Live band, drinks, laughter and good company may seem like the typical Friday night for some. However for the SMU community, it was certainly something out of the ordinary on Friday 4th March at the SMU concourse. The SMU Alumni Café Tonic-X held its official opening event with about 140 alumni, faculty, staff and students in attendance.
After a resounding performance from the lion dance troupe, Guest-of-Honour SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer gave a toast to all who had put in months of planning and hard work to make the café happen. “Tonic-X represents the X-factor of SMU; of excellence, experiment and excitement. This is a major milestone for SMUAA. It takes a great university with great alumni to come up with an initiative like this. You are indeed alumni who makes a difference.”
President Arnoud continued, “This is the start of building an even better relationship and the success of the café will the beginning of building a clubhouse for the alumni of our great university.” Thanks to the dedication of the SMU Alumni Association (SMUAA) Executive Committee and spearheaded by Vice-President Nicholas Wong, the café is a prelude to an Alumni Club House, a “home of our own” for SMU alumni.
Director of SMU’s Office of Alumni Relations Associate Professor Low Aik Meng took the stage and encouraged the alumni present to come back to SMU more often, especially to the alumni café on campus. “Tonic-X is the place for you to network, for you to spend evenings with family and friends. Make this place a real home of your own.”
A highlight of the evening was the performances from one of the alumni bands from SoundFoundry Alumni Group, Trella Trio. Trella Trio performed their maiden gig that night with an acoustic lineup featuring Trella as the lead vocalist alongside two instrumentalists – mainly with guitarist Wayne and percussionist Chuan Rui. Flexible and occasionally switching up the instruments for different sounds, Trella Trio was a favourite with the crowd, belting out top 40 hits, R&B and soul. The band even took in song requests from the audience, surprising everyone with their language fluency in Mandarin and Cantonese songs.
SMUAA President and emcee for the night, Deborah Wee said, “There is no better party than a SMU party.” And party, our alumni did, till the band played its last piece for the night. We reckoned this is only the start of many fabulous Friday nights to come for the SMU community on campus at Tonic-X.
P/S: Follow their FB page (https://www.facebook.com/thetonicx/) for the latest update on its menu, the chef, the barista, events and promotions for alumni. For more information visit the website at www.thetonicx.com (currently being updated with the latest as new exciting stuff are being lined up). Also, click here to view more photos from the launch. Or follow their Instagram @thetonicx
Tonic-X
Singapore Management University
(School of Information Systems, Basement Concourse)
80 Stamford Road
SMU Concourse, B1-61
Singapore 178902