The sound of "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd flows into the hall outside of Benjamin Barretts' room. The music doesn't come from a speaker, but from Barrett playing the guitar.
A senior at the University of St. Thomas, he grew up listening to Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin with his dad, who has a collection of guitars on the wall. Now Barrett is a fan of Pink Floyd, John Mayer, and many more rock 'n' roll artists.
In high school, he would flip through photobooks and find images of his dad sporting long hair and a two-necked electric guitar, his twin brother on the drums. At the time, Barrett only played the saxophone.
"I just picked up one of his guitars and started learning," he said.
After buying his own guitar, Barrett got a taste of performing it live in his freshman year of high school. He put together a band and learned 30 seconds of various rock songs to play during time-outs at basketball games.
When look for colleges in the Midwest, the combination of contemporary and classical music programs at the St. Thomas caught his eye. Across his four years as a music business major, with a double-minor in business analytics and recording arts, he has cultivated a community of creative expression.
He found the Pop & Rock club and the student-led record label 480 Collective and began stage managing live events and forming his own band Monarch.
"I've learned that I was passionate about providing people with new musical experiences and also connecting people together to form their own musical groups," Barrett said.
His passion takes shape through the 480 Collective, a student-led record label that began as a capstone course with access to the Schoenecker Center recording studio. Barrett merged his responsibilities with Pop & Rock to lead the collective.
"We decided to form a record label with the purpose of empowering new artists with the resources needed to launch their musical careers," he said.
In the 2024 spring semester, the label signed 11 artists for the first compilation album, Vol. 1, and 12 artists for Vol. 2 in the fall. Currently, the label has 7 upcoming artists for the fall 2025 release.
Barrett hopes that the 480 Collective will continue to grow after he graduates, establishing itself into events like Tommie Fest and Homecoming.
Aside from campus performances, the 480 Collective collaborates with Live Nation for concert ticket giveaways as a way to build relationships with students who may not play music.
"It's impactful and it makes people happy, so I really want that to continue," said Barrett, who plants to take the Law School Admission Test and pursue entertainment law.
"One of the things that I really admire about Ben is that he is incredibly good as rallying people together towards a common goal," said Charlie Sedgwick, who met Barrett during the first week of his sophomore year, bonding over their similar tastes in music and love for the guitar. They worked together on the 480 Collective and other music projects.
"During all of these projects, I found Ben to be a great collaborator and an effective leader and communicator," Sedgwick said. "He always makes sure that others can understand him and that he can understand others."
Music has always been a shared experience for Barrett, and managing live shows is only a snippet of his expertise. Performing with his band, Monarch, unveiled his guitar prowess.
Monarch began in Pop Music Collective, a first-level music course at St. Thomas, under the name Stone Soup. As the group became official, they renamed the band and played their first show at St. Paul Rock Music Lounge. The band release two songs, "Commodity" and "Dying Out Loud."
His skill as a musician has led to leadership opportunities beyond campus.
"He teaches group guitar lessons to Minneapolis kids from a variety of backgrounds, including some who don't speak English," Mared Stoddard Mack, a coordinator in the Department of Music, Film and Creative Studies, said about how Barrett teaches at Guitarra En El Barrio in Minneapolis, a guitar program for Latin children.
"Rather than shying away from this challenge," she said. "Ben has figured out how to connect through guitar, using music as a way to build bridges and find a common bond."
In his nomination letter for Barrett, Chris Kachian, a professor of guitar studies and harmonica at St. Thomas, said, "Mr. Barrett has proven himself to be an individual of the highest order both of character and scholarship. He is a leader in our department and easily earned the respect of his peers and the faculty."
