NUS Arts Festival 2017

NUS Guitar Ensemble

Founded by Cultural Medallion winner Mr Alex Abisheganaden and currently under the guidance of music director and conductor Dr Robert Casteels, the NUS Guitar Ensemble (GENUS) is the region's first Niibori guitar ensemble, and boasts a wide repertoire ranging from major classical works to Japanese anime songs.

A fingerstyle group unique in its exploration of varying shades and tonalities through their set of Niibori guitars of varying pitches, the ensemble comprises 50 members who play differently pitched guitars to achieve an orchestra effect, with percussion added in to complete the audience experience.

GENUS aims to set a benchmark for local guitar ensembles while promoting a love for guitar ensemble music in Singapore. In order to improve itself both musically and technically, GENUS regularly participates in local and international competitions, and members often get the chance to attend masterclasses.

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Dr Robert Casteels

Music Director & Resident Conductor

Composer, conductor, pianist, educator and arts administrator, Dr Robert Casteels believes that these activities form an intertwined and kaleidoscopic part of music making.

Robert has conducted 50 professional orchestras in 20 countries, with a repertoire of 600 works ranging from the early classics to contemporary music. He has conducted premieres of symphonic works and operas in major festivals in Europe, the USA and Australia. After graduating from the Guildhall School of Music of London and the Juilliard School in New York, Robert was appointed staff conductor at the Brussels Royal Opera House and Head of Conducting Studies at the Brussels (Flemish) Royal Music Conservatory. At the Conservatory he also set up an opera studio that was a great success at bridging the gap between tertiary-level training and professional life. As Artistic Director of ͚Sounds of an Ignored Landscape͛, a Belgian commercial production company, Robert conceptualised, raised seed capital and conducted chamber operas, which were broadcasted on national television. In 2001 he was awarded the Christoffel Plantin prize, Flanders͛ highest cultural award, for his cross-cultural research.

The Observatory

The Observatory – a name that implies passive objectivity, but which really describes a band whose musical output is an impassioned response to the society it is enmeshed in, a society divided, and in tumult where new forms of oppression must be actively met with new strategies for resistance. The current constellation of The Observatory are vibrations of shifting rhythms, synth bass space, oscillators and abused guitars hammering out a certain truth. Noise, rock and melancholy.

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