Graduating senior Ankitha Raman knew coming into college that she wanted to continue playing music. A child of a musical father, she was classically trained in piano throughout her childhood and was involved in music ensembles in school.
“I was just slowly getting to play more things for fun … by artists that I love and just [to] accompany my singing,” she said. “I used to write my own songs sometimes. It was almost like a therapy for me in ways. And so I just wanted to continue that to some extent, and I didn’t necessarily know how to go about that.”
As an engineering student, she wanted to get involved in music-based extracurriculars that weren’t related to her major, but wasn’t as interested in audition-based groups. She stumbled upon Public Harmony at the Club Fair her first-year fall.
“There were just a few members with acoustic guitars and some percussion instruments, singing, and it just seemed like a good vibe,” she said. “And when they pitched their whole [concept], they gave me the spiel about, ‘You know, it’s music and it’s community service.’ … [It seemed like] just a very nice community of people.”
She began playing at service concerts with the club in her first year at Tufts.
“Getting to perform, it really improved my performance abilities and my confidence, because the stakes are so low, and they just genuinely enjoy you being there playing for them,” she said.
She particularly enjoyed seeing the impact that the performances had on their audiences at venues like nursing homes, women’s shelters and a pediatric cancer treatment facility. She was inspired to apply to the club’s executive board and became a music director in her sophomore year. As she became more interested in the logistics of the club, she took the position of vice president her junior year, and then president this year.
“[It] has been a great trajectory for me, and I really do love overseeing it,” she said. “We’ve gotten to do a lot of fun things this year that haven’t been done in the past.”
Raman and her co-president Abby Johnson, a graduating senior, spearheaded efforts including gathering testimonials from current and past club members, as well as audience members, a 10-year anniversary alumni banquet and bringing the club to a new venue at the Charlotte and William Bloomberg Medford Public Library.
“I’m sad to be leaving [Public Harmony], because I found it so early on, I was so lucky to have stumbled upon it and it’s definitely defined my entire college extracurricular life,” she said. “So many of the people in Public Harmony are some of my closest friends. … You really build super special connections, and I think that’s one of the most beautiful things and most powerful things about music.”
She and some of these friends she met and bonded with through Public Harmony realized they could all play different instruments, and floated the idea to start a band in the fall of 2024. As a vocalist and bassist — having only started learning to play the bass during the preceding summer for Public Harmony — Raman founded the band cedar, along with Molly Shafer, a graduating senior, and rising juniors Harry Murphy and Ryan McLean in January 2025.
That spring semester, the band played its first Applejam Productions concerts on campus as they refined their sound and style of music.
“It was a good time because junior year so many people are [studying] abroad, and so a lot of my social circle was out traveling the world,” Raman said. “I was like, ‘I need my own new venture, my own new fun thing to be doing,’ and cedar really filled that.”
After spending last summer together in Medford/Somerville and stealing the show performing at a friend’s birthday party, the band began considering playing at The Burren in Davis Square. They went on to play a 90-minute set there in late October.
“It was awesome, and we had almost 100 people come to see us on a Wednesday evening, which was really nice,” Raman said. They returned to The Burren last month, splitting the show with fellow Tufts band Call From Earth.
“It’s a very unique experience because The Burren is a place that I go … quite regularly, and we’re always in the audience watching the band on stage,” Raman said. “So it feels very special and full circle to get to be on the stage and have people watching and supporting.”
This semester the band has focused more on writing. They now have three original songs, which they hope to record and release on an EP.
Between the two groups, “it’s definitely made this year very, very music heavy … which is awesome, but it definitely can be a lot,” Raman said.
She expressed gratitude for how these experiences have complemented her coursework and other involvements related to her degree in computer science and biomedical engineering. She acknowledged the challenge of balancing her various commitments, especially her leadership role with Public Harmony, but credited the rest of the club’s executive board.
“I work with such a great group of people, and we have quite a big executive board — there are 13 of us — so everything is able to get done,” she said. “II definitely could not imagine my college life without having both of these outlets.”
Next year, Raman will be pursuing a master’s degree in computer science at Columbia University. She has not thought too much about what music will look like for her in New York, but plans to continue playing on her own and hopes to be able to find opportunities through volunteering or finding like-minded musicians to jam with.
“I will definitely be bringing my acoustic guitar and my bass,” she said.
