Our adjudicators

Every class is judged by a working professional. They are here to hear you properly and tell you something useful, not just to place you in an order.

Adjudicators are appointed through the British and International Federation of Festivals. Each one gives written comments to every performer, whatever the result.

Frith Trezevant

Masterclass tutor and adjudicator, Adult Vocal

ARCM, LTCL

Frith is a career teacher with over 35 years of experience teaching singers of all abilities and over a wide age range. The festivals tradition is something she enjoyed as a young singer, competing in Auckland, New Zealand, her home town, until she was 16.

Frith studied singing in Adelaide, South Australia for a year before coming to the UK in 1982, in order to work with the New Zealand singing teacher David Harper. She won an Ian Fleming Award and was awarded three scholarships for courses with the Britten-Pears School, working with Peter Pears, Nancy Evans, Joan Cross, Jan de Gaetani and Graham Johnson. As a young artist she performed in concert, opera and oratorio, and has continued performing in recital.

Frith was a Director and Executive Director of the British Voice Association from 2010 to 2015. She taught at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music from 2018 to 2023 and has been Teacher, Teacher in Residence and Auditions Panelist with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.

She teaches singing at the Bristol Conservatoire of Theatre Arts and runs a thriving private practice in Bristol.

Frith enjoys writing about singing and has had articles published in Music Teacher, BBC Music magazine and in Communicating Voice, the magazine of the British Voice Association. She is a contributor to the third edition of Teaching Singing to Children and Young Adults by Jenevora Williams.

Frith graduated from the Royal College of Music in July 2023 with an MEd in Music Education. She teaches instrument-specific voice pedagogy on the Music Leadership module of the BMus course at the Royal College of Music. Her research interest is in singers who play wind instruments, and she has written a chapter on the subject for a new edited volume.
Sarah Jefferies

Adjudicator, Vocal

LRAM, ARCM

Sarah is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied with Patricia Clark and Josephine Veasey. During her time at the Academy she won several prizes across Lieder, opera and English song, and was awarded the Ann E Lloyd Scholarship to support her postgraduate studies. She was also an active member of the opera course, performing a number of leading roles.

Following her studies, Sarah continued her training in Amsterdam with Margret Honig and Elly Ameling. She went on to work for an extended period with Opera de Lyon, alongside giving recitals with the pianist Paul Turner and performing in oratorios and concerts across Europe.

Career highlights include Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as performances of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Orff’s Carmina Burana with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Kent Nagano.

Sarah is a visiting singing teacher at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, where she teaches students of all levels, from Grade 1 to diploma. She is particularly interested in vocal pedagogy and has developed a strong understanding of healthy vocal production in both singing and speech, with a focus on helping each student find their own voice.

In addition to her teaching, Sarah works regularly with choirs as both a conductor and vocal coach, and gives well-received masterclasses. She is also a regular adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals, taking her across the UK, the Channel Islands and the Middle East.
Deborah Norris

Adjudicator, Dance

BA Hons, MA, FHEA

On graduating from Elmhurst Ballet School, Deborah continued her academic studies, gaining a BA Hons in Communication Studies and Dance from the University of Leeds and an MA in Dance Studies at De Montfort University, before receiving a scholarship to pursue her contemporary dance training at the Jose Limón Institute in New York. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, researching contemporary narrative ballet works through a feminist narratological lens.

As a choreographer Deborah has presented work internationally in both educational and professional settings, in contemporary, ballet and musical theatre genres. She founded Ballet Folk in 2019 to share her creative work, which has a narrative focus and is embedded in folk traditions and music from the British Isles.

As a dance educator she has taught at conservatoires in Taiwan, Slovakia, Lithuania and America. With a focus on contemporary ballet and Limón-based technique and choreographic practices, she has taught across the UK on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and as a lecturer at higher education institutions and vocational conservatoires.

Deborah is a committee member for Dance HE, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an All England Dance adjudicator, and Vice Chair and adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals.

She joined the Federation as a dance adjudicator in 2009 and has been constantly inspired by the wealth of artistic talent seen at festivals on an international scale each year. Deborah believes that arts education, performance and creativity are a vital part of our human existence, and that festivals offer a platform for performing artists to develop their artistic self.
Colin Lang

Adjudicator, Young Performer Award

Carl Alan Award 2003

Colin has been associated with the entertainment profession since leaving school, his career encompassing all aspects of the industry from opera to film and television, cabaret to musical theatre, summer seasons, trade shows and pantomimes. During his time as a performer he worked with industry figures including Alan Harding, Gillian Gregory, Carole Todd, Peter Van der Sloot, Ray Cornell and Anthony Johns.

He has been engaged in a wide range of roles from ensemble member to swing performer, dance captain to understudy, and was the original male lead of Danny Boy, which first launched Spirit of the Dance in America and onto the wider worldwide stage.

He has choreographed and restaged numerous productions including 11 pantomimes, 2 royal galas, 2 Shirley Bassey dinner and cabaret concerts, Pleasure Island and Flamingo Land theme park shows and Thomson Sun, and has been Resident Director and Choreographer for Spirit of the Dance on tour in the United States and Europe.

He continues to work for the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and has recently taken up a position as Associate Lecturer at Performers College.

As an adjudicator and workshop facilitator he has been employed by numerous dance awarding and governing bodies including the Association of American Dancing, the Allied Dancing Association, the International Dance Teachers Association, the Northern Counties Dance Teachers Association, the United Kingdom Alliance and the Theatre Dance Council International, as well as a range of independent festival organisers and dance schools across the country and abroad.

Colin received the Carl Alan Award for Professional Services to Dance in 2003 and looks forward to encouraging the next generation of performers.
Patricia Mulligan

Speech and Drama adjudicator

Patricia has been involved in the festival movement from an early age, performing in festivals and feiseanna all over Ireland. She trained at Trinity College London and has undertaken further training in lighting, organising the school play, movement and dance, make-up, mime and public speaking.

Patricia has taught in pre-school, primary, grammar and third-level education. She is also an examiner for the New Era Academy of Speech and Drama, London.

Patricia has produced plays and pantomimes and is the past director of ‘Stage Struck’, a summer musical theatre school. As well as being an adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals, Patricia runs her own speech and drama school, is the organising secretary for the Banbridge Performing Arts Festival and is past Chairman of the Banbridge District Arts Committee.

Patricia is an adjudicator member and Northern Ireland Representative for the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama.
George Logan

Speech and Drama adjudicator

Born in Northern Ireland, George became an adjudicator member of the British and International Federation of Festivals in 1983. Much of his career has been in education, working until 2015 mainly in the regulation and inspection of schools and children’s services in the UK, both maintained and independent. He is currently an accredited consultant in the UAE.

He became an examiner initially for the Poetry Society and, in 1989, for the Guildhall School (later Trinity-Guildhall, now Trinity College London). He examines widely across the British Isles and overseas in speech, drama and musical theatre, and also works as a moderator, examiner-trainer and reviewer for Trinity College.

Despite a busy working life, he enjoys adjudicating festivals at home and abroad.
Rosalind Taylor

Speech and Drama adjudicator

Rosalind trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and at the Laban Centre of Movement and Dance, London.

Rosalind has taught speech and drama for over thirty years and has led several large performing arts departments. She continues to deliver workshops at leading vocational schools and universities, both in the United Kingdom and internationally. In addition to her teaching credits, Rosalind has extensive experience in directing and creating original devised material for vocational and community outreach projects.

Rosalind has spent over twenty years working alongside award-winning choreographers with the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain, as a member of their Creative Team, drama coach and répétiteur. She continues to support their Beyond Ballet initiative for new and aspiring young choreographers.

Rosalind is an adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals, and a Senior Examiner and Team Leader for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Through her work she has travelled extensively, leading directorial, voice and LAMDA workshops in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain, Australia, Sri Lanka, East Africa, California and throughout Europe.