It’s possible you’ve never met Damoi Morgan ’25, but it’s likely that you’ve heard his music passing through the Quad. To many Lafayette students and faculty members, the melodies from Morgan’s steel drums echoing across campus have become a familiar and welcoming sound.
Morgan’s fondness for the steel drum first emerged when he was in high school. Originally trained as a percussionist, he started experimenting with the steel drum as a way to expand his musical horizons beyond beats and patterns and into the world of notes and tones.
“I got into steelpan because I was able to be a musician and learn music theory … and still hit stuff,” he said.
Now at Lafayette, Morgan’s affinity for “hitting stuff” has flourished into an affinity for a multitude of musical endeavors; he’s running his own production company, starting a new club, organizing his very own version of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and, on top of all that, still somehow finding time to play recreationally.
Morgan is most widely known at Lafayette for his regular Quad performances and, from his perspective, they’re just the kind of activity that truly defines Lafayette.
“Without students on campus, this land is just black and white … People being on campus, especially with musical instruments, it … adds another layer of color to the scene,” Morgan said.
Seeing more of this color come to campus is incredibly important to Morgan. He is founding a new club called Jam Session to help do exactly that.
“There’s a bunch of people here that love to create music, but they don’t love to do it on the stage. So, I’m gonna make a club that deals more with … putting people in different spaces on campus and recording their creations … because everyone loves to create music,” he said.
Jam Session will act adjacently to Lafayette Interdisciplinary Music Society (LIMS), an on-campus music organization that focuses on live performance, to help student artists share and produce their music in a professional, well-executed and approachable way.
Since beginning his journey with the steel drum, Morgan has grown not only as an artist and a leader but also as a businessman. He’s currently planning to double major in music and economics, and he manages his own production company, Exquisite Productions.
“I made Exquisite Productions because that’s how I choose to describe myself and how my music is executed,” Morgan said. “If I’m involved with the production, you’re receiving exquisite production.”
Over this past summer, Morgan and his company played celebrations, cocktail hours and 100th birthday parties, cementing his success by becoming an officially registered company.
“I definitely will be playing music forever,” Morgan said. “There’s no reason to stop.”
