. They performed four covers across their 15-minute set. 

Leading the band are Emily Confino-Miller ’26 and Isi Bustos ’28. Confino-Miller and Bustos are lead singers for One Night Only and formed the band after auditioning with vocals for their spots as a Springfest student opener. Ben Selip ’28, Kian Wijnaendts ’28 and Dan Zeidan ’26 play bass, guitar and the drums, respectively. The latter three were scouted by Confino-Miller and Bustos through shared connections through classes and the Undergraduate Theatre Collective. One Night Only began rehearsals in February and has practiced together at least twice a week for about five hours since. 

One Night Only’s only night did not come without its challenges. The majority of these student musicians had not previously worked with each other. Confino-Miller and Bustos remembered being nervous in the early stages of rehearsals over the band’s chemistry. One Night Only was able to find their sound as a band about two weeks into rehearsals and has since bonded as musicians and friends. The day before Springfest, at their final rehearsal, all five members of One Night Only agreed they were ready and excited to perform. However, this year’s Springfest changed some of the details for student openers. Traditionally, student performers are given backstage passes during Springfest. As of Saturday, April 25, One Night Only had not yet received their passes and lamented on CAB’s unwillingness to give them out. A perk of having these backstage passes is being able to meet the opening and headlining artists; however, all student openers need backstage passes to ensure their equipment is in the right spot before their set. This year, the student performers at Springfest were unable to ensure all their necessary equipment would be available to them and were forced to enter Notebook P and Zara Larsson’s performances through general admission, with the same bracelet given to every Brandeis student. This, again, breaks the tradition of how student performers are treated. The bassist, Ben Selip ’28, described a private, roped-off area in past Springfest celebrations that was exclusively for student performers to enjoy the rest of the show after their sets. 

The members of One Night Only alluded that the issues they have faced trying to perform at Springfest are related to the decline of the music department at Brandeis as a whole. All five members of the band are extraordinarily talented and have an extensive background in music, but only Confino-Miller, the auditioning vocalist and arranger for the band, is studying music at Brandeis. For the other four members of the band, music is a passion project, yet most came to Brandeis thinking of studying music. Unfortunately, the music department has faced a number of budget cuts. Last year, the Lydian String Quartet was defunded and multiple members of the music department were let go. The decline was described as steep and fast by band members and not reflective of how Brandeis advertises its music program to potential students. Dan Zeidan ’26, the drummer of One Night Only, stated that former Brandeis president Ron Liebowitz especially damaged the music department, and current Brandeis president Arthur Levine ’70 has been prioritizing the sciences over arts programs. 

One Night Only also described the difficulties of maintaining a passion for music as a Brandeis student who does not want to or is unable to join the music department. Office practice rooms in Slosberg Music Center are difficult for students who are not majoring in music to use. The band was only able to access their practice room in Slosberg because Confino-Miller is majoring in music. The rest of the band takes any non-academic method of expressing their passion for music they can find. Confino-Miller and Bustos are both members of Brandeis Starving Artists, and Zeidan is a former member of the a capella group Rather Be Giraffes. Wijnaendts and Selip mentioned groups such as Jam Club as great opportunities for Brandeis student musicians who are not studying music. All five members of One Night Only agreed that the Brandeis music department suffers from a lack of advertising to the Brandeis student body. Brandeis students tend not to understand what it means to major or minor in music, and, besides a capella, opportunities to pursue music as a hobby are very difficult to discover. Combined with the shrinking music department in both funds and faculty, bands like One Night Only have become extremely unique at Brandeis University. 

One Night Only performed after a band led by Hazel Drew ’28 and were followed by Marakosa, with Jaga, the stage name of DJ Ben Jolluck ’26, performing between each act. One Night Only’s one night at Springfest was triumphant. Their set was lively and exceedingly fun to watch. The audience sang along to covers of “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse and “Ain’t it Fun” by Paramore. Although they may stay true to their name and only perform for one night, we may see their musical prowess soon through band members’ various a capella groups, music clubs and bands they might form after graduating.