ABRSM High Scorers’ Competition Adjudicator Panel Stewart Kempster Stewart Kempster was born in Chirk, North Wales and he began his musical life as a parish church organist and choir master. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Mark Wildman and Iain Ledingham and whilst at the RAM he won many prizes and awards and took part in several masterclasses and concerts. He has since performed much of the Bass operatic repertoire with many different opera companies both at home and abroad. Roles include Banco Macbeth, Don Basilio Il Barbieri di Siviglia, Lodovico Otello, Father Truelove Rake’s Progress, Zaccaria Nabucco and Ffion Mac Cumhail in William Sweeney’s Gaelic opera An Turus performed with the Paragon Ensemble. He received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Porgy Porgy and Bess and the four villain roles in Tales of Hoffman for Wexford Festival Opera. Stewart is an accomplished oratorio singer and he has sung with many of the major choirs and orchestras in the UK in the works of Handel, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Haydn’s Creation, the requiems of Mozart, Fauré and Verdi with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Opera Orchestra. He has sung all the major works of J.S. Bach and many of his church cantatas in the City of London Bach Cantata Series. Stewart appears on a number of CD recordings, including Leighton’s Hymn to Matter and the Duruflé Requiem with the National Youth Choir and the SNO and several recordings and broadcasts from Wexford Festival Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on Lyric FM, BBC Radio 3 and more recently world-wide in the popular live opera broadcasts to cinemas globally. He has recorded a number of film scores including the Academy Award winning soundtrack of the Lord of the Rings series of films working with the composer Howard Shore and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. His recent operatic work includes Leporello Don Giovanni, Sarastro Magic Flute and Superintendent Budd Albert Herring for the Opera Project and the Longborough Festival. Also with Diva Opera group, Colline La Bohème and Montorone Rigoletto and a European tour singing Raimondo Lucia and Dr Bartolo Barber of Seville taking him to many music festivals in France, Switzerland and Russia. He performed the role of Don Magnifico Cenerentola at the legendary La Fenice opera house in Venice. In recital Stewart has performed all over the UK and Europe and recently sang on the Isle of Bornholm, Denmark and in the Reid Hall Edinburgh where he performed the Songs of Travel by Vaughan-Williams. In 2012 Stewart was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), an award offered to past students of the Academy who have distinguished themselves in the music profession and made a significant contribution to it in their own particular field.

ABRSM High Scorers’ Competition Adjudicator Panel Muriel Phillips Muriel Phillips began her musical education in Bedford, England. She won a Junior Exhibition at the age of eleven to the Royal College of Music, studying both the Piano and the Violin. She later studied Piano at the Royal Northern College of Music and concurrently took a Music degree at Manchester University (the Joint Course). On leaving the RNCM, Muriel was awarded the Clifton Helliwell Memorial Prize. Muriel returned to the Royal College of Music in London as a Postgraduate Accompanist and won several major accompaniment prizes, becoming a Wall Trust Scholar. At the RCM, she gained her ARCM (PG) and was later awarded a ‘Geoffrey Parsons Junior Fellowship in Keyboard Accompaniment’, studying with John Blakely. She has performed widely as an accompanist in both the UK and abroad. Concert venues have included London, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, India, Sweden, Egypt, Cyprus and Berlin. Muriel accompanied James Rutherford in their Wigmore Hall debut and has also performed in recitals on cruise ships. She has performed in the presence of HRH the Prince of Wales on a number of occasions and accompanied singers at a dinner commemorating Placido Domingo’s twenty-five years at the Royal Opera House. Muriel is in demand as an accompanist for recitals, competitions, choral societies and a wide variety of audition work. She was Head of Piano at Charterhouse School in Surrey and taught Piano at Eton College in Berkshire. She has also taught and given masterclasses in the USA. Muriel has been an ABRSM Music examiner for many years and also has roles as a Trainer and Moderator. Her current busy examining schedule has included many tours to international venues, with several invitations to Coordinate the Group Tours. She also examines the Jazz Syllabus and Diploma level candidates.

ABRSM High Scorers’ Competition Adjudicator Panel Ryan Lewis Ryan Lewis is a pianist, examiner and music educator from the UK. He is the South & East Asia Regional Consultant for ABRSM, having been based in Malaysia working for the board since 2013, with a role to help develop their work and support teachers across the region. Ryan graduated from King’s College London with first class honours and studied piano with Daniel-Ben Pienaar at the Royal Academy of Music. He also studied composition and piano at the University of Toronto, Canada, having been awarded the university’s highest entrance scholarship and sponsored to attend an educational conference for performers in Rome, Italy. Ryan holds a FRSM diploma in piano performance and has adjudicated for regional and international piano, strings, and choral competitions, including the Steinway Malaysia Youth Piano Competition and many more. He is also a graded music examiner and presenter for ABRSM, having conducted seminars and workshops across India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Ryan has delivered CPD programmes for music teachers in collaboration with Yamaha Music Malaysia and has recently completed a Master’s degree affiliated through the Institute of Education, University College London, passing with distinction and awarded the University of London Academic Achievement Prize. His research focussed on developing learning communities among private instrumental teachers. Prior to living in Malaysia, Ryan spent three years leading various music education projects in India, including curriculum development, teacher training, and outreach programmes, working in affiliation with the British Council, Goethe-Institut, and The Academy of Carnegie Hall, New York. In his senior role at Furtados School of Music, Mumbai, Ryan helped to launch nine music schools across the city as well as leading and training a team of over thirty music teachers. In preparation for this extensive project, he trained in piano and Kodály pedagogy from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. Ryan was also a trustee of the Worldwide Appreciation of Music Foundation, London, in which he governed a volunteer music teaching programme throughout India.

ABRSM High Scorers’ Competition Adjudicator Panel Karis Stretton A prize winner in the British Contemporary Piano Competition, Karis Stretton performs as a soloist and ensemble musician, focusing on music from the early twentieth century to the present day. She was a UK finalist for the European Music for Youth Piano Prize, for which she made her Purcell Room debut, and she has given concerts in many of the UK's principal venues, including St. John's Smith Square and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, as well as performing internationally. With an on-going interest in working with multimedia, such performances have included concerts at the Cultural Exchanges Festival (DMU Leicester), UHArts Mayfest and Transitio Mx Festival of Electronic Arts and Video, Mexico City. She composed the score for live piano for the silent film Dogged, an experimental short written and directed by Jo Shaw (Red Crow Productions) which was awarded Best Experimental Film at Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2012. As a recipient of the Sir Mark Turner Memorial Scholarship, she has been an artist in residence at the Banff Centre, Canada. Taking her first piano lessons at the age of nine, Karis went on to receive a scholarship for entry to Birmingham Conservatoire where she studied piano with Malcolm Wilson. She graduated first class having won awards for her solo playing as well as her performances as a chamber musician. She then took piano lessons at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Susan Alexander Max, who remained her tutor for a number of years. She received Master's in Music Performance from City University, London. In master-classes, Karis has worked with concert artists such as Hamish Milne, Martin Roscoe and Lambert Orkis. Retaining a keen interest in contemporary works, Karis has collaborated with composers and groups in a variety of projects. Examples include performing with B.E.A.S.T. (Birmingham Electro-Acoustic Sound Theatre) to give the world première of Mike Vaughan’s Collective Memories; working with The Music Collection and Jean-Jaques Dünki, giving the UK première of the Swiss composer’s keyboard quartet Tétraptéron; and on-stage performances of music for cello and piano specially commissioned for choreographer Charles Linehan's production of Rialto. She has recorded works by Andrew Hugill for the CD 'Pataphysical Piano as well as pieces by Cornelius Cardew, Howard Skempton, Dave Smith and Gabriel Jackson for a CD of solo piano works, Images and Impressions, released by UH Recordings. Karis has taught piano for the London Centre for Young Musicians and Uppingham School and she has been an associate lecturer for the Open University. She gives workshops for educational institutes and past events have included performance master-classes in schools and universities as well as lecture-recitals for WEA, in Derby Cathedral, and Birkbeck College, at Wigmore Hall.

ABRSM High Scorers’ Competition Adjudicator Panel Chi Hoe Mak Chi Hoe enjoys a varied career as an award-winning singer, choral conductor, adjudicator and clinician. He received double Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance and Choral Conducting, both with Distinctions and the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Performance from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the UK. He was named one of Birmingham’s ‘New Generation Artists’ in 2008. At college, he won all the major conducting prizes including the 2009 and 2010 Michael Beech Conducting Awards and the prestigious Principal’s Prize for ‘outstanding contribution to the musical life at the institution’. Winner of the 2015 Kakiseni Boh Cameronian Arts Award for Best Vocal Performance, Chi Hoe is in demand as a singer in opera, concert, recital and for consort work throughout Malaysia and abroad. He has sung as a soloist with all the major orchestras in Malaysia including several appearances with the Malaysian Philharmonic (MPO) and concert engagements have taken him to China, Indonesia, France, Germany, Singapore, Spain and throughout the UK. As a choral conductor, Chi Hoe is the first Asian conductor to win a prestigious conducting fellowship to work with the London Symphony Chorus in the 2010/11 season which launched his conducting career in the UK. He was appointed Resident Chorus Master at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire from 2009 - 2012 making his UK festival debut in 2011 as Chorus Master for the Lichfield Festival Chorus with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) where his work received much praise. He was also Chorus Master of the Birmingham Cathedral Festival Chorus, Birmingham City University Chorus, Chorus Mentor for the internationally acclaimed Birmingham Opera Company, Conductor of the Birmingham Junior Conservatoire Chamber Choir and a staff conductor with Canzonetta Children’s Choirs in Manchester. Chi Hoe is co-founder of the Malaysian Choral Eisteddfod (MCE), a member of the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) and the Malaysian Choral Federation. He is also Artistic Director of Young Choral Academy and Principal Artist and Resident Chorus Master for Kuala Lumpur City Opera (KLCO).

ABRSM High Scorers’ Competition Adjudicator Panel Gillian Oswell Gillian Oswell, born and raised in Kent, England, started playing the piano at six years of age and gained her LRAM whilst still at school. She then went on to study Piano and ‘Cello at the Royal Academy of Music with Alexander Kelly and Philip Jenkins where she gained her LGSM and GRSM(Hons). Whilst at RAM, Gillian began teaching piano for the Inner London Education Authority which sparked a lifelong interest in communicating her love of music to others. She is a fully qualified teacher and has enjoyed a long and varied teaching career that comprised of domestic postings in Suffolk and in and around London, including on the String Training Programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Gillian also gained overseas experience teaching in Brussels. Teaching has been both class and individual lessons in the public and the private sectors. Gillian has performed all over the UK as a soloist, accompanist and orchestral musician including concerts at the South Bank, St John’s Smith Square and The Royal Albert Hall. She has also travelled extensively teaching and performing in many countries globally. She also adjudicates Music Festivals on behalf of the British and International Federation of Festivals.

ABRSM High Scorers’ Competition Adjudicator Panel Steve Dixon Steve Dixon is a saxophonist, pianist and music educator from the UK. He is the South & East Asia Regional Development Executive for ABRSM covering Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Macau. Steve graduated from the University of Bath UK (B.A Hons, Music) and completed his postgraduate studies at the University of Durham UK, where he gained a PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in Education) in Secondary Music Teaching. Steve has spent many years working as Head of Academic Music at International Schools in Malaysia, Oman and the UK. As choral director of several choirs, he has organised many overseas events, taking hundreds of choral students on tours around the world, performing in Notre-Dame Cathedral (Paris), The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (New York), St. Paul's Cathedral (London), York Minster and Durham Cathedral (UK), Disneyland (France) in addition to many other superb concert venues in Europe, The USA and Asia. Steve has also worked as an examiner for GCSE/A-Level Music (AQA & Edexcel), is a member of The UK Association for Music Education (formally N.A.M.E) and has had the pleasure of adjudicating music competitions throughout his career. In his role as head of music in Asia, Steve was a member of FOBISIA (Federation of British International Schools in Asia) and gave students many opportunities for collective music making via workshops and concerts in Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore and Jakarta. Steve was Musical Director for several school productions including: Les Miserables, We Will Rock You, Fame, West Side Story, Little Shop of Horrors, Bugsy Malone, and has been a conductor of orchestras, wind bands and choirs throughout his career. Steve is excited to be part of the adjudicating team at this year's High Scorers’ Competition and is honoured to be listening to such a vast array of talent here in Kuala Lumpur.

ABRSM High Scorers’ Competition Adjudicator Panel Mim Poingdestre Mim graduated from Trinity College of Music in London having studied both piano and clarinet. Her career has been long and varied covering wide portfolio of musical disciplines. As well as examining for ABRSM, Mim's teaching has encompassed class music , pre-school music programmes, private students (including adults), and ensemble coaching. She has directed youth choirs in her work in schools, as well as bands and orchestras, working with both adults and children. Mim is an experienced accompanist and has worked with a variety of instrumentalists and singers. She has been concerto soloist and orchestral principal on numerous occasions ,and has travelled extensively with her music. Mim has a keen interest in jazz and plays saxophone in the Jersey big band, as well as the Jersey Saxophone Quartet. Mim has three grown up children and lives with her husband in Jersey in the Channel Islands. In her spare time, she loves to swim and surf and is a qualified lifeguard.

ABRSM High Scorers’ Competition Adjudicator Panel Richard Lewis Richard was awarded an Open Scholarship to read music at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied for three years under, amongst others, Richard Marlow and Hugh Wood. In his first year he was awarded the only First Class in his year and in his third year he was awarded an Open Exhibition. He graduated with a BA (Hons) Cantab in 1981 and was awarded an MA in 1985. In 1982 he was awarded a PGCE for specialist teachers of music from Gipsy Hill College in Kingston. He started playing the French Horn at the age of 8 and when 14 he joined the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, where he stayed for four years, playing under conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Simon Rattle and Charles Dutoit. When he left he joined the Jeunesse Musicale World Orchestra. He has played in a number of professional orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Scottish Ballet Orchestra and the Yorkshire Sinfonia and ccontinues to play professionally. Richard started playing the piano at the age of 6 and gained Grade 8 with Distinction when aged 13. Whilst at Cambridge he started to give recitals and developed a speciality in accompanying. He continues to give recitals and to play professionally. Whilst at Cambridge he sang in the Trinity College Choir and was a Visiting Exhibitioner in the Jesus College Choir. He also won the University Prize for Composition with his ‘Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis’, which was performed by the Choir of King’s College under Philip Ledger. He continues to compose and arrange and his recent work has been performed by, amongst others, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He was a teacher in secondary schools for 20 years, 14 of them as Head of Department. He was Director of Music at Langley Park School for Boys, Head of Music at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School and Head of Music at Poole Grammar School. On leaving the classroom he became an instrumental teacher for Devon Youth Music and Somerset Music, teaching brass and piano. Richard has conducted a number of professional ensembles, including the Band of the Coldstream Guards, the Royal Artillery Band and the Band of Kneller Hall, at venues including the Royal Albert Hall and the Fairfield Halls, Croydon. Richard is a grade, diploma and jazz examiner. As well as examining in the UK, he has examined in almost 40 different countries, in Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia, as well as in India, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, the USA and the Caribbean.