Our conductor, Robert Verheul, was born in Rotterdam in 1970. At the age of eleven, he started playing electric and acoustic guitar. He took guitar lessons from Mike Williams, Makis Amblianitis and Ratko Zyaca.

During his biology study he moved to Athens, Greece, where he lived for five years. He performed as a singer, guitarist and bouzouki-player for years, mostly playing Greek Rebetika. After finishing his studies in biology, he studied Greek-Byzantine music for two
years at the well-known Simonas Karras Institution in Athens.

After returning back to the Netherlands he specialized his vocal abilities as well as his guitar skills at the CodArts conservatory in Rotterdam. After his second study year in 1999, he continued developing his vocal abilities with Alberto ter Doest (tenor in the Dutch Chamber Choir and well-known singing coach) and Christina Völtl (student of Roberta Alexander). Furthermore, he took piano lessons with Bernard Touwen and conducting lessons with Wiecher Mandemaker.

Robert has been conducting choirs since 1999. He started as conductor with the mixed choir ‘After Eight’ in Rotterdam after following the courses “Kurt Thomas Choral Conducting” and taking lessons from Niels Kuijers.

In 2014 he conducted the choir and orchestra Rosette during the performance of the folk-
oratorium “Axion Esti” from Odysseas Elytis and Mikis Theodorakis with well-known singer Pieter Hendriks.