Natural disasters engulfed Indonesia, namely earthquake in Lombok, tsunami in Palu, and tsunami in Sunda Strait. Those calamities still remain lingering on our mind since they took many lives, drove thousands of people to evacuate, caused people to experience injuries, and surely evoked a huge grief to people in Indonesia. Concern with the conditions, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) contributed to alleviate burdens of the victims. UMY conducted an event called Charity Concert, as an effort of UMY to raise people’s natural disaster awareness. The event was held at Concert Hall Taman Budaya Yogyakarta (TBY) on Thursday night (14/03).
The charity concert whose theme was “Rose in Paradise” presented a theatrical music concept and became the very first theatrical music organized by UMY. It showed collaboration of five different student activity units, namely Sunshine Voice Choir, Drum Crops, Teater Tangga, UMY’s Music Club, and SENTAKAMUDYA Dance Club. “As a part of gratitude of UMY, this charity concert is conducted. We have many ingenious and talented students so that this concert also pays tribute to them. We combine traditional and modern art for the performance. The Rose in Paradise can make people wander in a touching emotion of the victims of the natural disasters,” stated Faris Al-Fadhat, Chief of UMY’s 38th Anniversary Commemoration Committee.
A coordinator of the Charity Concert Puthut Ardiantho, M.Pd. explained, “The purpose of the concert is to persuade people coming to TBY, also as a means to remind people about natural disasters, as recently many natural disasters occurred in Indonesia. Besides, UMY also aspires to have a disaster-conscious community. At the Charity Concert, we also launched UMY disaster volunteers.”
Puthut also informed that the Charity Concert is a form of social care of UMY. “When people ask why we conduct a charity in a form of concert? The answer is because we do not only visualize, but also fundraise for the victims of natural disasters. We aspire to the idea of disaster awareness through theatrical performance. We also solicit students from various student activity units, who possess engagement in arts. The donation, afterwards, will be distributed to the victims through LAZIZMU,” he maintained.
Furthermore, Rector of UMY Dr. Ir. Gunawan Budiyanto, M.P. reported that UMY allotted a donation to 153 students affected by the earthquake disaster. In the event of charity concert, Gunawan handed over 3,438,000,000 Rupiahs to two students, namely Rizki M. Syahputra from Department of International Relations and Syafira Damayanti from Department of Sharia Economics. Dealing with the performance at the concert, Gunawan stated that he was unnerved with the performance. He was very proud of UMY students and hoped that the concert will be more majestic next year.
“UMY students possess great talents and achievements. For tonight’s performance, all of them synergized very well. It is evidence that UMY has great people. In the next year concert, we will collaborate with Sang Surya Symphony Orchestra. I humbly wish supports from all parties so that later the concert can be presented to all people,” conveyed Gunawan.
Additionally, the Charity Concert demonstrated not only a performance from student activity units but also a fashion show performance. This fashion show performance aimed to introduce a concept of Green Campus, entitled “Promoting UMY Green Life Style”. The fashion show was visualized by performances of lecturers of UMY. For the show, UMY used plant-based fabrics, known as eco-print, which was a creation of Puthut Ardianto, M.Pd.
