Intern Shares Her Experience at CMH
Photo credit: Chan Chen
Interning at the Centre for Music and Health (CMH) has been an eye-opening, enriching, and incredibly exciting experience. I had the opportunity to interact with a range of different stakeholders, from clinicians to high levels of management in the arts scene. During my time at CMH, there were the three main areas I have contributed towards:
Musical storytelling in music community engagement: with a focus on the elderly population and children with learning disabilities. This is a research study from the Leading and Guiding module under Dr Khoo Hui Ling. I researched and crafted questions and discussions with the aim to evaluate the effectiveness and benefits of using musical storytelling as an approach in music outreach on YST students' and participants' musical growth.
I helped create the musical stimuli for an intervention for atrial fibrillation patients who are also menopausal women - a research study done in collaboration with Dr Dong Yanhong from Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies. This includes five playlists of 15-20 minutes of relaxing music for the intervention.
Music Research in Singapore Symposium (MRSS), where I mainly liaised with the speakers who were presenting at the symposium. I also provided logistical help when possible and coordinated satisfactory solutions for the speakers involved.
As a newly-opened centre, CMH is still in the beginning stages of forging new directions and collaborations. I am fortunate to have been a part of the research process, IRB application, and have seen how long the full research process takes. These allowed me to sharpen my adaptability skills, build a professional network, and increase my confidence level for future projects. I would like to continue working on similar projects after my time in CMH and also continue being involved in the community of music and health.
Amanda Lee is a B.Mus4 student at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and was an intern at CMH from December 2022 to May 2023.