All adjudicators are Adjudicator Members of the British and International Federation of Festivals

Colin Touchin

Colin Touchin is a conductor, composer, clarinettist and recorder player and has been an adjudicator for over 30 years. During eight years at Chetham’s School of Music (including two as Head of Composition) and almost fifteen as Director of Music at the University of Warwick, Colin has a distinguished record of conducting, composing for, and encouraging young musicians in orchestras, bands and choirs. The University of Warwick Chamber Choir and he gained gold or silver awards at almost every international festival entered including televised semi-finals of Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year in 2000 and performed with the London Mozart Players and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

With wind ensembles from the University of Warwick, Colin commissioned new works and gained many awards in the National Concert Band Festival, including Gold at the Open Class Final in 2002; it is believed this award and the Choir’s competition record are unique for any British university. He has founded several ensembles - including Warwick Orchestral Winds, the British Universities Honours Band, and the National Youth Recorder Orchestra - and has conducted the National Youth Wind Orchestras of Britain, Wales, Hong Kong and Luxembourg.

His compositions have been broadcast on national and local radio and television, and he is increasingly in demand to write to commission, and to lead workshops in conducting, clarinet, recorder, teaching and adjudication, having given such presentations now in over 20 countries. He is Conductor of Derbyshire City and County Youth Wind Band, Musical Director of Warwickshire County Youth Orchestra, a regular guest conductor of the Essex Chamber Orchestra, Associate Conductor of London Charity Orchestra, and founder/conductor of Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in Coventry.

He has played a significant role in the activities of the British and International Federation of Festivals during the last decade, including membership of the Core Team for the Festival of Festivals, and the elected post of Vice-Chairman.

Keith Smith M.Mus, BA, ARCM, ATCL, LGSMIVAN SCOTT

Keith Smith was born in Leicestershire where, after early success as a boy soprano, he began to play both violin and piano. Whilst at school he became a member of both the Leicestershire and National Youth Orchestras. He studied orchestral and choral conducting at the Royal College of Music and holds degrees in music from Leeds and Surrey Universities.

Having held teaching posts in Leicestershire and Oxford, he changed to a full-time conducting career in 1979. He became Staff Conductor for Hampshire and Musical Director of Southampton Youth Orchestra, a position he held for 25 years. In 1991 he founded the Hampshire County Youth Choir which he conducted with great success until 1997. For many years Keith Smith was chorus master of Leicester Philharmonic Society, directing the work of the choir through innumerable major concerts and BBC broadcasts; he was also conductor of Leicester Symphony Orchestra for over 20 years and the founding conductor of the Channel Islands Youth Orchestra from 1994 – 2000.

Hampshire Sinfonietta was founded in 1994 and has given many prestigious concerts in the county, including one in the presence of the Princess Royal. Keith is also Musical Director of Banbury Choral Society in Oxfordshire and conductor of the Oadby and Wigston Orchestra in Leicestershire.

Keith Smith’s freelance work has enabled him to conduct major orchestras and choirs at home and abroad. In addition to many foreign tours throughout Europe. USA, Canada and the Far East with the Southampton Youth Orchestra, recent conducting engagements have taken him to Hungary, Romania and China.

Keith greatly enjoys adjudicating at music festivals. He has been an adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals for many years, and totally supports their aims and objectives.

Ivan Scott

Ivan was born in 1943 and started to play the guitar at the age of fourteen inspired by the maestro Andres Segovia. He later studied guitar performing under Oliver Hunt professor of guitar at the London College of Music. Ivan was subsequently admitted to the Fellowship of the college and later gained his Fellowship of the Trinity College of Music. He continued his studies in Spain under Emilio Pujol, a pupil of the legendary Francisco Tarrega.

Recently he was awarded the Licentiate Recital Diploma in Guitar by Trinity Guildhall. In the UK Ivan has spent much of his time giving talks and recitals in schools and colleges combined with master classes and workshops.

Ivan is an Adjudicator Member of the British & International Federation of Festivals and been adjudicating for festivals since 1983

TEO LI LIN

Teo Li Lin, a Singaporean, began piano lessons with her mother, continuing her studies with Victor Doggett, the leading piano teacher in the Far East. She won an Associated Board Scholarship at age 16 and commenced study at the Royal Academy of Music with Leslie England and then with Dennis Murdoch. While at the Academy, she won most of the major piano prizes, culminating in the Macfarren Gold Medal, the highest award for piano playing at the Academy.

Following this, she studied with Louis Kentner for 4 years and participated in master classes with Vlado Perlemuter, Guido Agosti and Carlo Zecchi in Salzburg, Sienna and Oporto. She has since given recitals and concerto performances in the UK, Europe, Sri Lanka, Australia and the Far East. In 1992, she was appointed an adjudicator for the British Federation of Music Festivals; and examiner for the Associated Board, and was made an ARAM, for “distinguished services to music”.

She is a dedicated and very successful teacher in North London and also teaches at the North London Collegiate School.

BERYL FOSTER

Beryl is a graduate of London University and studied singing principally with Ranken Bushby, first in Colchester and then at the Royal College of Music. She has sung in recitals, concerts and oratorio in London and many parts of the country, teaches privately and is an experienced adjudicator.

As well as singing and teaching all the standard repertoire, Beryl specialises in the performance of Norwegian art-song, has written definitive books on Grieg’s songs and his choral music, and contributed articles to many international journals. Her recitals, lectures and workshops on Norwegian song have taken her around Britain, as well as to Norway, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, the United States and China.

Beryl has provided translations for the Associated Board, the introductions to each of the songs in the Grieg Centenary Song album (Peters 2007) and a translation of all the vocal music from “Peer Gynt” for Southampton Philharmonic Society (2010).

She has also translated into English a substantial book on the Norwegian composer Ludvig Irgens Jensen. Beryl is currently Chairman of the Grieg Society of Great Britain and Vice President of the International Grieg Society.