2025 Adjudicators

Mark Wildman received his early formal musical education at The King’s School, Gloucester and as a chorister in Gloucester Cathedral where he studied and sang under Dr Herbert Sumsion. Later, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music under the guidance of Henry Cummings, Rex Stephens and later with Rupert Bruce Lockhart. He was awarded the Westmorland Scholarship, the Recital Diploma and the Frederick Shinn Fellowship. His career began as a Choral Exhibitioner at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, where he sang for three years which was followed by a similar period with the BBC Singers with whom he travelled and performed world-wide.

2013 marked Mark’s fortieth and final season on the concert platform as a recitalist and soloist in Oratorio. His final public concert was in Huddersfield Town Hall with the Huddersfield Choral Society and the Royal Northern Sinfonia in Handel’s Israel in Egypt, forty years after his debut in there. He performed throughout Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles and the USA, with many of Britain’s foremost orchestras and with several leading conductors of the day, among them Gennadi  Rozhdestvensky, Sir Neville Marriner, Meredith Davies, Donald Hunt, Michael Gielen, Jane Glover, Iain Ledingham, Christopher Robinson John Sanders and Sir David Willcocks, he now devotes himself entirely to teaching and working with young singers at both the Royal Academy of Music in London, and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where he joined the staff of the School of Vocal and Opera Studies in September 2023.

In 1981 he was appointed as a professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music and subsequently as Head of Vocal Studies in 1991, a position from which he retired in August 2017 He continues to teach undergraduate, postgraduate and operatic students at the RAM. He has taught prize winners in the most prominent British singing awards: Cardiff Singer of the World, the Jette Parker Young Artists’ programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Awards, Royal Overseas League, National Mozart Competition, Kathleen Ferrier Bursary and others. Many of his current and former students are now singing principal roles with national and international opera companies including La Scala Milan, the Bolshoi, Moscow, St Petersburg, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Paris, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He is a much-travelled adjudicator and has served as a jury member at several international singing competitions. He has visited Holland, Germany, USA, Iceland, and France to give Masterclasses. He has been a visiting Professor at the Reykjavik Songskolinn, Iceland. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1994 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1995, and a Professor in the University of London in 2013. He was twice elected President of the RAM Club and in August 2017, upon his retirement as Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, the Principal conferred upon him the title of Henry Cummings Distinguished Professor of Singing. In 2021 he was honoured and proud to receive the Sir Charles Santley Award from the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

Emma Bell offers an unrivalled dramatic intensity on the opera stage, capable of conveying raw emotion with remarkable clarity and bringing each of her characterisations convincingly to life.  In recent seasons she has made several impressive debuts including at Osterfestspiele Salzburg as Venus in Romeo Castellucci’s staging of Tannhäuser under Andris Nelsons, at Bayerische Staatsoper as Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) under Kirill Petrenko, at Deutsche Oper Berlin as both Elisabeth and Venus (Tannhäuser) under Sebastian Weigle, at Opernhaus Zürich as Leonore (Fidelio) under Markus Poschner and at Staatsoper Hamburg as Elsa (Lohengrin) under Simone Young.

Making the transition from Mozart’s leading ladies, with whom she established her operatic career, to Wagner’s heroines has cemented Bell’s reputation as one of Britain’s finest dramatic sopranos with The Scotsman praising her performance as Elisabeth, under Sir Donald Runnicles, at the 2023 Edinburgh International Festival with “Bell was sensational as the devout self-sacrificing ‘angel’, giving a powerful, highly emotional and moving performance.”

Bell was acclaimed for performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg) conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano,  Madame Lidoine (Dialogues des Carmélites) under Sir Simon Rattle, Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) under Harmut Haenchen and the Foreign Princess (Rusalka) conducted by Semyon Bychkov with her appearances as Strauss’ Arabella at Oper Köln under Stefan Soltesz, and her unforgettable portrayal of Barber’s Vanessa in Keith Warner’s celebrated production under Jakub Harůša at the Glyndebourne Festival bringing considerable further praise. 

Other key moments in Bell’s enduring career have included performances as Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), Elettra (Idomeneo) and Donna Elivira (Don Giovanni) at Teatro alla Scala, and as Contessa Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) and Donna Elivra at the Metropolitan Opera.  In works by Britten, she has appeared in The Turn of the Screw at Teatro Real, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, The Dallas Opera and Staatsoper Unter den Linden, as Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes) at Teatro la Fenice conducted by Juraj Valčuha and in Daniel Kramer’s innovative staging of War Requiem at ENO under the baton of Martyn Brabbins.

Equally known for her work on the concert platform, upcoming performances include the role of Elizabeth I in the Spanish premiere of Brett Dean’s In spe contra spem with Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España under Jaime Martín and Una poenitentium (soprano II) in Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner.

Recent concert highlights include the world premiere of In spe contra spem with the London Philharmonic conducted by Edward Gardner and Leonore in concert at the Edinburgh International Festival with Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Donald Runnicles. A tour of Britten’s War Requiem with Orchestre de Paris and Daniel Harding included performances in Paris, Vienna and Edinburgh and there have been performances as Magna Peccatrix (soprano I) in Mahler’s Symphony No.8 including with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (Lan Shui) and Bergen Philharmonic (Gardner).  She sang Matilde in Mascagni’s Silvano in staged concerts at Scottish Opera under Stuart Stratford and her portrayal of Freia in concert performances of Das Rheingold with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder is released on the Hallé label.  In core works such as Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, Bell has appeared regularly including with Gothenburg Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under esteemed conductors including Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, Gianandrea Noseda and Sir Antonio Pappano.

Emma Bell trained at the Royal Academy of Music and is a former winner of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award.

Gillian Keith is a British-Canadian soprano and a past winner of both the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award and the ROSL Singing Prize, and a distinguished graduate of the Royal Academy of Music. She made her Royal Opera debut as Zerbinetta in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, and has sung with leading companies through the UK, Europe and North America. Celebrated roles include Poppea (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Philine in Thomas’ Mignon, Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante, The Woodbird (Siegfried), and Pretty Polly (Punch and Judy).  Her concert repertoire is wide and varied, and has taken her to some of the most prestigious stages around the world, including the BBC Proms, Boston Symphony Hall, Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Festival and London’s Wigmore Hall, in diverse repertoire from Bach Cantatas to Oliver Knussen’s 2nd Symphony. Her recordings include the role of Zerbinetta, Dallapiccola Orchestral Songs, Bach Solo Cantatas, Handel’s Gloria, Nine German Arias, and Messiah, Mozart’s C Minor Mass, and recitals of Debussy, Strauss and Schubert. In 2000 she performed throughout John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage and can be heard as a soloist on several of the landmark recordings for his label Soli Deo Gloria.  Known for her beauty of tone, intelligent musicianship, engaging recitals, and charismatic stagecraft, she has a large discography and exciting performance diary with recent highlights including Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Coraline with Royal Opera, Tom Randle’s Love Me To Death for Tête-á-Tête Festival, Haydn’s Creation in Southwark Cathedral, and Hansel & Gretel at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. 

More information at www.gilliankeithsoprano.com

Elizabeth Muir-Lewis has a varied and long career in music.

After studying at the Royal College of Music and in Vienna, she sang as soloist in many European countries, and in the USA, where she sang with the Boston Opera, Washington Symphony, Chicago  Symphony, She began her career singing with the Glyndebourne opera company. 

Later she diverted into conducting, forming the Eastbourne Choral Society, which she directed for ten years, taking the choir on three European tours.

A well known teacher and coach, she also has published three books, one about her life with the great British tenor, Richard Lewis "When the Last Note Sounds"

Next year Elizabeth will conduct  Mozar'ts "Requiem" with the choir she founded, the Eastbourne Choral Society.