Ginger Lai, MT-BC

Music Therapist
Institute for Music and Neurologic Function

A native of Taiwan, Lai is a music therapy clinician, special project manager and internship supervisor at the IMNF.

She emigrated to the United States from Taiwan to pursue higher education, first earning a Bachelor of Music degree in piano and horn performance with a pre-med prerequisite from the University of Southern Mississippi. Lai was awarded a Lucy Moses Scholarship and continued her education at Yale University where she earned a Master of Music in horn performance.

Continuing her music therapy training at Philadelphia’s Drexel University, Ginger Lai joined CenterLight Health System first as in intern in 2005 and as a therapeutic recreation specialist at CenterLight Healthcare, a member of CenterLight Health System in 2006. Presently serving as a board certified music therapist at the IMNF, in addition, Lai is the project manager for the Leslie and Samuel Fan Fox research project which serves the medically frail culturally diverse elderly in the New York metro area.

In 2007, Lai’s co-presentation with CenterLight Health System speech therapist Darlene Monda at the annual Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association (MAR-AMTA) Conference in Maryland focused on music’s role in speech therapy.

Lai’s musical abilities range from the piano, harpsichord and organ to the French horn, Bamboo flute, guitar, bass and r-hu (or erhu), a traditional Chinese stringed instrument, as well as various forms of Chinese percussion.

The winner of the 1998 Young Artist competition at Mississippi State, Lai went on to perform as a featured piano soloist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with orchestras and chamber ensembles in several venues, including the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, New York City’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson, Mississippi and Mexico’s Puebla Conservatory. Lai continues to freelance as a professional musician in the New York metro area. She is regularly heard in the Lehman community band and Westchester band.