The 2027 Oundle Festival of Music & Drama will continue its proud heritage of offering competitive performance opportunities to all, with this year being our 108th Festival.
The Festival is open to all amateurs and welcomes performers of all ages in music, speech and drama. Performers are invited to compete in a variety of classes.
Adjudicators
Elizabeth Childs
Principal Instrument: Flute
Liz studied Flute with Gareth Morris and Piano with Graeme Humphrey at the RAM and has performed all over the world. Her varied career includes performing with Quintessimo, adjudicating at both home and abroad and was visiting Flute Teacher for the University of East Anglia when it had a full time music department. Liz is very comfortable adjudicating virtually/online and has already undertaken some of these classes and really enjoyed them.
Liz is founder and Musical Director of the Bedfordshire Woodwind Academy (www.bedfordshirewoodwind.co.uk) which includes the Bedfordshire Woodwind Academy Flute Ensemble which is thriving having undertaken 3 European concert tours with a more extensive one proposed for 2021. Liz is Flute/Piano/ Ensemble teacher at Beechwood Park School in Markyate, Hertfordshire a role that she thoroughly enjoys on many levels.
Liz is passionate about her work as an Adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals, regarding it a real privilege to be able to encourage and inspire performers. She believes that a positive experience at a Federation Festival can change a performer’s life forever. It did hers !
Susan Clark
Susan attended the Trinity College of Music Junior Department for ten years, then continued her studies at Cambridge and successfully completed a Post-graduate Diploma in performance at the Royal College of Music.
She has appeared at many major London concert venues and throughout the country as a soloist, accompanist and given concerto performances in Harrow and Lincoln.
Susan teaches at Merchant Taylor’s School and Latymer Upper School and the Royal Masonic School for Girls and is London based. She examines for the Associated Board in the UK and internationally and is an adjudicator for The British and International Federation of Festivals.
Susan has had three articles about teaching techniques published in the Music Teacher magazine and has published her own music theory book to help students prepare for their grade 5 theory exams.
Ben Costello
Ben is an artistic director, musical director and singing coach, working nationally and internationally. He is Artistic Director and Company Secretary of Thames Concerts, Artistic Director of the City Music series, a generalist music adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals, and a music examiner, consultant and recording artist for LCM Exams.
A specialist in musical theatre and vocal performance, Ben has been musical director for numerous productions across the UK, and a reflective product of this has been his continuing work as a musical director and singing teacher (incorporating Estill and Bel Canto) at the cutting edge of performing arts training in London, with his portfolio over the years including Arts Ed, Mountview Academy, Trinity Laban, Laine Theatre Arts, Italia Conti, Guildford School of Acting, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the Royal Academy of Music, Drama Studio London, and the London School of Musical Theatre. At these colleges his work has included teaching singing technique, portfolio, acting through song, audition technique, and auditioning thousands of prospective students. Countless of his former singing students enjoy successful careers in the West End and beyond. He also teaches singing at Tiffin Girls’ School.
Born and based in London, Ben trained initially as a flautist before majoring in piano, singing and conducting. He read Music at Kingston University and the London College of Music, subsequently joining the teaching staff as the College’s first resident MD.
Ben remains much sought-after as an accompanist, and collaborates in a variety of genres with countless singers and instrumentalists in many performing environments, working with several distinguished singers including Michael Chance CBE, James Bowman CBE, Roderick Williams OBE, Robin Blaze, Hugh Cutting, Alison Pearce, Joanne Lunn, Peter Savidge, Richard Suart, Lotte Betts-Dean and Mark Dobell. He is also one of the regular pianists for Cantabile (The London Quartet).
Ben is a Liveryman and on the Court of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He chaired the Company’s prestigious annual musical direction scholarship for eight years, and is presently Chairman of the Company’s Jazz Committee.
For the Federation, he is also an adjudicator mentor, and is a member of the interviewing panel for potential new music adjudicators. He was a member of the Adjudicators’ Council for 11 years, culminating in being elected Music Chairman, before stepping down in 2025.
Outside music, Ben is a keen motorcyclist.
Rebecca Vines
Rebecca read journalism at Cardiff University, during which time she wrote a weekly column for The Guardian newspaper. She continues to work for a range of publications as a features writer, ghost writer, and theatre critic.
Rebecca then studied as an actor at the London Centre for Theatre Studies; and her theatre credits include off-West End, Fringe, tour, educational theate and voiceover. Favourite roles include Maggie (Dancing at Lughnasa); Elizabeth (The Crucible); Beverley (Abigail’s Party); Madame Arcati (Blithe Spirit); Martha (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Rebecca trained as a specialist drama teacher at The Guildhall. She has taught in a range of primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions for the last twenty years; and is the Principal of her own drama school, which operates internationally. Rebecca’s pupils have been awarded places at major conservatoires and bodies such as RADA, LAMDA, Central, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall, Bristol Old Vic, Mountview, East 15, Guildford, AADA, Royal Birmingham, the Oxford School of Drama, National Youth Theatre, and the National Youth Music Theatre. Their work can be seen on the BBC, ITV, Sky, C4, E4, Netflix, Working Title, National Theatre, RSC, and with countless touring theatre companies in the UK and abroad.
Rebecca sits on the Adjudicator’s Council for the British and International Federation of Festivals; on the Awards Panel for the UKPA; and is a LAMDA, GCSE and A level examiner.
In 2014, Rebecca was awarded the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts in recognition of her work in the youth theatre sector. Rebecca is passionate about helping performers take their first professional steps, and helps emerging talents to form and manage their own theatre companies. As such, Close Up Theatre, No Prophet Theatre, and Eleventh Hour Theatre have all played to critical and commercial acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival: kickstarting careers and forging critical industry networking opportunities.
Rebecca’s productions have played to critical acclaim and commercial success at the Edinburgh Fringe since 2023. In addition to directing and producing over thirty thirty sell-out shows at the Fringe; Rebecca has adapted classics such as 1984, Jane Eyre, Emma, and Pride and Prejudice for the stage; and has written the original works More Myself Than I Am, Torn, Coward Conscience, and OTMA.
Rebecca is currently working on a PhD based around Shakespeare’s history plays; and she is passionate about inclusivity and diversity in the Arts, spending her free time ‘making things happen’ for people who would otherwise have no agency within the creative sector.