President University successfully held its first online concert entitled “e-Jazz Live” last week. Playing musical instruments from their own homes, President University Student Orchestra along with two top 5 students of President University Idol 2019 entertained audiences with music from various genres, ranging from pop, classical, to keroncong.
Not only students, but the performance was also filled with interesting collaboration with the Chairman of the President University Foundation, Prof. Dr. Ir. Budi Susilo Soepandji, D.E.A who played saxophone in a song called Moon River. In addition, there was also Fransiska Rachel, S.Sn., M.Ds., the Head of the Visual Communication Design Study Program at President University who performed Frank Sinatra’s song entitled Strangers in the Night.
Prof. Budi explained that students’ hard skills and soft skills were not only developed through lessons in the classroom but also through various extracurricular activities. One of the activities at President University itself is President University Student Orchestra. In line with Prof. Budi, Conductor of President University Student Orchestra, Hary Wisnu Yuniarta said that music is a means to develop students’ intellectual or cognitive skills.
Hary, who is also the Director of the World Heritage Music Academy in Jakarta, expressed his excitement over the achievements made by the President University Student Orchestra. For him, music became a universal language that unites people from various backgrounds and languages. Not only students, lecturers like Fransiska and her colleagues often times join their practice and carry out an entertaining musical performance. This makes the relationship between lecturers and students also closer.
Not necessarily good at playing musical instruments, Hary revealed that every student or lecturer could join this club and learn music together.