Dr June Tan Sheren

MBBS (Singapore), MMed Family Medicine (Singapore), MSc Performing Arts Medicine (UCL, UK)
Consulting Physician, The Musicians’ Clinic @ YST Conservatory of Music, NUS Family Physician

Dr Sheren is a Family Physician and a pioneer in Performing Arts Medicine in Singapore. After graduating in 1997 from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS) and completing postgraduate studies in Family Medicine, she discovered the field of Performing Arts Medicine which allowed her to blend her medical expertise with her passion for the arts. She earned a Master’s with Distinction in Performing Arts Medicine from University College London (UCL) and is the only physician in Singapore formally qualified in this unique field. With a firm background in primary care, she draws on her knowledge, skills and experience to care for performing artists through a holistic and multi-dimensional lens.

She runs The Musicians’ Clinic @ YST, a pro-bono service for students of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, providing a safe space for their physical and mental health needs. She also serves as medical advisor and physician to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). She was awarded a grant by the National Arts Council to support her presentation of her Master’s research, Performance-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Professional Orchestral Musicians, at the 41st Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA) Annual Symposium 2023 in New York City.  In August 2024 she presented a symposium to introduce Performing Arts Medicine for the first time ever to primary care doctors at the Asia-Pacific WONCA (World Organization of Family Doctors) Conference in Singapore, supported again by the NAC. She has given talks and written content for the world’s leading Performing Arts Medicine organizations like PAMA and BAPAM (British Association for Performing Arts Medicine), as well as for the SSO, NUS, LaSalle College of the Arts and Voices of Singapore. She has been invited back to UCL as guest lecturer in their Performing Arts Medicine programme. In her spare time, she plays the piano and cello.

Isabel Matthews • Intern • 2024

Isabel is a musician and aspiring researcher dedicated to improving well-being and enhancing community resilience through the arts. She is a graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Australia, and is currently pursuing her honours year in Singapore, funded by the New Colombo Plan (NCP) Scholarship and the Sir Samuel Griffith Scholarship. With a background in music and community-based research, Isabel is passionate about enhancing our understanding of how the arts can foster a sense of community among diverse populations. This is the focus of her current thesis, which explores the role of music in strengthening community bonds among students living on campus in Singapore.

In addition to her research interests, Isabel is also passionate about utilising music for social impact. One of Isabel's proudest achievements is co-founding Muse, a social enterprise that organised concerts to raise funds for refurbishing second-hand instruments for donation to underprivileged schoolchildren. As Project Leader of Muse and President of Enactus at Griffith University, she led efforts to donate over 25 instruments to schools in Lismore following the 2021 floods, an achievement of immense personal pride. Isabel also served as Campus Director of the Millennium Fellowship, a United Nations-endorsed leadership program empowering students globally to address critical community and global challenges.

Isabel grew up singing in community choirs, which inspired her passion for how the arts can foster community connection. Her choral credits include performing with Opera Queensland, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and the Queensland Ballet, as well as performing as a soloist at the ANZAC Day ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux, France. More recently, Isabel has been exploring her classical singing aspirations and has featured in the Val Machin Opera Scenes and Iolanthe (Gilbert and Sullivan) with the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, as well as the Bach Cantata Series, French Melodies, and Asian Civilisations Museum Concert with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Singers.

Jovyn Lee • VOLUNTEER • 2023 - 2024

Jovyn is a music educator who is passionate about the potential of the arts to impact and transform lives. Her research interest lies in the intersection of arts and social good. She joined Blue Dot as a Research Associate to look at transformative arts for the less privileged youths with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) through a curated arts programme. While working as a Manager of Creative Arts with the Singapore Prisons Service, she was one of the forerunners to develop the prisons arts programme. One of the programmes, Project Unity, was presented during the InSEA in Osaka following the success of the project.

Jovyn was a recipient of the LASALLE scholarship when she pursued her Masters in Arts. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Besides teaching piano, she also volunteers at the NUS (Centre for music and health) for the “Arts & Heritage for Health Evaluation Toolkit (AHET)” project.

Laura Yee • Student Intern • 2023 - 2024

Laura is an undergraduate at Rice University in the United States, studying biology and history. She has worked on CMH’s collaboration with the National Kidney Foundation, investigating the efficacy of music intervention as a way to alleviate the negative effects associated with dialysis treatment. She has also helped with research for CMH’s Arts and Heritage for Health Evaluation Toolkit. 

Having played violin and piano from a young age, Laura understands the power of music and hopes that the intersection of medicine and music will continue to grow in the coming years.

Back in the States, her work is a little less arts focused, as she works primarily in a genetics laboratory investigating the roles and interactions of specific proteins in the Notch cellular signaling cascade. 

Lauren sim • Student Research Assistant • 2024 - Present

Lauren is a third-year Sociology undergraduate at NUS, delving into the profound question of "what does it mean to be well?" Her passion for the area of health ignited during an internship with the Ministry of Health, which exposed her to the intricacies of health and policy. An exchange semester with the University of Pennsylvania, particularly a course on Indigenous concepts of health and healing, further expanded her perspective on well-being.

Personally finding solace in the arts, Lauren aims to harness its unique healing capacity for the broader community. Integrating these interests, she envisions a world where the arts serve as a powerful conduit for wellness, touching lives and nurturing holistic health

Lauren is thrilled to bring this vision to life with CMH, and she eagerly anticipates to learning and growing through this meaningful journey.

Raeanne Wong • Student Research Assistant • 2024 - Present

A recent soprano graduate from School of the Arts, Raeanne enjoys singing both as a soloist and chorister. She sings actively with the Singapore Symphony Youth Choir, and lent her voice to the re-recording of Singapore’s National Anthem (2019), 33rd ASEAN Gala Dinner, and the Cultural Medallion.

She made her solo debut when she performed in Prague’s St Martin in the Wall Church at the age of 14. Raeanne finds it particularly meaningful to use her voice to bring hope to those in need, and she is deeply humbled to have been able to sing for a worthy cause on several occasions such as the national fundraiser ChildAid in 2021 and 2022.

Having conducted research in A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Raeanne understands the importance and promise of research. She hopes to harness the power of research to push boundaries and understand more about the world around us.

Music is a balm to the soul, and Raeanne seeks to increase awareness of the impact that the arts has on health. She is currently researching ways to evaluate this impact through the “Arts & Heritage for Health Evaluation Toolkit” project, and is immensely excited to meld both her interests in music and health in CMH.

Seah Wei Hong • Volunteer • 2024 - Present

As a Year 2 Psychology undergraduate student, Wei Hong is always eager to understand, learn and discover new concepts and knowledge empirically and from others around. Coming from a background with some music training in addition to his major studies, his interests lie in music cognition, cognitive psychology, and the area in between.

New to the research scene, his personal aims would be building foundations through research experiences, enriching his conceptual and theoretical knowledge through them, and bridging those together while contributing to the projects to the best of his abilities. He highly anticipates and looks forward to a meaningful, tiring yet fruitful journey ahead.

Wieder Yang • Volunteer • 2024 - Present

Wieder is a graduate student at the School of Chemical Sciences, NUS. He completed his undergraduates studies in Life Health and Pharmacy. Ever since he was in primary school, Wieder started playing musical instruments and worked in symphony orchestras up to undergraduate level.

With extensive experience in orchestra work and community communications, he hopes to explore and learn more on the impact of music signals on health, while exploring the positive effects of music on society and human health. Wieder is glad to be involved in CMH's work and he hopes to contribute his efforts to CMH's work. He strongly believes that the work here will contribute to his growth and to the health of the community.

Foo Yi Yao • Volunteer • 2024 - Present

Yi Yao is a first year undergraduate studying Dietetics and Nutrition at the Singapore Institute of Technology, under a scholarship from the Health Promotion Board. With a background in nursing, he is keen to apply his clinical experience within the community and in hospitals to advance and diversify health-enhancing modalities based on arts and music for the Singapore population.

Having attended the University of Navarra Nursing Summer School in 2021 and presented at the Seirei International Research Conference 2022 on technological innovations for patient safety, he strongly believes in the importance in fostering global collaboration and knowledge exchange. He is eager to embark on the development of the Arts and Health Toolkit (AHET) and looks forward to contributing to the many other projects spearheaded by CMH. He hopes his experiences here will shape him into a well-rounded public health professional with unique perspectives on the future of health.

Lim Yu Juan • Student Research Assistant • 2024 - Present

Yu Juan is a Master of Public Health student at NUS. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne, where she took up interdisciplinary modules such as Music and Health, and Music Psychology. Her previous research experience at MNNDL, NUS, exposed her to studies on ageing and neuropsychiatric disorders, where she was trained in conducting neuropsychological assessments and basic coding skills.

Yu Juan volunteers at Active Ageing Centres (AACs), where she supports music programmes that aim to mitigate social isolation and promote social cohesion among seniors. Yu Juan believes that music is an alternative, non-invasive approach to promote health and well-being. She is currently working on the Arts and Health Evaluation Toolkit at CMH, and looks forward to contributing to this emerging, interdisciplinary field in Singapore.

Amanda Lee • student Intern • 2023

Amanda recently graduated with a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in Piano Performance at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST), National University of Singapore (NUS). She actively performs locally and internationally, as a soloist and a collaborative pianist. She is also passionate about serving the community and strives to connect her music making with the mental and social wellness in the community.

She was a student intern of the Centre of Music and Health between January to May 2023. During her time at CMH, there were three main areas she had contributed towards: musical storytelling in music community engagement, musical stimuli for an intervention for Atrial Fibrillation patients who are also menopausal women, and Music Research in Singapore Symposium (MRSS). Interning at the Centre for Music and Health (CMH) had been an eye-opening, enriching, and incredibly exciting experience for her.

Claudia Kahrs • Student Research Assistant • 2024

Claudia is a bachelor's student pursuing Cognitive Science at Technical University Darmstadt in Germany. She is an exchange student at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and contributes to the Center for Music and Health's (CMH) NOURISH project.

With her passion for music, nurtured via piano studies at the Music Academy Darmstadt (Tonkunstakademie), she blends technical and artistic pursuits. In Germany, she is writing her bachelor's thesis on music cognition at the Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Her efforts to enhance her musical and technical proficiency have been recognized by the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation, a distinguished scholarship awarded by the German government for outstanding academic achievement and community involvement.

Being half-Chinese and half-German, Claudia enjoys embracing both facets of her heritage in Singapore's culturally diverse environment.

Clara Shen • Student Research Assistant • 2023 - 2024

Clara is a third-year Political Science undergraduate at NUS, contributing to the Centre for Music and Health’s (CMH) Arts & Heritage for Health Evaluation Toolkit. With a minor in Psychology, she is passionate about the intersection of mental health and the arts.

Her involvement in a consulting project involving mental wellness practitioners strengthened her commitment to improving public mental well-being. Demonstrating aptitude for research, she has previously supported projects on sustainability, maritime law, workplace diversity, and more. Clara looks forward to making meaningful contributions to CMH, developing her research skills, and expanding her knowledge of mental health and the arts

Ramesh Nishika • Volunteer • 2024

Nishika is a third year Life Sciences undergraduate at NUS minoring in Public Health. She is passionate about how social prescription helps improve the social determinants of health in the population and translates to an improvement in mental well-being.

At the Centre for Music and Health (CMH), she is currently working on the social prescription and music program to better understand how a choral singing intervention might fit into a social prescription framework.

Nishika looks forward to making meaningful contributions through CMH, developing her research skills, and gaining more knowledge in Arts on Prescription which positively impacts mental well-being.

Seth Ng • Student Intern • 2024

Seth is a second year undergraduate at NUS majoring in Sociology and a second major in Public Health. He currently contributes to the Centre’s Social Prescription and Music Program for Health.

Having been surrounded by music from a young age through his early piano education and participation in a children’s choir, Seth has come to appreciate how the arts play a pivotal role in shaping one’s well-being.

With his specialised background, Seth hopes to delve deeper into the intersection between health and social communities.

Tamrita Pandrangi • Volunteer • 2024

Tamrita is a third-year Psychology undergraduate at NUS. As a singer and amateur violinist and guitarist herself, studying the relationship between music and cognition only seemed natural which drew her to volunteer with the Center for Music and Health (CMH). Having personally experienced the positive effects of music on mental health she believes that this intersectional field of study is one that could have incredible impact in benefitting the lives of many.

She is currently assisting with the NOURISH project and looks forward to developing her research skills and gaining more knowledge on the relationship between music and health through her work with the CMH.