He caresses the guitar with the practiced ease of a master, his gnarled fingers delicately and expertly flickering across the fingerboard of the guitar. And certainly, with over 60 years playing and teaching the instrument, Alex Abisheganaden, 83, has full right to claim the title of a maestro.
Perhaps it was fate: Alex, born into a family of musicians – his father and brothers played a multitude of instruments, from the guitar, violin, piano, cello and ukulele to the harmonica. He first picked up the guitar when he was 15. “There are a few instruments that are ‘complete’ instruments, and the guitar is one of them,” he said, explaining his singular fascination with the instrument.
In his mid teens, young Alex’s proficiency with the guitar gave him gainful employment during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore; he played guitar in an Indian orchestra for the Azad-Hind radio station run by the Japanese.
After the war, Alex started teaching. An English and literature teacher, he rose to become principal of several schools and later a school inspector. All this while, music was never far from Alex’s life. A guitar player with the Singapore Junior Symphony in the 1940s, Alex also learnt to play the double bass from a resident Hungarian professor, becoming one of the few – if not only – local bass players at the time.
“The first thing I asked Dr Goh when I met him was, ‘Sir, am I in trouble?’”
In 1961, the distinction of receiving a government study grant to the Royal College of Music in London translated to a year studying singing, double bass and the guitar, the latter under the tutelage of famed Australian guitarist John Williams. It was the experience of a lifetime, he told Singapore. “I was even invited to have tea at Buckingham Palace and shook hands with the Queen!” he reminisced.
Once when Alex was a school inspector, he was told that Dr Goh Keng Swee, then the Minister of Education, was on the thing I asked Dr Goh when I met him was, ‘Sir, am I in trouble?’.” It turned out that the Ministry wanted Alex to produce an educational music programme to promote musical appreciation. And so Alex, a teacher and guitar player, also became a TV star; in 1970 and 1971, a 26-episode programme, Music Making With the Guitar, was broadcast on Education Television (ETV) and two accompanying textbooks were sold at $1.50 a copy.
Alex’s efforts to promote the guitar continued in many ways: he contributed music curriculum in Singapore and founded the Singapore Classical Guitar Society, leading it for 25 years. In 1981, he founded the Guitar Ensemble of the National University of Singapore (GENUS), the first guitar orchestra here – which is still active today.
In fact, when Singapore met up with Alex, he was still promoting the instrument, teaching the guitar at Yishun Junior College. Emphasising finger technique, note reading and practice, Alex injects plenty of life and vigour to his lessons, coaxing a harmonious richness from even the simplest of tunes from his young students. At 83, he teaches the instrument several days a week at schools, in one-on-one coaching and even to prison inmates.
“Music has kept me young!” professes the genial gentleman with a tinkle in his dark eyes, “It’s something that stays with you throughout your life and has been an important part of mine. Music is part of living and part of enjoying life!”
HIGH NOTES
1926: Alex is born, the sixth child in a family of seven children; his older brothers and father are proficient musicians
1941 : Alex, 15, first learns to play the guitar
1947 : Joins the teaching service and spends 36 years in the service till his retirement in 1983
1961 : Spends a year studying at the Royal College of Music in London
1967 : Forms the Singapore Classical Guitar Society
1970 : Produces and stars in Music Making With The Guitar on national Educational Television
1976 : The Government of Australia confers upon Alex the Visitors Cultural Award; wins the national song-writing competition organised by the Singapore National Theatre Trust with “Salute to Singapore”
1981: Founded the National University of Singapore Guitar Ensemble (GENUS) and develops the first Niibori guitar orchestra in Southeast Asia
1988 : Receives the Cultural Medallion, the highest honour given to artistes for excellence in their respective fields in Singapore
2007 : Receives the Cultural Medallion grant from the National Arts Council. A special concert “25 Years of GENUS!” at University Cultural Centre is dedicated to him
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- Alex with his GENUS students during a performance of his own composition in 1985
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- Alex playing the trumpet in 1945
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- Alex (with accordion) and his band in 1948
