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Judges
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Ralph Allwood
Ralph has recently left Eton College, where he had been Precentor and Director of Music for 26 years, in order to pursue his freelance activities. These include conductor of the orchestra of St Paul’s Girls’ School, Director of Music at Hampstead Parish Church and the founding of Inner Voices, a choir for young people from ten Inner London state schools. Ralph is a judge for the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and is a regular visitor to several Welsh choirs, including the National Youth Choir of Wales, which he will be conducting this year. He founded the Eton Choral Courses and the Rodolfus Choir, and has led choral courses and workshops all over the world. He will continue as Director of the Eton Choral Courses. In 2002 he was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music and in 2003 and Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. |
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Stuart Barr
Stuart has a dual career as a conductor and singing coach working in the West End and TV, for choirs and in education. He was President of the British Voice Association (09-10) and has been Musical Director to Dame Shirley Bassey since 2009. As a singing coach he’s worked extensively for the BBC, with programmes such as R2’s Voice of Musical Theatre Competition, and on children’s projects such as The Little Prince and The Water Diviner’s Tale for BBC Proms. As a singing teacher he runs a busy private studio, and is a vocal coach at the Royal Academy of Music. You can see him in action this spring as singing mentor for C4’s The Hidden Talent Show. Recent choral work includes Chorus Master for the Sondheim 80th Birthday Prom concert at the Albert Hall. He gives workshops on Idiomatic Choral Sound and singing technique, including several events for the Association of British Choral Conductors. |
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Mike Brewer
Mike Brewer
Mike Brewer is in demand worldwide as an adjudicator and as a vocal and conducting workshop leader. His annual tours take in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, Venezuela, Poland and Slovakia. Mike has been Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain since 1983. A highlight in 2011 was performing in the BBC Proms with the Simon Bolivar orchestra.
Laudibus, The National Youth Chamber Choir, recorded a CD of Eric Whitacre’s works with the composer for Decca in 2012 which reached number one in the classical charts, and was nominated for a Grammy award. Mike’s new series of arrangements for Faber, World Tour, follow the success of Hamba Lulu, which can be found on You Tube in nearly 100 different performances. Mike is consultant for over 20 prize winning UK choirs. He wrote the song and prepared conductors for the Olympic baton handover in August 2008. He was appointed OBE in 1995. |
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Ken Burton
Ken Burton is a conductor, composer and arranger, educator, singer and pianist. He has been associated with Choir of the Year for over two decades as participant, adjudicator, and workshop leader; it was in 1994 that he led two choirs to the final, one of them winning the competition. He is well known for his work on UK television, including regular appearances as a director, singer, and arranger on BBC1’s Songs Of Praise. Currently he directs the broadcast choir AVE, Croydon SDA Gospel Choir and London Adventist Chorale and is a founder of another broadcast ensemble, Tessera. He has guest conducted, arranged and composed works for several orchestras and choruses including CBSO, London Mozart Players and BBC Orchestra, and has also conducted at venues across the world including Toronto Sky Dome, Sydney Opera House and the BBC Proms. He has several publications with Faber Music, OUP and RSCM. |
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Stephen Connolly
For nearly a quarter of a century, Stephen Connolly has been the Bass and co-director of the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble The King’s Singers and has the distinction of being one of the longest serving members in the vocal group’s history. He studied singing with Rudolf Piernay at London’s Guildhall School of Music before joining The King’s Singers in 1987 at the age of 21. As well as having performed in excess of 120 concerts each year, he has made frequent appearances on both TV and radio around the world and recorded extensively, collecting many awards along the way. As well as devoting much time to master-classes and residencies abroad, Stephen holds the position of Prince Consort Ensemble in Residence at the Royal College of Music. In 2009 Stephen founded and is Musical Director of the International A Cappella School (www.internationalAcappellaSchool.org) – a series of international residential choral courses in which he shares his passion for all things choral. |
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Gillian Dibden
Gillian Dibden MBE studied piano and cello at the Royal College of Music and then spent many years teaching in primary and secondary schools. Gillian is now a freelance choral specialist, particularly well known for her work with young choirs. She has served on the Council of the Association of British Choral Directors, and received two significant awards in 2002 – a Churchill Fellowship in Choral Music and Choral Director of the Year in the Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition. Gillian founded Taplow Choirs seven years ago and already all the choirs have had success at national and international level. Gillian enjoys mentoring for the National Festival of Music for Youth at both regional and national levels and leads singing days for the Wigmore Hall Education Department and courses for the Junior Choirs of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. As Academic Executive for the Montgomery Holloway Music Trust, Gillian runs a summer school in advanced performance skills with well known Jazz musician Laurie Holloway. |
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Joanna Forbes L’Estrange
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange is a well-known name in the British choral and a cappella scene, as a professional soprano, composer and arranger, choral coach and workshop leader. Formerly Musical Director of internationally renowned a cappella group, The Swingle Singers, she toured the world for seven years, directing and producing six albums as well as writing many arrangements, one of which was used recently on the television series Glee. Joanna’s reputation for stylistic diversity has led to a singing career which boasts over seventy Hollywood film soundtracks, two appearances on The Vicar of Dibley, backing vocals for artists such as Katherine Jenkins and Take That and concerts and recordings with specialist ensembles such as Tenebrae and Synergy. She is a regular adjudicator for Voice Festival UK and a popular presenter for Sing A Cappella, the Association of British Choral Directors and A Cappella Springfest, particularly for her innovative and fun workshop, You Can Sing…But Can You Swing?! |
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Sue Hollingworth
A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music where she studied voice, Sue divides her time between her work as a choral director and music educator. In 1990 she was awarded a Churchill fellowship for her work with choirs and in 2010 she was awarded Choir Master of the Year by Gramophone Magazine. She is Musical Director of the Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir which won the overall title of BBC3 Choir of the Year in 2008 and were chosen to make a BBC programme, Take a Bow, about interesting activities children do after school. Sue is Musical Director of the Sine Nomine International Touring Choir; all members of this choir are themselves choral directors. She has worked for the National Youth Choirs of Scotland and Great Britain and is a guest conductor for Leeds Lieder and The National Centre for Early Music. Sue’s music education work has included Sing Up, the Voices Foundation, Making Music, 20,000 Voices and Sing for Pleasure. |
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Jo McNally
Jo is a music educator from the USA who has been living in the UK since 1980 working as an animateur, conductor, and singer. She consistently works with very diverse groups of singers, conductors and teachers of all abilities, ethnic backgrounds and ages. As a conductor she specialises in newer and developing choirs. She has been on the team developing and delivering the ABCD conducting courses since their inception 10 years ago and now teaches The Art of Choral Direction for the Canford/Sherborne Summer school. As an animateur she has worked on special projects for the Education departments of ENO, Royal Opera House, Glyndbourne and the BBC Singers. She is a sought after clinician throughout the UK, most recently for Sing Up, ABCD, AOTOS and BVA. Her published works include Young Voiceworks (OUP) and Junior Choral Club (Music Sales). As a singer her work includes the premieres of Scipio’s Dream and Heaven Ablaze by Judith Weir and recorded for BBC television. |
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Michael Morwood
Trained at the Royal College of Music, Michael has been involved in London theatre for the last twenty years. He was Director of Music at The Academy Of Live And Recorded Arts 1993-1997 and Deputy Head of Musical Theatre at Mountview Academy of Theatre arts from 1997-2004. His West End credits include Sunset Boulevard, Blood Brothers, Mamma Mia and The Full Monty.
Now resident in South Wales, Michael is a tutor on the Musical Theatre Masters Course at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Gower College Swansea and Trinity College, Carmarthen and was part of the creative team which opened the Welsh Millennium Centre in Cardiff.
He has been an adjudicator for BBC Young Musician of the Year and the Fame Academy Bursary and was Associate Children’s Chorus Master for The BBC Proms production of The Water Diviner’s Tale by Rachel Portman. Michael has been Musical Supervisor of the renowned Summer Season Musicals at The Aberystwyth Arts Centre since 2007. |
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Eugene Skeef
Eugene Skeef is a South African percussionist, composer, poet, educationalist and animateur and has lived in London since 1980. As well as being at the forefront of the contemporary music scene, he has also been instrumental in developing the education programmes of some of the major classical orchestras in the UK. Eugene is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is on the advisory committee of Sound Junction, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music’s award-winning interactive multimedia educational project. In March 2005 Eugene performed with his Abantu Ensemble at Buckingham Palace and was presented to the Queen as part of the historic Music Day to celebrate the diversity of culture in Britain. Eugene is the Artistic Director of Quartet of Peace, an international project initiated by the South African luthier Brian Lisus in honour of South Africa’s Nobel peace laureates, using music to bring about peaceful resolutions to conflict and poverty, with a special focus on young people. |
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The competition
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