Music that heals
YSTCM and Sengkang Health put on a lunchtime concert for patients and hospital employees at Alexandra Hospital
Connecting people through music — that was what NUS Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YSTCM) set out to do when it teamed up with Sengkang Health to develop original musical compositions to enhance patient and staff wellbeing.
Project founder and lead facilitator, Year 4 YSTCM student Bethany May Nette, initiated Healing Music as a means to give back to the community. Speaking of the group’s formation, Bethany said, “Getting together a dedicated team of YSTCM students for this project was effortless, as we were so eager to take on this wonderful opportunity which allowed us to share our talents and make special connections with people through music.”
Mentored by Associate Professor Shane Taylor Constante from YSTCM Ensembles and Professional Development, the seven students and 15 staff from Sengkang Health took part in a Creative Music Workshop in February at Alexandra Hospital. Over four days, the group produced five original compositions — Meditation, Air, Rainforest, Nocturne and Minimalism. One of the participants at the workshop was Professor Christopher Cheng, CEO, Sengkang Health, who said that the creation of music, particularly in harmony with nature, was something which they wished to bring to everyone, including their patients. A recording of the music, managed by YSTCM alumnus Mr Neil Chan, was later carried out at YSTCM Concert Hall.
The group took about a week to create and record five original musical compositions
On 3 March, some 50 patients and staff were treated to the group’s first lunchtime concert. The concert was very well received, said Bethany. “What was an absolute joy to witness was when we were playing our compositions, especially the upbeat numbers, we had wheelchair-bound patients clapping along, even singing…And that’s what this project is all about, really, connecting people through music,” she shared.
The group is looking into making lunchtime concerts a weekly affair in March, and is also exploring fortnightly ward performances.
Professor Bernard Lanskey, YSTCM Director, said that music offered an almost unique form of hope, and touched on the relationship between music and health as well, saying, “…music is essential to everybody’s health, and the idea of connecting these two things — indeed, reconnecting them — should be really central to our life as musicians”.
Moving ahead, the group plans to release a new album with a different theme each year.
Listen to the group’s recording.
View the interview given by Prof Lanskey and Prof Cheng on Channel NewsAsia.
