Adjudicators 2025
PIANO: Timothy Barratt studied on a Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, winning many major awards, and completed his studies with Vlado Perlemuter in Paris and Geoffrey Parsons. He has toured and broadcast extensively in the UK and abroad as soloist, accompanist and chamber music player. Whilst still a student he developed a special interest in song accompaniment through playing for Masterclasses at Aldeburgh, subsequently partnering such artists as Dame Felicity Lott and Robert White. Teaching forms a major part of his musical life and he works with pupils of all ages and levels from beginner to post-graduate. He was Head of Keyboard at Dulwich College for almost 25 years whilst also teaching at the RAM and TCM and now pursues a busy freelance career. An ABRSM examiner since 1991, he is also a Trainer, Moderator and Mentor. Other work for the AB includes selecting the graded Piano pieces and presenting Seminars. He frequently directs Masterclasses for performers and teachers’ workshops in the UK and Far East and is in demand as a Competition and Festival adjudicator.
PIANO: Joseph Tong studied at Wells Cathedral School, Cambridge University and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Much in demand as a soloist, duo pianist and chamber musician, Joseph made his Wigmore Hall recital debut in 1997 as winner of the Maisie Lewis Young Artists Award and now gives regular recitals throughout the UK and Europe. He has been particularly associated with the piano music of Jean Sibelius, having recorded three discs of a complete cycle for the Quartz label to critical acclaim and performing regularly in Finland over recent years. Other recent projects have included a new commission from the British composer David Matthews, a set of Five Trees which Joseph premiered at the Three Choirs Festival in 2022. He also performed the new work at the Sibelius Museum in Turku as part of a collaboration with the Åbo University Foundation, and the third album of Sibelius’s piano music. He has performed at Wigmore Hall in London and at Music Festivals including Cheltenham, Buxton, York and Oundle as well as in Japan and USA.
He also performs regularly with his brother Daniel, having appeared on Radio 3’s In Tune together and giving recent piano duet recitals at Conway Hall in London, St David’s Hall Cardiff, and the Laidlaw Music Centre at the University of St Andrews. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 2008 and has been a music adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals since 2019. He tutors at Wells Cathedral School and is coordinator of the Wells International Piano Summer School. Joseph will also be joining the faculty of the Chetham’s International Piano Summer School in 2025 and has recently been invited to adjudicate piano prizes at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
SINGING: Belinda Mikhail
STRINGS: Andrew Sherwood
