SYMPOSIUM
Music Research in Singapore Symposium
21 Feb 2023, 9.00am – 5.00pm
About the Music Research in Singapore Symposium (MRSS)
After a hiatus due to the pandemic, your favorite local music research symposium is back!
The 3rd annual Music Research in Singapore Symposium will highlight the exciting variety of music research happening across Singapore. Join us for a diverse line-up of keynote speeches, talks and panels, with topics including the applications of music research in pedagogy and practice, music and health, and the research and funding landscape in Singapore. There will also be a tea break poster session for research sharing, as well as music performances.
Last but not least, we will be publicly announcing YST’s new Centre for Music & Health. Please join us for what promises to be a fun and inspiring day!
Schedule
MORNING SESSION
9.00 – 9.30am
Registration and coffee
9.30 – 9.45am
Opening performance
Joachim Lim, percussion
David Loke, violin
9.45 – 10.00am
Welcome address
10.05 – 10.25am
Keynote speech by Ms Lynette Pang (Deputy CEO, NAC)
10.30 – 11.30am
Panel 1: Music and Health
Moderator: Prof Kat Agres (YST)
Panellists: Prof Kua Ee Heok (National University Hospital), Prof Ang Seng Bin (KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital), Dr Mandy Zhang (Changi General Hospital), Dr Tan Xueli (St Luke’s Hospital)
11.30am – 12.00pm
Launch: YST Centre for Music and Health
Speech: Prof Kat Agres
Musical ribbon cutting: Bekhzod Oblayorov (B.Mus4, piano), Shohei Yoshihara (B.Mus4, bass), and Zachary Singson Dominguez (B.Mus3, voice)
12.00 – 1.00pm
Lunch
AFTERNOON SESSION
1.00 – 1.45pm
Panel 2: Computational research in music
Moderator: Prof Wang Ye (NUS Computing)
Panellists: Dr Taemin Cho (Principal Engineer, Bandlab), Dr Chitra Gupta (NUS Information Systems), Prof Dorien Herremans (SUTD Information Systems)
1.45 – 2.45pm
Panel 3: Applications of music research in pedagogy and practice
Moderator: Ms Lin Xiangning (YST)
Panellists: Prof Eugene Dairianathan (NTU), Dr Rebecca Kan (NAFA), Dr Khoo Hui Ling (YST), Mr Sascia Pellegrini (SOTA)
2.45 – 3.30pm
Tea break and poster sharing session
3.30 – 4.30pm
Panel 4: Music research and funding landscape in Singapore
Moderator: Dr Sharon Chang (NAC/MCCY)
Panellists: Ms Grace Low (Esplanade), Mr Kok Tse Wei (SSO), Ms Andrea Khoo (NAC), Dr Jean Liu (National Gallery Singapore)
4.30 – 5.00pm
Wrap up and closing performance
David Loke, violin
Bekhzod Oblayorov (B.Mus4), piano
Shohei Yoshihara (B.Mus4), bass
Registration
Attendance is free, but registration is required as spaces are limited.
Registration is now closed, as we are now at capacity for the venue.
For queries, please contact co-organiser Ms Lin Xiangning.
Keynote Speaker
Previously the Assistant Chief Executive, Marketing, Lynette Pang was responsible for building the Singapore destination brand globally and helmed the international marketing efforts of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), across the B2C (leisure) and B2B (MICE) businesses, and oversaw global strategic marketing partnerships, corporate communications and marketing capability development.
Lynette joined NAC in October 2021 and is an Executive Committee Member of the World Federation of Advertisers and a board member at Arts House Limited. She had previously sat on the boards of the Singapore International Film Festival and the Council for Private Education.
Lynette graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Sociology and has an Honours in English Literature. Her passion for the arts saw her dedicating a few years to not-for-profit arts group, Singapore Repertory Theatre as General Manager that saw Dick Lee’s “Forbidden City” debut at the Esplanade Theatre opening, the development of SRT’s theatre at Robertson Quay and launch of The Little Company, a children’s theatre group.
Speakers and Moderators:
Dr Taemin Cho is a Principal Engineer at BandLab Technologies. He holds a Ph.D. in Music Technology from New York University and an M.M. in the same field from the same institution. He has a dual background in both computer science and music performance, with a B.S. in Computer Science from Inha University in Incheon, Korea, and a B.M. from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he double majored in Performance (guitar) and Music Synthesis.
His primary areas of focus include Music AI, Music Information Retrieval (MIR), and real-time DSP.
Rebecca Kan (PhD, EdD) is Associate Dean for Degree Studies in the Faculty of Performing Arts, at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. She concurrently holds a position as Associate Dean for Curriculum and Pedagogy in a newly established Centre of Teaching and Learning. At the heart of her research is the exploration of the space in-between. Her musicological research findings are published in Early Music, Edition HH, Early Music Review, Eighteenth-Century Music, Bach Bibliography, Bach Notes, Studi Vivaldiani, and Irish Musical Studies. In her quest for the advancement of higher arts education, her recent research involvements have taken her into deep explorations on the learning experiences of students in the arts and design. She is the co-editor of Teaching and Learning the Arts in Higher Education with Technology: Vignettes from Practice (Springer, 2021).
Dr Khoo Hui Ling seeks and maintains diverse interests in life which nourish her artistic soul, for she is at once a pianist, music educator, researcher and entrepreneur. She believes that good music is sincere and vulnerable, an ideal she infuses into all her artistic endeavours.
Hui Ling is currently Lecturer at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST) and Founder of The Music Studios where she mentors piano teachers and students. Having a strong conviction to positively impact the music teaching community, she serves as the Vice President of the Singapore Music Teachers’ Association and on the executive committee of the Southeast Asian Directors of Music (SEADOM). In recent years, she has been invited to speak at the Southeast Asian Music Academy Online symposiums, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Music Teacher Conferences, and the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference.
Constant musing on the interconnectivity between art and the world around us has inspired Hui Ling’s eclectic array of musical projects. Her artistry at the piano has been heard in creatively programmed recitals in the United States, Europe and Singapore. Forays into multidisciplinary performance have led to the production of Walking in the Wild, a music and dance collaboration first presented at the 2019 Performers’ Presents International Artistic Research Symposium at YST. In 2016, she produced short documentaries on the confluence of Chinese traditional music and painting in Tan Dun’s 8 Memories in Watercolour, culminating in a multimedia performance that premiered in the United States and Singapore. In her spare time, Hui Ling fiddles around on the erhu, which she picked up as a teenager. She likens playing the erhu after a busy day to drinking a cup of fragrant Chinese tea with an old friend.
Kok Tse Wei is Director, Community Impact at the Singapore Symphony Group (SSG). He believes that the arts can transform lives and should be accessible to people from all walks of life. Through a wide-ranging set of programmes, which include community engagement and education concerts and activities, platforms for music participation like the choral and national youth orchestra programmes, the biennial National Piano and Violin Competition, and the ABRSM music examinations in Singapore, the Community Impact division and musicians of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra strive to spread the love of music, nurture talent, and enrich diverse communities in Singapore.
Prior to that, he served as Director, Sector Development (Performing Arts) at the National Arts Council (NAC) in Singapore, where he led his teams to formulate and implement performing arts policies and programmes, including the gradual reopening of the performing arts sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of more than a decade, Tse Wei has taken on a range of roles at the NAC, from PR to arts education and youth arts; published stories as a music journalist at The Straits Times in Singapore; and worked with arts organisations based in New York City such as Jazz at Lincoln Centre, the League of American Orchestras, and Spaceworks.
Tse Wei has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and an MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University in New York City. He currently serves on the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Governing Board at the National University of Singapore.
Professor Kua Ee Heok is the Tan Geok Yin Professor in Psychiatry and Neuroscience at NUS, and Emeritus Consultant at NUH.
He graduated as a doctor from the University of Malaya in 1973 and had training in psychiatry at Oxford University and geriatric psychiatry at Harvard University. He is the former Head Department of Psychological Medicine at NUS/NUH and CEO and Medical Director of IMH.
A member of the WHO team for the global study of dementia, he organised the first dementia prevention program in Singapore in 2012 at Jurong – this program included music-reminiscence and choral singing as one of the modalities. The 5-year outcome study showed a dementia prevalence of only 5% – this compares well with the Ministry of Health report of 10%.
Grace Low is Head of Customer and Community Engagement at Esplanade. Besides managing the customer experience team to ensure customer satisfaction across all engagement points, she also oversees the community engagement team that organizes some 500 activities each year for under-served communities that include vulnerable children, at-risk youth, the elderly, persons with different abilities, the marginalized as well as beneficiaries from low-income households.
As the Accessibility Lead at Esplanade, Grace is passionate about widening access through the arts, and goes about her work with deep conviction and purpose.
Sascia’s expertise is in intermedia, and interdisciplinary arts, with a strong background in music composition and dance choreography: he has conducted courses in Academies and Universities in Scotland, Hong Kong, China, and Singapore.
His contributions and articles have been featured in symposiums, conferences, magazines and journals from the US, the UK, Lithuania, Slovenia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Korea.
In recent years Sascia has developed a close collaboration with the American composer Ben Boretz and the Tibetan singer Yungchen Llamo. He has performed in Italy, France, Germany, China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong, where he collaborated with major dance companies.
Sascia is a Composition and Integrated Arts Teacher at The School of the Arts of Singapore, Editor for the Open Space Magazine (NY), and reviewer for SAGE (Psychology of Music, UK). He is currently a PhD candidate with the University of Dundee, Scotland.
Dr Tan is a board-certified music therapist with a doctorate degree from the University of Iowa (USA). She is currently the Principal Music Therapist/Music Therapy Lead and Research Lead at St. Luke’s Hospital in Singapore. Prior to her current appointment, Dr Tan was the Associate Professor of Music Therapy at the Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Centre at University of Bergen (Norway), and the Presidential Research Fellow at the School of Music, University of Iowa (USA). For close to 30 years, Dr Tan worked as a music therapy clinician, researcher, author, scientific journal editor, and professor in USA and Norway. An award-winning researcher, Dr Tan’s work revolves around the use of music therapy in pain management and rehabilitation in medical settings; specifically in burns/trauma intensive care, post-surgical, oncology, and psychiatry. Dr Tan other areas of specialization and expertise include research in music perception, music and emotions, music preferences in medical settings, cultural humility and responsiveness in clinical practice, and research design and analysis. Dr Tan was awarded the Presidential Commendation Award by the American Music Therapy Association in 2017 for her team service to researching, educating, and advocating for culturally-responsive practice in music therapy in the United States of America.
Ye Wang is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and is also affiliated with the NUS Graduate School’s Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme (ISEP), the Institute of Data Science (IDS), as well as the Institute for Applied Learning Sciences & Educational Technology (ALSET). He is an associate editor (AE) of Journal of New Music Research, and has just finished his term as AE of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, and Distinguished Lecturer of Asia Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association (APSIPA). He established and directed the NUS Sound and Music Computing (SMC) Lab (https://smcnus.comp.nus.edu.sg/). Before joining NUS he was a member of the technical staff at Nokia Research Center in Tampere, Finland for 9 years. His research at NUS is centered on sound and music computing for human health and potential (SMC4HHP). His most recent projects involve the design and evaluation of systems to support 1) therapeutic gait training using Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS), 2) second language learning.
MB BCh BAO (Ireland), MRCS (Edinburgh), M.Med Family Medicine( Singapore), MSpMed (Australia), FAMS (SpMed)
Dr Mandy Zhang has post graduate qualifications in Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh), Masters of Family Medicine (Singapore), Masters of Sports Medicine (Australia) along with certifications from American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Exercise Physiologist (USA), FIFA diploma in football medicine, International Society for Medical Shockwave Treatment (ISMST) in the use of Radial Shockwaves. She is also a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Singapore.
Dr Zhang is the chair of the Performing Arts Medicine special interest group under Sports Medicine Association Singapore (SMAS), dance lead for the Performing Arts Medicine Centre (PAMC), Training and Education Deputy Director for Exercise is Medicine Singapore (EIMS), an affiliate of the American College of Sports Medicine. She is also a clinical tutor for the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine’s Graduate Diploma in Sports Medicine programme, DUKE-NUS and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. She was the chief secretariat for Sports Safety Committee Singapore in 2016-2019 and is currently an Aviation Medical Examiner at Changi Aviation Medical Examination Centre (CAMEC).
Dr Zhang has provided medical coverage for high key sporting events such as SEA Games, Singapore FORMULA 1 Grand Prix and ONE Fighting Championship, as well as the Special Olympics Singapore National Games.
Dr Zhang’s clinical interests include sports injury prevention, musculoskeletal sonography and performing arts medicine. With a keen interest in dance medicine and musculoskeletal injuries relating to Performing Arts, Dr Zhang has dance qualifications in both Royal Academy of Dance (RAD, United Kingdom) and Commonwealth Society of Teachers of Dance (CSTD, Australia).
Organisers
After graduating from the School of the Arts Singapore as the Valedictorian of Class of 2015, Xiangning joined the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music’s Bachelor of Music program, and later stayed on to complete the Master of Music program in piano performance. She is currently working as a Teaching Assistant in relation to areas of Music Cognition, Singapore Studies, and Artistic Research.
Getting Here
ADDRESS
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music
National University of Singapore
3 Conservatory Drive
Singapore 117376
GETTING HERE
Nearest MRT station:
Clementi or Kent Ridge
Bus Services:
96 (from Clementi), 151
NUS Internal Shuttle Bus Services A2, C, D1, D2 and BTC
Parking:
Parking at YST Building basement, NUS Carpark 3
Nearby F&B options:
Foreword Coffee Roasters, YST Conservatory Lounge (open till 5.30pm on weekdays and for select evening events)
Bar Bar Black Sheep (Kent Ridge outlet)
University Town, NUS
YST CONSERVATORY
National University of Singapore
3 Conservatory Drive
Singapore 117376
