**Dust settling**
What an amazing day! We publicly launched the Centre for Music and Health (CMH) during the Music Research in Singapore Symposium (MRSS) on 21st Feb. :-)
With great joy, I shared the values and vision of CMH, as well as some of our recent initiatives. To commemorate the launch, we had a "musical ribbon cutting", in which YST Conservatory students helped to create a ribbon of sound that I “cut” with a wooden clapper (sonic scissors!). We topped off the celebration with a couple of wonderful tunes performed by three talented YST Conservatory students, with lyrics about the CMH composed with the help of our digital librettist, ChatGPT. ;-) All-in-all a unique and heart-felt launch of the Centre that I hope both lent insight into CMH, and left the audience with catchy CMH lyrics in their heads.

It was also wonderful to see so many people come together for our MRSS event at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Music performances were sprinkled throughout the day. We were treated to an insightful and inspiring keynote from the Deputy CEO of the National Arts Council, Lynette Pang. The four panels (on 'Music and Health', 'Computational research in music', 'Applications of music research in pedagogy and practice', and the 'Music research and funding landscape in Singapore') were as stimulating as they were diverse. And it was great to see so many people get involved, with 15 posters and demos presented at the event. Of course, it was also wonderful to see passionate conversations emerge between policy makers, academics, musicians and music educators, students, and representatives from arts organizations and the music industry. Thanks again to everyone who attended, and special thanks to those who presented and performed.