Past Team Members
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.
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.
Javier Heng • Student Research Assistant • 2024 - 2025
Javier is a Year 4 Psychology undergraduate and an aspiring music psychologist. Javier is a multi-instrumentalist and his music education began early from a young age. From learning the piano to joining the school orchestra, Javier also plays the violin and the double bass. Currently, he is a chorister in ONE Chamber Choir.
As a psychology student, Javier enjoys reading and writing academic papers, especially those related to music. He is supporting the CMH team by contributing his time and effort to NOURISH project.
In his free time, Javier dabbles in music production and enjoys playing cover songs.
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.
Kishore Arushi • student Designer and research assistant • 2024 - 2025
Arushi is a second-year Psychology undergraduate at NUS with a keen interest in exploring the intersection of arts and well-being. Having trained extensively in Odissi dance and music, she deeply values the transformative power of artistic expression in fostering emotional and mental health. Her personal experiences have shaped her belief that the arts can be a profound and accessible tool for positive change.
Currently, Arushi is contributing to the development of the Arts and Health Evaluation Toolkit at CMH, blending her passion for research and interdisciplinary innovation. She is excited about the opportunity to contribute to this meaningful project, and strongly believes that this experience will not only help her grow professionally but also allow her to make a lasting impact on the community.
Lauren sim • Student Research Assistant • 2024 - 2025
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.
Nik Ilya • Research Assistant • 2023 - 2025
Nik is a psychology graduate and guitarist, with an interest in health psychology and public health. Prior to joining the Centre for Music and Health, Nik has contributed to research at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Singapore General Hospital, and has worked on studies focused on public health, obesity and diabetes, health promotion, and preventative health. Nik also hopes to pursue a Master in Public Health in the near future and further his professional development.
Nik also comes from a musical family of guitarists and musicians who have been active in Singapore’s music scene and has played classical and electric guitar since a young age, spending much of his childhood running around the corridors of music schools. He has also previously performed with his band for events like the Youth Olympic Games 2010 opening ceremony, and their school’s open houses and orientation nights. Through his role at CMH, Nik has found an avenue to merge his professional and personal interests and hopes to deepen the ties between music and health through research.
In his free time, Nik is an avid tennis player that held a competitive national ranking as a junior, attends a wide variety of arts activities and concerts, from Rock and Pop to Classical, and a passionate animal lover who feeds community cats.
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.
Shannon Chan • Student Research Assistant • 2024 - 2025
Shannon is a fourth-year undergraduate at NUS, majoring in Viola Performance with a second major in Linguistics. Taking to heart the concept of music as a language, she is highly interested in exploring the intersection of both disciplines, examining the dynamic, shared, relationships in expression and cognition between the two mediums.
As a practicing musician, Shannon is actively engaged with various community-based orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM), of which she has previously served as a member of the Branding and Marketing committee. Her experience with OMM has given her much insight into the power of music as a tool for outreach and community-building, and she hopes that her involvement with CMH can help to expand her knowledge in this area.
She is currently working on the Arts & Heritage for Health Evaluation Toolkit (AHET) and NOURISH projects with CMH, taking this opportunity to gain research experience and develop a deeper understanding of the impact of music on personal well-being.
Tamrita Pandrangi • Volunteer • 2024 - 2025
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.
Violet Yang • Volunteer • 2024 - 2025
Violet is a fourth-year Psychology student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), studying for her Master’s degree under the Concurrent Degree Programme. Outside of her academic life, she is a solo artist and musician under the artist name “VYLT”, wherein she has been featured on the Straits Times, Life In Arpeggio and FEMALE Magazine. She hopes to integrate both her academic and personal interests by pursuing research in the areas of music therapy, and her thesis is currently on studying mixed-modality treatments for traumatic symptoms involving visuospatial tasks and musical stimuli.
At the Centre for Music and Health (CMH), she volunteers for the Music Brain Emotion Regulation (MusBER) study, in which she assists in EEG operation and literature write-up. She is incredibly thankful for the opportunity to contribute to research on the intersection between music and mental health.
Wieder Yang • Volunteer • 2024 - 2025
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 - 2025
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 - 2025
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.
Liang Zi Yan • Student Event Coordinator • 2025
Zi Yan is a graduate student at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore. She has a keen interest in international development and regional studies. Since joining the program of Contemporary Southeast Asia Studies, she has been deeply moved by Indonesian Gamelan music - its perpetuating melodies and rhythm energizes her.
With experience in UNESCO INRULED and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, PRC, she has cultivated a dynamic and inclusive mindset towards international issues. Music is a universal language that transcends boundaries and helps bring people together. She would like to gain more insights into the impacts of music and explore different expressions of folk arts across Southeast Asia.
Driven by passion and inquisivity, Zi Yan is ready to contribute to the launch of the THRivE Toolkit (Tools for Health Research and Evaluation in Arts and Heritage).