Currently a PhD student in McGill University, Heng is interested in how people perceive and make sense of music. Heng's research interests are in music perception and cognition, timbral functions in musical communication, and musical semiology and hermeneutics. Heng is also interested in issues of Chinese music and its role within the sociopolitical structure of Singapore. Back in Singapore, Heng is an erhu musician with the Ding Yi Music Company.

 

Heng is also a part-time lecturer in the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, taking courses ranging from Chinese music theory to history of Chinese music and aesthetics. Heng have presented at several conferences and workshops, and authored two book chapters: “Negotiating a Sound: Ding Yi Music Company and Contemporary Chinese Chamber Ensembles” in Modern Tradition: Chinese Music in Singapore and “‘Singaporean Performance’ in Singapore’s Chinese orchestral practice: What is it? Where is it?” in Is there such a thing as Singaporean Performance? 

 

Recently, Heng has also received the Research Alive award by the Schulich School of Music and will be presenting on how she will be integrating research questions with performance.