Adjudicators

Laura trained at the Royal Ballet School and Arts Educational School, London, going on to play a range of principal roles in the West End and regional theatre productions and to do a great deal of work in television, from pantomime to Sunday Night at the London Palladium, the Engelbert Humperdinck Show and two Royal Command Performances. She was the resident singer on the Roy Castle Show and had a solo recording contract with Philips. Laura is now a freelance teacher and choreographer, who is also the director of a theatrical promotions company, as well as and Adjudicator for The British and International Federation of Festivals.

A professional soprano soloist, Nicola-Jane teaches choral scholars at Clare and Queens’ Colleges, Cambridge University and in 2015 was made Head of Singing at Eton College with responsibility for individual lessons and choir coaching. As an opera soloist she has worked for companies as diverse as Music Theatre Wales, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in France and BBC Radio 2 (Friday Night is Music Night). Her concert work takes her all round the UK – including the South Bank, Barbican and St John’s Smith Square in London – and to the Middle East. As well as being an Adjudicator for The British and International Federation of festivals, she is a Grade and Diploma examiner for the ABRSM, vocal consultant for The London Youth Choir (founded by Suzi Digby) and also teaches for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. She taught for many years at St Paul’s Girls’ School – a centre of excellence for LCM Music Theatre Exams and is co-editor with Heidi Pegler of the award-winning series ‘The Language of Song’ (Faber Music), which provides a resource for students and teachers learning to sing in foreign languages. She has organised Master Classes and a new solo singing competition at Clare College, Cambridge, and sits on the council of the Association of Teachers of Singing.

Eleanor comes from Swansea in Wales, where she first gained a love of the spoken word through taking LAMDA examinations, later gaining her LAMDA teaching diploma. She is also a qualified teacher with a Masters Degree in Education. Eleanor has been a professional actress for most of her life, appearing on stage, television, radio and taking Shakespeare to schools all over the world for the British Council. A member of the LAMDA examinations board, she is also a published author of two books of poetry for children. Eleanor is an adjudicator for The British and International Federation of Festivals.