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The Festival is delighted to welcome this excellent team of adjudicators for the 2024 Festival.
Each of them is an expert teacher in their field.
(Scroll down to find the Adjudicator for your section)
Vocal 2024
Adjudicator Nicola-Jane Kemp MA(Cantab),MMus(Opera),RSAMD
Vocal Solos
Nicola-Jane has been a professional soprano soloist and currently teaches choral scholars at Clare College, Cambridge University. In 2015, she was made Head of singing at Eton College with responsibility for individual lessons and choir oaching. 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, lectures at the RNCM, and also teaches for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and Rodolfus Choral Courses. 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 solo singing competition at Clare College, Cambridge, and sits on the council of the Association of Teachers of Singing.Adjudicator Christopher Wray MA BMus (Hons) LTCL LRSM DipMT
Vocal Ensembles
Christopher began his musical training attending the William Appleby Music School in Doncasterstudying both the cello and tuba. He went on to read music at Trinity College of Music (Trinity
Laban), graduating with a first-class degree in Vocal Performance and he was awarded the Vocal
Department Gold Medal for his work within the department in his final year, in particularly his contribution to vocal consorts and choral work.
He has sung professionally in all the major concert venues in and around London including the Royal Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, Southbank Centre, and the Barbican. As an oratorio soloist he has performed in much of the major choral repertoire including Bach’s Passions, B Minor Mass and Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah, Acis and Galatea, Duruflé, Mozart and Fauré Requiems and Purcell’s
King Arthur and Fairy Queen. Christopher is a committed music educator and has worked as a Vocal Consultant and as an outreach worker for SingUp, Many Voices Foundation and as an advisory teacher for Greater London Local Authorities where his work involved training non-specialist teachers to deliver singing and music lessons in primary schools. He is a passionate advocate of music in the Southwest London area and was the founder of Fulham Camerata, Fulham Children’s Choir and Musical Director of Fulham and Hammersmith Choral Society for 10 years. Currently, he is the Director of Music of Arnold House School in St. John’s Wood and the Associate Musical Director of the London Gay Men’s Chorus where he is currently working to establish the first LGBTQ+ Youth Chorus in the UK.
He is regularly in demand as a chorus director, adjudicator and examiner and has worked at Morley College, Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban, North London Children’s Choir, Eton Choral Courses and the Dartington International Summer School. Instrumental 2024
Paul Harris
Instrumental
Paul Harris is one of the UK’s most influential music educationalists. He studied the clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the August Manns Prize for outstanding performance in clarinet playing and where he now teaches. He is in great demand as a teacher, composer, and writer (he has written over 600 books); and his inspirational masterclasses and workshops continue to influence thousands of young musicians and teachers all over the world in both the principles and practice of musical performance and education.
Heidi Fardell
Instrumental
Heidi is a freelance recorder player and baroque flautist. She performs with various early and contemporary ensembles across the UK including Armonico Consort, Fiori Musicali and Sounds Historical. Heidi has also performed and recorded for BBC Radio 3 and 4. Heidi gained her Bmus (Hons) and Mmus in performance at Goldsmiths University and PgCert at Birmingham Conservatoire, studying recorders and Baroque flute.
Alongside her performance work, Heidi is also a respected musician in education. In 2006 she began her post as a recorder tutor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Junior department and has developed bespoke musical workshops for clients across the UK including Kensington Palace, the Royal Festival Hall, Tate Britain and the National Gallery.
For over 20 years, Heidi has taught in a wide variety of settings across London and Oxfordshire. In 2004 she worked with a team to develop the Deptford music centre and from 2006 - 2013 taught recorders at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Junior department. Heidi is vice chair of the European Recorder Teachers Association UK (ERTA) , she conducts for the Society of Recorder Players and is a National Youth Recorder Orchestra tutor, in addition to tutoring individuals, recorder consorts and ensembles in Oxfordshire.
Piano 2024
Susan Clark MA(Cantab),MA(OU),ARCM,PgDip(RCM), CT ABRSM,LRSM
Susan Clark started playing the piano at the age of four and attended the Trinity College of Music Junior Department for ten years, studying piano, flute, violin and musicianship. She continued her studies at Cambridge University and while there performed extensively both as a soloist and accompanist. After graduating from Cambridge, Susan successfully completed a Postgraduate Diploma in performance at the Royal College of Music. She was later awarded an ARCM in performance, a CTABRSM and LRSM in teaching and an MA from the Open University in musicology. Her teachers have included Rose Eley, Nigel Clayton, John Blakely and Vanessa Latarche.
She has appeared as a soloist or accompanist at most of the major London concert venues, including the South Bank, St. John’s, Smith Square, Southwark Cathedral, St. Martin in the Fields, Blackheath Halls and the picture gallery at Royal Holloway. She has also played at the Edinburgh and the Aldeburgh Fringe Festivals and various music clubs in the south east and has performed at the Martinu Hall in Prague. In 2003 she performed a Mozart piano concerto with Trinity Orchestra, Harrow, in 2009 appeared with the Lincolnshire Symphony Orchestra playing Chopin’s first piano concerto and recently took the solo piano part in the Rio Grande by Lambert.
She has taught at Harrow School, Eagle House School, Wellington College and Latymer Saturday Music Centre. Susan currently holds posts as a visiting teacher of piano at Merchant Taylor’s School, the Royal Masonic School and Latymer Upper School and also has a thriving private practice.
Susan is an ABRSM examiner and has travelled extensively in South East Asia to examine, including Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. Susan is also a member of ABRSM’s Professional Development panel, has had three articles about teaching techniques published in the Music Teacher magazine. She is also an adjudicator member of the British and International Federation of Festivals and regularly adjudicates at music festivals throughout the UK.
In her spare time she is attempting to learn Mandarin and enjoys grooming and playing with her two Ragdoll cats.
Speech and Drama 2024
Speech & Drama
Jean-Marc Perret
Jean-Marc trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Main Theatre credits include: Royal Shakespeare Company, Birmingham Rep, Derby Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse. Numerous TV & Film appearances include playing Prince Caspian in the successful BBC Bafta nominated series The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and Revelation (Romulus Films) with Terence Stamp and Ron Moody. Jean-Marc made recent appearances in This Is Us (Season 2) for NBC as well as the US series American Woman (Warner Bros). Whilst working in Los Angeles, Jean-Marc attended the Oscars 2017 ceremony at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Jean-Marc is an Examiner for the London College of Music (Drama / Communication & Musical Theatre) and teaches pupils on a peripatetic basis. Jean-Marc previously examined for LAMDA (10yrs) and Trinity College, London (2yrs). He gained a Licentiate Acting/Teaching diploma in 1996.
Adjudication events include: Watford Festival, LCM (Hong Kong Speech Festival) Lagan Festival, Ireland and Bedfordshire Festival of Music, Speech & Drama. Alongside these commitments, Jean-Marc trained as a certified British Academy of Dramatic Combat fight instructor and used this skill to help choreograph and perform in sword fights for projects such as Disney's blockbuster film Cinderella (2015). He played D'Artagnan for the London red carpet film premiere event for The Three Musketeers (2011) which starred Orlando Bloom and Christoph Waltz. Recently, Jean-Marc was guest performer at a World Cup and Commonwealth Fencing Champions Exhibition event celebrating 90 years of Fencing at The King's School, Canterbury.
Dance 2024
Karen Blackburn
Karen received her formative training at The Phyllis & Hilda Skinns Ballet School (Hull) and with Louise Browne (York Scholars). At the age of twelve, she was the British Junior Ballet Champion, a silver medalist at the All England Dance Finals (Sunshine Festival) and runner-up at the IDTA Miss Dance of Great Britain.
Upon graduating, she furthered her professional training at the Urdang Academy of Ballet & Performing Arts and performed as a classical and contemporary dancer for several years, touring nationally and internationally.
As a freelance choreographer, Karen has devised award-winning pieces for many UK dance schools alongside ensemble pieces for youth theatre company productions. In addition, she created the first-ever summer season show at Alton Towers with commercial works for Dansez, Euro Disney and Adidas.
Karen is a Royal Ballet School Affiliate Teacher, a registered teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance, Rambert Grades and Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT).
She holds a Masters Degree in Dance Research for Professional Practitioners and is passionate about holistic, student-centred training, focusing on creativity and
individuality, encouraging self-esteem, confidence and a love of dance.
Karen is also an examiner for The Dang Theatre and Dance Syllabus and an adjudicator with the British and International Federation of Festivals and All England Dance.
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