Adjudicators

ADJUDICATORS 2023

Ruth Gerald FRCM (Piano) was Head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal College of Music in London from 1992 until August 1999, having previously been appointed Faculty Adviser for Keyboard Studies in 1987.

Her career has always pursued a very wide path, solo and lecture recitals, concertos, chamber music, Lieder recitals, accompanying, adjudicating, examining and teaching.  She was Head of Keyboard Studies at the Birmingham School of Music (now the Royal  Birmingham Conservatoire) for a period of five years but relinquished this post in order to devote more time to performing, and teaching at  the Royal College where she was a Professor of Piano and Piano  Accompaniment for over 30 years.  She was elected a Fellow of the Royal College in 1985.

Born and educated in Australia, Ruth Gerald began her musical career there, broadcasting regularly with the Australian Broadcasting Commission at a very early age.  After winning the Elder Overseas Scholarship and gaining a Bachelor of Music degree at Adelaide University she continued with postgraduate studies at the Royal College where she was awarded many prizes, including the Hopkinson Gold Medal.

Recently she has given Masterclasses in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malta and Greece and conducted many Seminars for piano teachers in the UK, Malaysia and Singapore.   She is frequently invited to adjudicate at Festivals world-wide and is actively involved in many aspects of the work of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Anthony Williams (Piano): Concert pianist, writer, lecturer, examiner and adjudicator, Anthony Williams studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London and then at Reading University.

Following international competition success, he embarked on a career as a concert pianist and alongside this quickly established an international reputation as a piano teacher and a passionate educator of pianistic musicianship at all ages and levels, giving piano masterclasses, public lecture-recitals and seminars on performance and the art of teaching both in the UK and abroad, including China and Hong Kong. He also coaches on International Summer Schools and Residential Courses.

Anthony has given talks on piano performance for Radio 3 and is author and editor of various publications including The Best of Grade and Fingerprints (Faber), Teaching Notes (ABRSM), EPTA Piano Journal, and the highly acclaimed Piano Teacher’s Survival Guide (Faber).

He is an ABRSM examiner (diploma, jazz and classical), educational consultant, and a member of the examiner training and review team. He is also a member of BIFF, Chair of EPTA Europe and President of Chipping Norton Music Festival. He was Head of Keyboard and Instrumental at Radley College, Oxfordshire for 34 years until recently retiring to focus on his freelance and consultancy work.

 

Jane Salmon (Strings) is especially well known as a chamber musician. Her work has taken her to more than 45 countries across the world and has involved her in more than 60 CD recordings, numerous broadcasts, first performances, festivals, and concerts in many major venues.

Jane was cellist of the Schubert Ensemble, winner of the Royal Philharmonic prize for chamber music and a leading exponent of music for piano and strings for 35 years. The group commissioned over 35 new chamber works and appeared at major European venues including Wigmore Hall in London and the Concertgebouw , Amsterdam. 2018 saw the group’s celebratory final season with over 50 concerts including two return tours to the USA. A library of live performances are now available on the Schubert Ensemble’s YouTube channel.

A member of the National Youth Orchestra, Jane read music at Clare College Cambridge and studied cello with Amaryllis Fleming and Johannes Goritzki, attending masterclasses with Pierre Fournier. She was awarded a number of scholarships and awards and selected by YCAT with recitals at the Wigmore and Purcell Room, a solo tour of India and was on stage solo cellist in the National Theatre production of Arthur Millers ‘Broken Glass.’

A founder member of Endymion, which championed new music as well as classical repertoire, she has performed in many premiers. The group ran a series of Composer Portraits at the South Bank,worked with Opera Factory (including a TV recording of Birtwhistle’s Punch and Judy), recorded a series of English Chamber Music and has performed several times at the BBC proms. Jane also has been guest principal with the Scottish and English Chamber Orchestras and London Sinfonietta and played with the Academy of St Martins and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. She has given many masterclasses and workshops, adjudicates and examines, and is a tutor in cello and chamber music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Elizabeth Childs (Wind) is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied flute with Gareth Morris and piano with Graeme Humphrey. Whilst at the RAM she performed regularly with all the orchestras, and was also engaged in many internal and external teaching projects: for Elizabeth the teaching of her students extends far beyond the turning up to a lesson each week and she believes in a totally holistic approach. International engagements have taken her to the USA and to many parts of Europe, and she has performed extensively throughout the UK as soloist, recitalist and orchestral player. Elizabeth’s career started in Bristol but in 1988 she moved to Scotland in order for her husband to take up a Cathedral Organist position. Elizabeth became principal flute with the Sinfonia of Scotland, Dundee Opera and Dundee and Perth Light Operatic Company, alongside a busy teaching schedule. Elizabeth has recorded programmes for the Open University and other children’s programmes and gives Organ duo recitals with her husband.

Elizabeth has successfully prepared pupils for scholarships to leading public schools, Junior Conservatoires and Specialist Music Schools and now has many ex-students working in the profession. She has directed summer schools and other courses for young wind players. It is a mission of hers to encourage as many children to have the experience of both ‘performing’ and taking part in festivals under the auspices of the British & International Federation, of which Liz is currently a Board member. Elizabeth believes that all children should have the opportunity to learn how to perform as it benefits many areas of a child’s education, as is well documented. Currently, Elizabeth is engaged in a busy teaching schedule which includes Beechwood Park Preparatory School and the Bedfordshire Woodwind Academy of which she is founder and Director; its Flute Ensemble has undertaken concert tours to Brugge and the Netherlands, and reached the 2017 final of the Flutewise/ABRSM Flute Choirs Competition.

Liz is also flautist in Quintessimo, and has undertaken some voluntary work with young flautists in Nairobi, culminating in some well received concerts. She is also a full member of the ISM, a committee member of the Hitchin Festival of the Arts and the local Bedfordshire Representative for The British Flute Society. Liz has three children and two twin grandchildren, and in any spare time enjoys cookery and spending time in her garden and greenhouse in a lovely Bedfordshire village at the foot of the Barton Hills. Elizabeth is in much demand as an Adjudicator both at home and abroad and is very much looking forward to her visit to the Abingdon Music Festival.

Rebecca Moseley-Morgan (Voice) is currently chair of Education for the British Voice Association. She is a specialist voice teacher for the older voice, and she has a busy voice studio in Oxford and London. She gives workshops throughout the UK on the functionality of the voice, accent breathing and vocal care and maintenance. She works with many choirs across the UK and especially enjoys collaborating with conductors to enable them to achieve optimum vocal quality from their choirs.

In her early career, Rebecca won scholarships to the Royal College of Music and Opera

School and sung professionally at Glyndebourne, WNO and Opera 80 amongst others. As a soloist, she has performed throughout the UK and Europe. After starting her family, she focussed on being a career voice teacher. She spent much time in researching the latest advances in voice science which underpin her vocal teaching methods.

Rebecca has an MA is musicology and has just finished her PhD thesis at UCL. This thesis investigated how to maintain the functionality of the mature female voice and what effective teaching methods are best for older singers. She is currently involved in two other research projects. The first on the effectiveness of vibrational therapy on the larynx in order to assist recovery from vocal fatigue and the second is testing and analysis historical breathing pedagogies and a new, simple yet effective method of breathing. She often presents her research at conferences throughout Europe, in the past year she has presented work in Vienna, Estonia, Sweden and the UK.