At the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FEB UGM), students are not only engaged in academics or formal student organizations but also have the opportunity to channel their creativity through arts communities. One of them is the Economics Session Band (ESB), a long-standing faculty-level music community. Although it went inactive during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, ESB came back in 2023 and has since enlivened various events at FEB UGM.
The initiative of several students drove the revival of ESB. Devon Otniel Del Frey (Management 2023), a guitarist of ESB shared that in 2023, he together with his friends, Angelica Rosdiana (Accounting 2022), Farello Yudika Hendratmo (Economics 2023), Hanif Ahmad Reza Hasan (Management 2022), and Mikha Jovan Hutasoit (Accounting 2022), took the initiative to bring ESB back to life after its three-year hiatus. Today, the community has grown to around 60 members which are divided into two main groups, performing members (vocalists, drummers, keyboardists, guitarists, bassists, and saxophonists) and non-performing members (managers, creative media, public relations, playback engineers, photographers, and videographers). With such a large pool of members, ESB applies a rotation system for their performances, meaning that the lineup changes from one event to another.
In terms of music, ESB’s repertoire adapts to the events they participate in, ranging from jazz and pop to even dangdut. Still, Devon admitted that pop remains the most frequently played genre. Moreover, songs by local musicians such as Dewa 19 and Sheila on 7 are favorites among ESB members and FEB UGM students, though the band also covers international acts like Maroon 5. Currently, ESB has not yet released any original songs and continues to focus on cover performances.
When met after performing at the FEB UGM Family Fun Day (FFD) event at the FEB UGM Plaza on Sunday (14/9/2025), Devon revealed that ESB struggled with a lack of members in the early days after their revival, making it challenging to create varied performances. However, by 2025, the situation has improved significantly with more new members joining, allowing for greater diversity in stage lineups.
Looking ahead, Devon hopes ESB will continue to grow and have more opportunities to perform at larger events within and beyond FEB UGM. “We play music to have fun. Hopefully, ESB will keep growing and becoming even more successful in the future,” Devon concluded.
Reportage by: Najwah Ariella Puteri
Editor: Kurnia Ekaptiningrum
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