126th Annual Competition 2012
(Founded in 1882)
Choral Singing, Orchestras & Organ
Orchestral Instruments - Strings
Orchestral Instruments - Brass & Woodwind
Adjudicators
Young Musician of the Year - 2012
Timothy Barratt, ARAM, GRSM,LRAM,ARCM,LMusTCL
Timothy
Barratt studied on a Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, winning many
major awards, and completed his studies with Vlado Perlemuter in Paris and with
Geoffrey Parsons.
He
has toured and broadcast extensively in the UK and abroad as soloist,
accompanist and chamber music player. Whilst still a student he developed a
special interest in song accompaniment through playing for Masterclasses at
Aldeburgh, subsequently partnering such artists as Dame Felicity Lott, Stephen
Varcoe and Robert White. In addition, instrumentalists he has worked with
include Jack Brymer, Bradley Creswick and Haarken Hardenberger.
Teaching
forms a major part of his musical life and he enjoys working with pupils of all
ages and levels. He is Head of Keyboard at Dulwich College and a Lecturer at
the Royal Academy of Music. He frequently directs Masterclasses and teachers'
workshops, most recently in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and is a busy
Competition and Festival Adjudicator.
An
ABRSM examiner since 1991, he has been a Trainer of new examiners for many
years and was recently appointed Consultant Moderator. Other work for the
Associated Board includes co-writing the Board's Teaching Notes on Piano Exam
pieces, presenting Seminars and acting as a mentor on the CT ABRSM Course.
Bryan Husband, GRSM, A WCMD
Life
as a singer, actor, teacher, adjudicator and ski instructor is what keeps Bryan
challenged, solvent, and amused. He has performed in Musicals in the West End
and in Opera Houses around the UK. and abroad, and appears regularly on tv,
radio, and recordings. He is a tenor amongst tenors, having sung with Luciano
Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, Roberto Alagna and Josh Groban, to
namedrop a few. .
Bryan
trained at the Royal College of Music, London, and the Welsh College of Music
and Drama, Cardiff Recent performances have been in Bordeaux (performances of
'Messiah), Cyprus (for the Europa Donna Foundation), and a gala concert in
Guildford. Adjudication has taken him to Hong Kong and all over the UK, most
recently to Taunton and Perth (Scotland).
After
some years spent abroad Bryan moved to Guildford - initially to fulfill the
roles of Head of Singing at Guildford School of Acting, and Lay-Clerk at
Guildford Cathedral. He now works as a fteelance performer, tutor and
adjudicator. Future plans include adjudication in Scotland and ski instructing
in Italy. Bryan now lives for some of the year in SW Ireland.
Bryan
is delighted to be working at the Stratford and East London Music Festival, and
is looking forward to meeting and hearing singers here.
Valerie Hoppé, MBE., GGSM., LGSM., ARCM.
Valerie Hoppe trained at the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama, specialising in Choral Conducting, Singing and Piano. She
is widely known as a Choral Director, teacher and adjudicator, and is
particularly in demand for her work with the development of young voices, both
in solo and choral work. She has a large teaching practice, working with solo
voices of all ages and levels.
She has been responsible for the
organisation, training and direction of many community performances of major
choral works, including Handel’s ‘Messiah’, Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’, Haydn’s
‘Creation’, and the Requiems of Mozart and Fauré.
On many occasions she has organised and
directed massed children’s choirs in performances of various cantatas.
Valerie has performed with many well-known
artists including the opera singer Benjamin Luxon, the percussionist Evelyn
Glennie and the cellist Julian Lloyd-Webber, as well as the major Military
bands in Britain, such as the band of the Welsh Guards and the Band of the
Irish Guards.
She is currently director of five choirs,
including a male voice choir a girls’ choir and two mixed-voice choirs.
In addition to her work with choirs, she has
a large number of singing students, ranging from beginners and many young
singers to highly experienced performers.
In 2003
she was awarded the M.B.E. for her services to music.
Ms. Teo began piano lessons in
Singapore with her mother, Lim Siew Kiow, and later with Victor Doggett, the
leading teach in the Far East. At 15 she obtained the L.R.S.M.
(Performer's) and won an Associated Board Scholarship to the Royal Academy of
Music, London, where she studied piano with Leslie England and Dennis Murdoch;
and violin with Jean Harvey. Whilst at the Academy, she won most of the
piano prizes, culminating in the MacFaren Gold Medal - the highest award for
piano playing at the Academy. She also obtained the Performer's A.R.C.M.
(Hons) and Teacher's L.R.A.M. In the Summer breaks, she participated in
Master Classes with Vlado Perlemuter, Guido Agosti and Carlo Zecchi in
Salzburg, Sienna and Oporto. In London she studied with Louis Kentner for
the next 4 years.
Since leaving the Academy, she has given
recitals, concerts and concerto appearances in UK, Europe, the Far East and
Australia. In the late 70's, she became an established teacher with the
I.L.E.A. (London Schools), Coventry Centre for Performing Arts, and in private
practice in North London, with numerous successes and prize-winners in local
Competitive Festivals and Associated Board Examinations. She was able to
combine teaching with concerto engagements and solo recitals in UK, Singapore
and Colombo, together with Radio and T.V. recitals in France and the Far East,
and also piano-duo recitals with Etelvina Rodrigues and Dennis Murdoch, and
violin-piano duo recitals with Louis Carus and Gillian Findley, which took her all
over the UK, Hong Kong and Australia.
In 1988 she was appointed an
examiner for the Associated Board and undertook overseas tours in '91 and '92
(Hong Kong and Taiwan). In 1992 she was appointed an adjudicator for the
British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech;
and also awarded the A.R.A.M. for "her distinguished services to
music".
Now she teaches at North London
Collegiate School for Girls, enjoys playing chamber music, and is very busy
with her teenage daughter, a very talented young musician who plays the piano
and cello.
Gill Johnston,AGSM
GILLIAN
JOHNSTON (woodwind and brass) studied the Bassoon with Archie Camden and Roger
Birnstingle at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After a period of
freelance playing at home and abroad she concentrated on a teaching career,
before moving to Harpenden where together with her husband, David Johnston, she
established her own Music School, Harpenden Musicale. From small beginnings,
Musicale has grown into one of the largest institutions of its type in this
country.
As
well as the day to day running of the Music School, Gill arranges holiday music
courses, (,www.musicale.co.uk/musicholidays), competitions and the Harpenden
Summer Music Festival. Gill is the founder and Musical Director, of the
National Children's Wind Orchestra and associated groups [www.ncwo.org.uk]. She
is increasingly in demand as an adjudicator and very much enjoys the contact
with the young musician and seeing lots of new places around the country!
She
has four children, three of whom are musicians, including the cellist Guy, BBC
Young Musician 2000 and 'Izzy' from the electric string quartet 'Escala'.
Keith Stent, BMus,HonFTCL,GTCL,ARCM
Early
work in state and Royal Ballet schools led Keith Stent to high-level posts in
music education, ranging from head of department in teacher training to
advisory work for the extensive adult education music activities of the late
Inner London Education Authority. He served as teacher and conductor at Trinity
College of Music and travelled worldwide during thirty years, until 1993, as an
examiner for the college, the final twelve as Chief Examiner. He was Music
Adviser to the Benslow Music Trust, an examiner for Yamaha and, later,
converted his part-time role as Music Adviser to Kevin Mayhew Publishers to a
full-time responsibility. He also has publications with other publishers, usually
under a non-de-plume
He
is now a freelance arranger, adjudicator and conductor ( especially at holiday
courses) with special commitments to the New London Music Society and
Wandsworth Symphony Orchestra. A Festivals adjudicator, since 1964, in the past
few years he has also been in demand as an after-dinner speaker and at meetings
where true anecdotes throw a new light on otherwise serious music-making!
Ann-Frances Ellis, FTCL,AGSM
Ann-Frances
Ellis FTCL, AGSM won a Junior Exhibition to study recorder and clarinet at The
Royal Academy of Music, completing her musical education at The Guildhall
School of Music. She then spent several years teaching and examining for The
Guildhall and performing as a soloist on clarinet and recorder both nationally
and in Europe and America. She was also a member of the Dolmetch Ensemble.