Adjudicators

PROF. TIMOTHY BLINKO, FINALISTS’ADJUDICATOR

Timothy Blinko was Bliss composition scholar at the Royal College of Music, becoming a Junior Professor there while still a student, and Head of the Musicianship Faculty soon after. He was also a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck College, London before joining the Music Department at Hertfordshire in the role of Associate Head of Music - created for him -becoming Head of Music, then Professor of Music.Tim was also a Visiting Professor for the State University of New York and taught conducting at the University of Cambridge for ten years.Tim has many published works, CD recordings and has received broadcasts in the UK on BBC 1, Channel 4, Radio 3 and Radio 4,alongside many international performances, recordings and broadcasts.His three-movement saxophone quartet, Sculptures, has been played by every leading quartet in the world and recorded by six and a recent Album, Reflection receives frequent BBC broadcasts in the UK and US –two new albums are being released in 2014. He has been invited to judge the British Composer Awards (BBC Radio 3) six times (the composition equivalent of the Man Booker Prize).His collaboration with celebrity Professor, Richard Wiseman,writing the music for the World’s Most Relaxing Room,was a top global news story of the week, covered by all the key international press and media and by BBC TV News, the Times,Telegraph, Guardian,Mail etc. in the UK, and the Times said ‘The Music was euphoric.’

DENNIS LEE, BMus Hons,MMusRCM, LRSM,ARCM Hons – Piano

Dennis studied piano at the Royal College of Music, Vienna Academy and in Milan. His first class degree(B.Mus.Hons) is from London University and he also has a diploma in violin (teaching). His work has ranged from piano lecturer at Kingston University to Artist in Residence, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. Concerts and festival performances have included the Barbican, Royal Festival, Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls, Kennedy Centre, Washington and Merkin Hall, New York; Cheltenham, Brighton,Montreux, Spoleto and Adelaide. He has appeared with most of the BBC orchestras,Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Hallé, Warsaw Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, RAIMilano, Rai Napoli, Adelaide Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Shanghai Symphony and more.

MALCOLM GREEN,GRSM, LRAM, ARCM, DipRAM,PGC(A) -Woodwind & Brass

Malcolm was educated at the Royal Academy of Music,where he gained a First Class degree and the prize for the best student on the course, together with the award of the Recital Diploma on clarinet, the Academy's highest performance award. He has played in the English National Opera and Ulster Orchestras and given recitals in the Purcell Room and at the Harrogate Festival, in addition to performing at many Music clubs. He was appointed Head of Woodwind at Bedford School in 1986 and has also taught at the Royal Academy of Music and Anglia University, as well as at the Perse Girls and St.Mary’s schools in Cambridge. Malcolm is a former Chairman of the Bedfordshire Orchestral Society and is currently a Vice President and Life Fellow of the Bedfordshire Music Festival.He is an Adjudicator member of the British Federation of Festivals, has worked as an adjudicator throughout the country and obtained the PGC (Adjudication) qualification. His hobbies are walking, in which he has climbed Mt.Kilimanjaro and been to Everest Base Camp, and cycling, in which he won the Mersey Roads 24 hour event, covering 460 miles. Former pupils include Alastair Cook, the England Cricket captain, and Al Murray, the Pub Landlord!

KAY  TUCKER, AGSM,ARCM, LTCL,PGCE, PGCA – Strings

Kay studied at Huddersfield School of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Middlesex Polytechnic. She has taught students from a wide background of standards,abilities and age ranges and developed an early years strings and general musicianship teaching system, named ‘Stringbabies’. Her Stringbabies approach has twice been shortlisted for the Rhinegold Music Teacher Awards for Excellence and has gained considerable popularity with teachers throughout the UK and overseas. As well as continuing to develop her unique approach for other instruments, Kay trains teachers and to date there are 4 music services in the UK delivering Stringbabies and many teachers in the UK and now the USA. Kay has had a wide range of experience of performing from orchestral work and chamber music right through to recital and concerto engagements. In recent years she was a consultant to Trinity Guildhall and acted as cello consultant on both the grades and diploma syllabuses. Kay is a mentor for Music for Youth and an adjudicator with The British and International Federation of Festivals.

JULIA DEWHURST, FTCL, ARCM, PGCA, Cert.Ed, FRSA – Voice

With more than 14 years’experience, Julia is in increasing demand as a vocal adjudicator having visited, and re-visited, festivals throughout the UK and Ireland. Described as having ‘a vibrant personality with an ability to illuminate appropriate aspects of vocal technique to a wide range of performers with clarity, energy and warmth’, she brings to her work extensive teaching experience across the entire age range.As a performer her repertoire extends from Early Music to first performances of contemporary works. She has appeared nationally and internationally on the opera stage and concert platform in a career spanning more than 30 years.