Festival Accompanist 

Julie Aherne

British/Irish pianist Julie Aherne studied at Royal Holloway, University of London, with James Kirby. An accomplished répétiteur, Julie has worked with Rocket Opera, Opera Della Luna, The Mastersingers, and Celebrate Voice, and co-founded The Black Cat Opera Company, with whom she performed Così fan tutte at the Birgitta Festival in Tallinn with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. She works as a coach for Melofonetica, an organisation whose research-based method helps singers achieve better pronunciation, musicality and expression in Italian opera and song. A keen advocate for community singing, she directs Woking Ladies Choir and is in demand as a choral accompanist.  julieaherne@msn.com

Festival Adjudicators

Vocal Adjudicator – Emma Brain Gabbott

Having studied music as a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge and also as an alumnus of the National Youth Music Theatre, Emma enjoys a busy performing career embracing a wide range of musical styles. Both on stage and in the concert hall she has worked with many leading ensembles and companies across the world, including The Sixteen, BBC Singers, English National Opera and Le Concert d’Astreé, as well as performing as a soloist.

Emma also continues to work extensively as a commercial artist, both in film / TV soundtracks (including Harry Potter, Disney and Marvel film franchises, and Fleabag and Merlin on TV), and also as backing vocalist for various pop stars, including Take That, Eric Clapton and Labyrinth.

Having expanded into teaching and coaching, Emma is now in demand as an adjudicator, and has worked across the UK in school competitions and at Performance Festivals. As a judge for A Capella competitions, she has adjudicated at the National Championship Finals in Birmingham, and was also on the judging panel for Sky TV’s Sing! A Capella show.

Drama Adjudicator – Stuart Hayllor

Stuart has been involved in performing arts for over 25 years, appearing in shows all over the country. Some of his musical theatre credits in that time include:

Tony ‘West Side Story’

Paul ‘A Chorus Line’

Jesus ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’

Billy ‘Anything Goes’’

Billy Bigelow ‘Carousel’

Curley ‘Oklahoma’

Sky ‘Guys & Dolls’

Bobby ‘Company’

Don Lockwood ‘Singing in the Rain’

Bill Sykes ‘Oliver’

Bobby ‘Crazy for You’

Henry Witherspoon ‘Lucky Stiff’ (Edinburgh 2018)

Roger ‘Rent’

Frederick Frankenstein ‘Mel Brooks Young Frankenstein’

Jamie ‘The Last 5 Years’

He has also directed numerous musicals locally including Sweeney Todd ‘The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Into the Woods, Rent and The Wizard of Oz. He is set to return to the directors chair next year to bring Gypsy to the stage.

Piano/ Instrumental Adjudicator – John Traill

John Traill specialises in conducting symphonic and contemporary repertoire, and he is committed to making music accessible to all.  Director and Supernumerary Fellow in Music at St Anne’s College, Oxford, his experience over the last twenty years includes being course director of courses in Instrumental Conducting, and Orchestration, at the Faculty of Music, Oxford University. From 2017-2020 he was a Teaching Fellow at Royal Holloway University London, responsible for courses in ensemble performance, conducting, and composition.  Previous posts also include Teaching Fellow (Performance) at Kings College London, lecturer at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Bristol University (Conducting and Composition), and Head of Performance at Bangor University.  In January 2022, John became a Professor at the Royal Military School of Music.

John has performed across the UK and overseas, with orchestras that include the London Mozart Players, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sofia New Symphony Orchestra, the Kharkov Philharmonic, the SCAR Philharmonic, and the Curitiba Symphony (Brazil). His work with leading contemporary music ensembles includes the London Sinfonietta, CHROMA, the New Music Players, London Contemporary Music Group, Sounds Underground, and the Moscow Studio for New Music. He has performed at many major venues, including premieres at the Royal Albert Hall, Symphony Hall Birmingham, the Barbican, Southbank Centre, and the Fergusson Centre (Virginia).  John is conductor of the St Anne’s Camerata, Ensemble ISIS (the new music group at Oxford Faculty of Music), the City of Southampton Orchestra, and the Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra; His outreach work, with the Oxfordshire Music Service’s Advanced Musicianship Programme, has developed a unique collaboration between the University of Oxford and the Oxfordshire County Music Service, awarded the National Music Council Paritor Award for Achievements in New Music. John’s recordings include Thomas Hyde’s Autumnal (Guild Records), and Scherzo Capriccioso (BBC Radio 3).

Early training with Rossen Milanov at the Mt. Vitosha International Conducting Institute, Bulgaria (1998/2000) culminated in winning major prizes at the Leeds Conductors Competition (2005), and the Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition (2006).  At the same time, John studied composition with Robert Saxton at the University of Oxford, becoming the youngest recipient, in 2006, of a DPhil in this field.  His compositions have been performed at major venues in UK, Europe, and the USA.  Specializing in both contemporary concert and music for education, recent projects include Arts Council funded commissions (Double Concerto for Vibraphone, Marimba, and Orchestra, and Concerto for Trumpet (doubling Flugelhorn) and Orchestra), and a new arrangement of Brahms’ German Requiem, with Deborah Pritchard, for the Manchester Camerata at the Litchfield Festival 2016. His oratorios for education have bought national recognition, most notably Lightbobs for 600+ performers (March 2014: Symphony Hall, Birmingham), and Oxonia for massed children’s choir, symphony orchestra, brass band, and solo cello (2011-12: Royal Albert Hall, Symphony Hall Birmingham).

As resident composer for the Cornish American Song Institute, John has enjoyed a long association with tenor David Sadlier. Song sets therein include Four Cornish Songs (2016: Mary Ogilvie Theatre, Oxford), Phases (2014: Mary Ogilvie Theatre, Oxford), Three Songs for the Britten Centenary (2012: St. Martin in the Fields, London), Today for tenor and chamber orchestra (2010: Fergusson Centre, Virginia). John has worked closely with trumpeter Simon Desbruslais, and in addition to his 2016 concerto, they premiered his Serenade for Trumpet and Orchestra, premiered in Sao Bento Monastery, Brasilia, April 2014.  Highlights from John’s catalogue include Equale for Horn and String Orchestra (2014: Oxford), Concerto for Ensemble (2010: Northwestern, Chicago), Five Piano Miniatures (2008) and Dissolving Fragments for Violin and Piano (2009/11).

Dance Adjudicator – Mark Allison

Mark is a Fellow of the ISTD’s Imperial Classical Ballet Faculty and has a BA in Professional Practice, (Dance) and has experience teaching across multiple sectors including vocational, educational and recreational. Alongside Ballet, Mark has extensive experience in Figure skating and has recently worked with GB dance and free skate competitors on choreography and artistry, as well as coaching internationally on courses in Germany, Austria and the United States. In 2020 Mark was thrilled to be offered a place on the Royal Ballet’s Vocational Teaching Diploma and is currently studying for his PGCE. At present, Mark is a Ballet faculty member at Performers College Essex, The Wilkes Academy, DanceTeachersInc, a regular tutor on the CAT programme (Centre of Advanced Training) and an Associate Dance Artist for the Royal Ballet’s CTD. Mark has been fortunate to have taught on both the junior and senior international summer schools for the RAD.