Adjudicators for 2012

Dancing

Margo Priestley

Margo Priestley began Scottish Country Dancing at Primary School in Fife. She moved to Edinburgh and in 1970 joined the Edinburgh Branch. As a member of the demonstration team she competed at festivals, danced in the Branch Show 'An Edinburgh Fancy' and took part in trips overseas.

Margo gained her teaching certificate in 1977 and started going to Summer School at St Andrews. Since then she has taught all levels of classes for the Branch and also at many day schools at home and abroad as well as Summer School. Margo is currently an examiner and Schools Director for the RSCDS.

Music

Marilynne Davies (Piano/Vocal/Choirs)

Biography to follow.

Stephen West (Woodwind)

Biography to follow.

Graham Dickie (Songs from the Shows)

Graham studied piano, singing and conducting at the RSAMD. On graduating from the Opera School he was appointed the youngest professional MD in Britain to the newly formed Independent Opera conducting Macbeth and La Boheme. Whilst based in London his credits as a conductor and vocal coach were with D'Oyly Carte Opera, English National Opera.

In 1981 he returned to Scotland to join the music staff of Scottish Ballet conducting Swan Lake, Napoli and Romeo and Juliet. He also worked as avocal coach/repetiteur for Scottish Opera and conducted sixteen full-scale operas for Glasgow Grand Opera. He still has his own company based in Glasgow, The Singers Company. He has also been MD to over twenty-five musicals including Scottish professional premieres of Sondheim's Into the Woods, Ahrens and Flaherty's Suessical and Once on this Island and Danish premieres of Chicago and Godspell.

As a performer he has sung professionally in opera, summer seasons, pantomime, cabaret and frequently on television and radio. In musical theatre his roles have included Arvide in Guys and Dolls, Curly in Oklahoma (Leicester Haymarket), Tony in West Side Story and Freddie in My Fair Lady.

Graham has been involved with the Dance School since 1983 and in 1998 founded and established the National Musical Theatre Course.

As a guest teacher his work has taken him to a number of national colleges of performing arts including RSAMD, Guildford School of Acting, Arts Educational Schools, The International School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen, The First World Children's Festival in Japan and The McDonald College of Performing Arts in Sydney Australia.

Andrew Sherwood (Strings)

Biography to follow.

Jim Smith (Brass)

Biography to follow.

Adjudicators for Percussion/Clarsach/Traditional are yet to be announced.

Final Concert

James MacMillan CBE

The Ayrshire Music Festival is delighted to announce that one of today's most successful living composers, James MacMillan CBE, will be adjudicating the Final Concert of the 2012 Ayrshire Music Festival. James MacMillan was born in Kilwinning in 1959 and lived in Cumnock until 1977. As a pupil at Cumnock Academy, James MacMillan competed in the Ayrshire Music Festival in 1973.

Biography to follow.

Speech and Drama

Margaret Tomlinson

Biography to follow.