Adjudicators
ADJUDICATORS 2024
William Howard (Piano) is one of Britain’s leading pianists, enjoying a career that has taken him to over 40 different countries. His performing life consists of solo recitals, concerto performances and guest appearances with chamber ensembles and instrumentalists. In 1983 he founded the Schubert Ensemble, with which he performed for the full 35 years of the
Ensemble’s existence. William performs regularly at major venues and festivals in the UK and can be heard frequently on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. He has made over forty CD recordings and premiered several dozen new works by leading composers from the UK and abroad. Recent solo recordings for Orchid Classics (Sixteen Romantic Love Songs, Sixteen Contemporary Love Songs and an album of piano works by Howard Skempton) have been hugely successful on streaming platforms and have enjoyed much critical acclaim. Recent engagements have included recitals in Italy, Luxembourg and the UK and performances with the Carducci and Sacconi String Quartets. www.williamhoward.co.uk
Sally Cathcart (Piano) is well-known globally for her innovative, high-quality, research-based approach to piano teaching. She is a vocal advocate for the importance of piano teachers and the beneficial and far-reaching role they play in music education. In 2015, she co-founded the online professional development organisation The Curious Piano Teachers, which provides training and a much-needed virtual staff room for piano teachers
worldwide. In 2023, she was appointed Course Director of the renowned Piano Teachers’ Course and is leading its development and expansion.
Her innate curiosity has taken her to many corners of the world to explore different approaches to music education. In 2005, she received a Churchill Fellowship award, which enabled her to visit South Africa, Hungary, and Cuba to explore their different aural approaches to instrumental learning. She returned with a greater understanding of the value of collaboration and community. As a direct result, Sally founded the Oxford Piano Group, a vibrant, collaborative place for pianists and teachers to meet, discuss, and share experiences.
She was awarded a Ph.D. from the Institute of Education, UCL, London in 2013. Her topic was the first comprehensive study of UK piano teachers, exploring common practices, expertise, values, attitudes, and motivations for teaching. Sally is a trained Kodály practitioner and has a reputation for delivering energetic and insightful training and courses. She was Musicianship Director for The Voices Foundation from 2014-2022. She is currently a piano syllabus consultant for ABRSM and has worked on recent syllabi and the piano Music Medals.
Ready to Play, a series of musicianship books by Sally was published by Alfred UK in 2020. Built on the premise that all pianists must be musicians first, they have proved highly popular with teachers and parents who want their students and children to have secure musical foundations right from the start. In collaboration with Dr Christopher Fisher, Sally is currently working as co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Piano Pedagogy to advance piano education by combining research and practical insights.
After being based in the Oxford area for many years, Sally now lives in wonderful Wensleydale in North Yorkshire, surrounded by fells and sheep. She continues to give online lessons to a small group of teachers, adults, and children, whilst championing the vital role that piano teachers play in music education.
Martin Outram (Strings): Since studying at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music with John White, Martin Outram has enjoyed a wide ranging career as quartet player, soloist and teacher. Martin was a member of the internationally renowned Maggini Quartet for more than four decades. He recorded more than sixty discs with the quartet, other chamber music ensembles, and as a soloist and has been the recipient of the Gramophone Award, the Diapason d’Or, a Cannes Classical Award, three Grammy nominations and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for chamber music.
In addition to his work as a chamber music player, Martin appears
as a soloist. His repertoire embraces the major works for viola and several works have been written for him, including concertos by Adam Gorb, David Gow and Peter Aviss. Since making his Royal Festival Hall concerto debut with the London Mozart Players, Martin has appeared as a soloist in Russia, Argentina, Brazil and Europe. Recent highly acclaimed UK performances include the Bartok and Walton Concertos and the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with Julian Leaper, and another highlight was his world premiere performance of Stuart MacRae’s ‘Equilibrium’ for solo viola and chamber ensemble.
Martin performs in recital with Julian Rolton. Together they have performed widely throughout the UK and have recorded nine discs for the Naxos, Nimbus and Albion labels. Their performances have included recitals at many international viola congresses. Their recordings of all the music for viola and piano by Bax attracted a five-star review in the BBC Music Magazine and their discs of English Viola Sonatas, all the viola music of Britten and Bridge, a CD featuring works associated with the eminent Scottish violist Watson Forbes and their recent releases entitled ‘The Stanford Legacy’ and ‘Viola Fantasia’ have also received similar outstanding praise internationally.
Martin Outram is Lionel Tertis Professor of Viola and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. He is now the longest serving professor of viola in the two hundred year history of the RAM. He has given masterclasses in major music institutions in Austria, China, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Poland and America, and has given annual masterclasses in Germany. Martin has served on the jury for the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and, more recently, the Markneukirchen International Viola Competition. He plays on a very fine viola made by Henricus Catenar in Turin in 1680.
Paul Harris (Wind) 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); he gives the occasional recital 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.
Elizabeth Emberson (Voice) began singing at an early age in her local Methodist Church,and soon started to attend singing lessons with Betty Middleton, who encouraged her to perform in many concerts and music festivals in the Northeast of England with great success. She then gained a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1975, where she won several prizes and scholarships for further study.
Elizabeth’s performing career has taken her all over the United Kingdom and Europe, but with the arrival of her family she decided to concentrate on her teaching career, teaching for Coventry Performing Arts and Oxfordshire County Music Service, as well as public schools in Oxfordshire. She currently teaches at two public schools in Oxford itself. Some of her
pupils have successfully auditioned for RADA, Arts Education at Tring, Birmingham University and Guildford School of Acting. Past students have also successfully auditioned for New College and Lichfield Cathedral choirs.
Elizabeth is a firm believer in the value of performing at music festivals, and encourages her own students to follow her example in doing so. She feels that it is the ideal way to hone performance skills in a warm and friendly environment. She has built on her own experience of singing at festivals, and since 2012 has been an adjudicator for The British Federation of Festivals.