ABOUT THE CONCERT PRESENTATION
Our emotions (or feelings) are experienced on a daily basis. We have the habit of categorising emotions as positive and negative, good or bad. Yet emotions are simply as they are. Emotions serve a purpose by providing us with a depth of information about how we interpret situations and view the world around us. It could be said that emotions are the colour palette of our soul, with differing hues taking centre stage at various times. Lying within each of us is the choice of what we could do with that information. Giving in to a feeling may leave us with future regret, while avoiding or suppressing may leave us feeling flat. Somewhere in the middle, we have a third option of sitting with our emotions in curious, playful observation. This presents to us a novel idea: what if we were to dance, listen, and swing, while still experiencing the fullness of our emotions?
Join the Jazz Association (Singapore) as we take you to explore our emotions through jazz and learn how to take charge of them with our panel of experts.
PRESENTED BY
Professor Jeremy Monteiro (Speaker)
PBM, FRSA, FLCM
Dubbed “Singapore’s King of Swing,” Cultural Medallion recipient Professor Jeremy Monteiro has garnered critical acclaim all over the world since helping to put Singapore in the world history of jazz in 1988, when he became the first Southeast Asian to play and lead a band of established international jazz musicians on the main stage of the Montreux Jazz Festival, performing as "Monteiro, Young & Holt and Friends."
He started his career in 1976 at a local hotel and then as a pianist & bandleader at the famed BClub 392 jazz club in Singapore in 1977 where many artists such as Nancy Wilson have performed. 2021 marks the 45th year of his career.
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Jeremy has performed and/ or recorded with the likes of James Moody, Benny Golson, Michael Brecker, Bobby McFerrin, Randy Brecker, Lee Ritenour, Herbie Mann, Paulinho DaCosta, Ernie Watts, Charlie Haden, Terumasa Hiro, Carmen Bradford, Matt Monro, Toots Thielemans and Simon & Garfunkel, to name a few. He has also played on the main stages of the EFG London Jazz Festival and is the only Southeast Asian jazz musician to have had an album released on the iconic Verve record label, "Jeremy Monteiro & Alberto Marsico - Jazz-Blues Brothers."
Jeremy has also released 10 albums in as many years, including “Brazilian Dreams,” “Montage,” “With a Little Help from My Friends,” and “Yesterday Once More – A Jazz Tribute to The Carpenters,” with an album launch concert in September 2018. In September 2019, he released “Jeremy Monteiro and Friends: Overjoyed – A Jazz Tribute to the Music of Stevie Wonder.”
His latest album, "Live at No Black Tie - Kuala Lumpur" with bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Lewis Nash, is his 45th jazz album as leader. The album has reached the Top 20 of the Jazzweek Charts, the most respected jazz charts in the United States. He has also played on more than 300 pop albums in the Asia region and received the Silver Medal for Best Music Score in 1991 at the International Radio Festival of New York for his Classical-Folk Piece Overture in C Major - the story of Singapore.
Jeremy is also a writer with a volume of essays titled "Jeremy Monteiro: Late-Night Thoughts of a Jazz Musician," published by Marshall Cavendish in September 2018. The book received two literary awards from the Golden Door Awards in 2020, a 3rd Prize in the main category and a Bronze Medal in the Rex Karmaveer category for integrity in writing.
Since 2012, he has served as International Arts Ambassador for EFG Bank, headquartered in Switzerland and sponsor of one of the most prominent jazz festivals in the world, the EFG London Jazz Festival. In addition, he is a Fellow of the London College of Music and the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in the UK, and Visiting Professor at the University of West London.
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Jeremy received the pinnacle award in the arts in Singapore in 2002, the Cultural Medallion.
Jeremy is also a co-founder of the Composers & Authors Society of Singapore Limited (COMPASS), an organisation responsible for the protection of music copyrights in Singapore, and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In 2016, together with a few jazz-supporter friends, he established the Jazz Association (Singapore) (JASS), to bring Jazz to people in all parts of Singapore, help raise its level of excellence, especially in the area of youth development, and work towards making Singapore a leading jazz city of the world.
Today, Jeremy continues to bring Jazz to all corners of Singapore and Singapore jazz to countries all around the world with his musician friends and with the Jazz Association Singapore Orchestra (JASSO) and the Jazz Association Singapore Youth Orchestra (JASSYO!).
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Jeremy also currently heads the Programmes Committee at JASS.
Professor Kua Ee Heok (Keynote Speaker)
MBBS(UM), MD(NUS),
FRCPsych(UK), PBM, BBM
Tan Geok Yin Professor in Psychiatry and Neuroscience,
Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
Emeritus Consultant, National University Hospital.
Mind Care Clinic, Farrer Park Medical Centre.
Dr Kua Ee Heok was trained as a doctor in the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur in (1968 – 1973). His training in Psychiatry was at Oxford University and he obtained the Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK) in 1980. He was awarded a scholarship for Geriatric Psychiatry training at Harvard University in 1984 and he received an MD for research from the National University of Singapore in 1992. Dr Kua’s psychiatry research training was at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) USA in 1992. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK) in 1992.
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Over the years, Dr Kua has held multiple titles. While serving as Head of the Department of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore (1998 – 2009), he started the first memory clinic in Singapore in 1990. He was the CEO and Medical Director, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore (1999 – 2002). He is currently Chairman of the SAF Psychiatry Advisory Board (2013 – 2019).
His special interests include psychological disorders in old age including dementia and depression, and he has wide clinical experiences particularly in psychotherapy and stress management. He was a member of the WHO Research Team for the Global Study of Dementia.
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Dr Kua is also involved in international psychiatric organizations and international journals. He was the President of the Pacific-Rim College of Psychiatrists, and the editor of Asia-Pacific Psychiatry. In addition, he has written 270 research papers on subjects ranging from ageing to addiction, along with 23 books on psychiatry, dementia, depression and stress. His novel, ‘Listening to Letter from America’ is now used in Harvard University for a course on anthropology. He is one of the Editors-in-Chief (with Professor Norman Sartorius) for the 7-volume ‘Mental Health and Illness Worldwide’ to be published by Springer Nature in 2017.
He has received multiple awards, including Sandoz Research Award for Gerontology (1990), First Prize in ASEAN Psychiatry Research (1992). He was invited to speak at the United Nations World Forum on depression in 1999. He was conferred the Distinguished Psychiatrist Award 2015 by Singapore Psychiatric Association and Lifetime Achievement Award by the Singapore Gerontological Society in 2015.
Clinical Focus
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Geriatric Psychiatry
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Transcultural Psychiatry
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Stress Medicine
Academic Appointments
Tan Geok Yin Professor in Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS
Member of Academic Committee, NUS Mind Science Centre
Administrative Appointments
Vice-Dean, Faculty of Medicine (1996 – 1997)
CEO and Medical Director, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore (1999 – 2002)
Chairman, Specialist Training Committee (Psychiatry) (2002 – 2004)
Head, Department of Psychological Medicine (1995 – 2003) (2006 – 2009)
Honors & Awards
Sandoz Research Award for Gerontology (1990)
First Prize, ASEAN Psychiatry Research (1992)
National Day Award, Public Service Medal (PBM) (1994)
Best Teacher Award, Institute of Mental Health (2002)
Distinguished Psychiatrist Award, Singapore Psychiatric Association (2015)
Lifetime Achievement Award, Singapore Gerontological Society (2015)
National Day Award, Public Service Star (BBM) (2018)
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
WHO Consultant for Dementia research (1990 – 1995)
World Psychiatric Association Committee for Education (1994)
President, Gerontological Society, Singapore (2009 – 2012)
Editor, Singapore Medical Journal (1997 – 2000)
President, Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists (2009 – 2012)
Editor, Asia-Pacific Psychiatry Journal (2009 – 2012)
Chairman, SAF Psychiatry Advisory Board (2013 – 2019)
Member, Royal College of Psychiatrists, United Kingdom
Fellow, Royal College of Psychiatrists, United Kingdom
Professional Education:
MBBS, University of Malaya
MD, National University of Singapore
Aarti Chidambaram (Speaker, Clinical Psychologist)
MA (Psychology)
BA Hons. (Psychology)
MNLP, CCPS
Trained in Brainspotting (Phase 1 & 2)
Trained in Gottman’s Couple Therapy (Level 1 & 2)
Master Practioner Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
BPS Certified Psychometric Tester
Aarti is the sole APSATS (Association of Partners of Sex Addicts and Trauma Specialists) trained partner specialist in Asia. As a Certified Clinical Partner Specialist (CCPS), she works with many partners of betrayal trauma. Her training in the Multi-Dimensional Trauma Model gives her a unique understanding of complex and relational trauma. She has also been facilitating the longest-running therapeutic support group for partners of sex addicts in Singapore and possibly Asia.
Her tireless and dedicated efforts to help partners and families of addiction have led to her recent appointment to the board of directors of APSATS. Trained as a clinical therapist, Aarti works extensively with developmental trauma and attachment wounds. Having achieved significant success working with individuals, both children and adults, suffering from trauma, victims of relational abuse, anxiety disorders, depression, mood disorders, etc. she found her true calling in helping people heal themselves from the inside out.
Varian Monteiro (Speaker, Counselling Therapist)
MSc (International Addiction Studies)
BA Interdisciplinary Studies (Psychology and Sociology)
Trained in Gottman’s Couple Therapy (Level 1 & 2)
Trained as Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (Level 1)
Having an ongoing interest in the intertwined workings of the mind and body, Varian is decidedly enthusiastic about counselling and all things psychology-related. Adopting a client-centred Rogerian approach, he assists clients in managing their behaviours in one-to-one and
group sessions. His areas of speciality are behavioural addictions and impulse control difficulties. He has facilitated all-male support groups for sex addiction, and behaviour modification for sexual deviancy, in private and governmental settings. In both environments, Varian works with clients to relearn the shame and guilt surrounding addiction, while providing
somatosensory and cognitive behavioural techniques to guide clients onto their paths of recovery.
When counselling couples, Varian uses the Gottman’s Couple Therapy method to help with gridlocked issues, past trauma and hurt, faulty communication patterns, and emotional disconnect. His other related work involves anxiety, depression, and anger management. Varian is also completing his training as an Associate Coach for emotional resiliency (as accredited by the International Coaching Federation).