Highlights/Upcoming events

Join us for **Movin' & Groovin' for Wellness** at the National Gallery Singapore this Friday 23 June

After a wonderful sharing session at the National Gallery Singapore earlier this week, we are delighted to return to the National Gallery on Friday. CMH will be hosting a Movin' & Groovin' for Wellness group drumming and dancing session to promote emotional wellness, creativity, and social connection. Registration for the 2pm sesion is sold out, but please join in our open group drumming and dancing jam session (with live improvised music from two amazing Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, NUS, students) from 3:30-4pm in the gallery's atrium.

Introducting AffectMachine-Classical! A novel system for generating affective classical music

Publication Alert! This journal paper discusses our automatic music generation system, AffectMachine. The development of this system started back in 2021, and was an interdisciplinary effort (our team members have backgrounds in cognitive science, music composition, and computer science). AffectMachine is capable of creating emotional-sounding music in real time, either based on the user's inputs, or based on their physiological (e.g., HR) or neural signals. We will be embedding the system into a BCI (brain computer interface) to help listeners regulate their emotion states.

Celebrating the Launch of SE Asia’s First Centre for Music and Health at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music

We held an event in collaboration with NUS Giving to celebrate the launch of the new Centre for Music and Health!
'Tuning into Wellness: Celebrating the Launch of SE Asia’s First Centre for Music and Health at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, NUS.'

The Interdisciplinary Edge: Why and How to Include Cognitive Science in a Music Conservatory Curriculum

Many thanks to the NUS Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL) for the opportunity to share my research in teaching practice with the broader community. See the post HERE. This project investigated how teaching relevant findings from cognitive and performance science may be beneficial to the performance practice of music students, and examined the best teaching methods for this purpose.

Happening soon! The 3rd annual Music Research in Singapore Symposium - at YST NUS on 21st Feb 2023

After months of planning and organization, it's hard to believe that the Music Research in Singapore Symposium is finally upon us! We really have a terrific set of presentations and panel discussions lined up - feeling very lucky and thankful to have such esteemed and diverse members of the community joining, from academics and musicians, to clinicians, arts organizations, and policy makers. Also happy to share that Lynette Pang, Deputy CEO of the National Arts Council, will be our Keynote Speaker. And of course there will be music, and plenty of it.

Upcoming talk at SG's amazing ArtScience Museum, entitled "Embracing Music for a Healthier Future"

I'm honored to have been invited to present about Music and Health at the ArtScience Museum. (This is one of my favorite museums EVER, so I'm really chuffed!) After my talk, one of my wonderful PhD students, Phoebe Chua, will help demo our new music EEG system: Participants will wear an EEG cap, and their neural activity will drive our affective automatic music generation system! Should be fun. :)

Ever wonder how a listeners's background influences their emotional experience of music? See our new article published in Sensors journal!

It seems common sense that a listener's background would influence their musical preferences and emotional responses to music, yet relatively little research has been done in this area. Our research provides a new dataset, and elucidates how age, enculturation, musical training, and other profile information, influences emotion ratings of music. Our new paper, entitled 'A Music Dataset with Emotion Ratings and Raters’ Profile Information' is available in the journal Sensors.

New Centre for Music and Health established at YST!

I’m thrilled to share that we are officially launching a new Centre for Music and Health at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, NUS! Establishing such a centre has been a dream of mine for nearly 2 decades, and I'm feeling very grateful and excited. I'm greatly looking forward to working with amazing people here at YST, NUS, and the larger community on new music initiatives to improve lives. Can't wait to see what exciting new programs and collaborations will blossom out of the CMH!

Keynote Talk at the IPS-NAC Arts & Culture Research Symposium 2022: The Role of Arts in Well-Being and Social Inclusion

It was an amazing experience, and quite an honor, to be one of the Keynote speakers at yesterday's Culture Research Symposium on 'The Role of Arts in Well-Being and Social Inclusion', hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and the National Arts Council. I was so happy to see the huge turnout (wonderful to be speaking at live events again, given all of the recent restrictions on in-person meetings!).

3rd Conference on AI Music Creativity (Sep 13-15th)

I'm happy to be an invited speaker for the 3rd Conference on AI Music Creativity, on the Neuroscience & Health (with respect to AI Music Creativity) panel. If you're interested in attending the online event, registration is FREE! Check out the program and conference information here: https://2022.aimusiccreativity.org/
UPDATE: A recording of the panel session on Neuroscience & Health is available here.

NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award

I am honored and grateful to have received the 2022 NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award. "The award is given by the University to recognize positive contributions to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of high-quality teaching and assessment in a sustained and impactful way." Thank you, NUS, this means a lot!

Special Event: Finding Emotional Resilience Through Music

I feel quite thankful for being one of two speakers invited to present at a special event at NUSS Guild Hall on 'A conversation on Emotional Resilience – Finding Emotional Well Being Through Music'. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to share some of my group's recent work on Music for Health and Wellness, and to be part of several wonderful conversations that happened during and after the event. It was also lovely to present in-person AND mask-free for the first time in over two years!

Music, Technology, and Health: Forging a New Musical Frontier in Healthcare

I am honored to be an invited speaker for the lecture series hosted by the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Washington, DC, next month. I will be talking about 'Music, Technology, and Health', and how we can leverage this exciting intersection of disciplines to forge a new (musical) frontier in healthcare. Attendance is free and open to the public!

ICMPC just around the corner!

My colleagues and I are presenting two talks (papers) at the 16th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) this year, which is taking place online 28-31 July. Because the talks are being presented virtually, I am able to share the YouTube links for the talks here. My talk, entitled 'The Impact of COVID-19 on Music Therapy and Technology Use Around the World,' is available here.

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