Festival 2024

11th - 16th March 2024

 

Our Music Adjudicators will be:

Belinda Mikhaïl

BMus(Hons),PgDipRCM,ARCM,EMT

Belinda Mikhaïl was awarded the Associated Board and the Queen Mother Scholarships to study piano and singing as a joint first study at the Royal College of Music where she won the Hopkinson Gold Medal for her final recital. Since graduating she has travelled extensively performing both as a soloist and as a chamber musician and has appeared as a concerto soloist at the major London Concert Halls.

She has made numerous recordings for Sony BMG and Universal and is a vocal soloist on EMI's Vocalise album as used in trailers for ER, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy. She appears as the featured soloist on many film soundtracks and her solo piano playing of the theme from Chariots of Fire was heard at every medal ceremony at the London Olympic Games.

Belinda is also in demand as a vocal coach for classical, pop and rock singers and runs an extensive private teaching practice. She has trained performers as diverse as Siouxsie Sioux, Jennifer Ellison, Jack Garrett, Cathy Tyson, the Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche, as well as the world-renowned dancer Akram Khan. Her students are enjoying major roles in theatre companies up and down the country as well as West End Shows such as Anything Goes, Chicago, Dreamgirls, Haddestown, Dirty Dancing, Book of Mormon and High School Musical, and the hit TV series’, Bridgerton, Downton Abbey and Broadchurch.

Belinda’s work as an adjudicator has seen her travel extensively; she was invited to Trinidad and Tobago where she adjudicated their month long biennial Music Festival and future trips will see her travel to both Sri Lanka and Hong Kong. She thoroughly enjoys listening to a wide variety of music and meeting a wealth of musicians as she travels in her role as an adjudicator for the BIFF.

Nancy Litten

LRAM(pft),LRAM(vln),ATCL(Voice),FLCM(kbd),CertEd,

ProfCert RAM

Nancy entered the Royal Academy of Music at age 16 on an open piano scholarship, winning prizes while there. She also studied violin to a high level, freelanced as an orchestral player, and led a string quartet.

Nancy has co-authored three violin tutors in the Playing with Colour series. She has performed as a soloist, chamber music and orchestral player on both instruments and as a piano accompanist. She has taught in primary, secondary and specialist music schools, privately and on courses. Her arrangements of favourite piano pieces for piano trio (piano, violin and cello), Classical Vienna and Romantic Vienna have recently been published.

Nancy has advised ABRSM and Trinity exam boards on electronic keyboard, had a series of keyboard tutors, Keyed Up, published by Alfred UK, and has written many compositions and arrangements for exam syllabuses. She was founder and director of National Electronic Keyboard Courses from 2005-2012.

Singing is another string to her bow and she has many years’ experience of conducting choirs. Choral and Vocal Warm-ups for Pianists, Choral and Vocal Sight Singing with Keyboard Harmony, and Rounds with Accompaniment have been published by Alfred UK.

Nancy has been an ABRSM examiner since 1998, involving much travel in the UK and abroad. She is Chair of the Kent region of EPTA UK (European Piano Teachers’ Association). She has been an adjudicator with The British and International Federation of Festivals since 2014 and serves on the Adjudicators’ Council as one of the two music representatives.

Our Speech Adjudicator will be:        

Eleanor McLeod

MA(Ed),DipEd,LLAM(Hons)

Eleanor comes from Swansea in Wales, where she first gained a love of the spoken word through taking LAMDA examinations, later gaining her LAMDA teaching diploma. She is also a qualified teacher with a Masters Degree in Education.

Eleanor has been a professional actress for most of her life, appearing on stage, television, radio and taking Shakespeare to schools all over the world for the British Council.

A member of the LAMDA examinations board, she is also a published author of two books of poetry for children. and two books of short dramatic scenes. Eleanor is an adjudicator for The British and International Federation of Festivals.
Eleanor is happy to adjudicate online and has already had experience of this.

Kensa Broadhurst. Cornish Language Adjudicator

 

KENSA Broadhurst is a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh and a member of its Council. She teaches Cornish at the University of Exeter and is currently the Languages

Coordinator for the Penryn campus. Kensa is a member of the team who writes and reads the news in Cornish on BBC Radio Cornwall.