Announcing the Competitions 2021 Adjudicators
We’re excited to announce our Competitions 2021 adjudicators, featuring some leading lights of the flute world. They’ll be judging all shortlisted performances and providing individual feedback - to be in the running, enter the Competitions by this Sunday 14th (midnight GMT).
School and Young Performer adjudicators
Celebrated for the ‘voice-like beauty’ of her playing, Mexican-American flutist and soprano Beatriz Macias is emerging as one of the most versatile figures in the scene of classical music. Macias made her solo debut at the age of eighteen at the prestigious D.A.R. Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Shortly after, she was named a Young Performing Artist by the Yamaha Corporation of America.
Macias’ career has taken her around the world. She has held the Principal Flute position in the Luxembourg Chamber Orchestra and has appeared with numerous orchestras including the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Dutch National Ballet & Opera Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Royal Opera House ‘La Monnaie’, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Tampere Philharmonic, Finnish National Opera, Birmingham Royal Ballet Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony, to name a few. Macias is the founder and Artistic Director of the Tampere Flute Fest in Finland.
Ian won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Sebastian Bell and Jaime Martin. Whilst at college he played Principal flute & piccolo with European Union Youth Orchestra and made his professional debut with Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 2000. Since leaving college Ian has performed as guest Principal Flute with many of the UK’s leading orchestras including London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Mozart Players, English National Opera, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra & BBC National Orchestra of Wales to name but a few…
He has also recorded in Abbey Road studios with London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras on numerous occasions for TV and Film projects. Ian has achieved more than 450,000 hits with his short teaching videos on You Tube in collaboration with Trevor James Flute and his given master classes at Royal Academy of Music, Cheethams & Wells Cathedral Schools as well as extensively throughout the UK, USA and Japan. He is in great demand as an Orchestral player, Soloist, Teacher and Commercial Musician. In 2011 he was awarded an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM).
Young Artist adjudicators
Anna Garzuly-Wahlgren is professor for flute and chamber music at two renowned Music Universities in Germany, Weimar and Leipzig. She was longstanding principal flutist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig following her studies in Budapest, Munich and New York. She is a valued international soloist and chamber musician, and prizewinner of a number of major international music competitions including in Geneva, Scheveninge, Kobe, Markneukirchen and Budapest. Her solo performances include concertos with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt and Riccardo Chailly. As a chamber musician she worked with the Sabine Meyer Ensemble, the Linos Ensemble, the Gewandhaus Octet, the „armonia“ Ensemble, the Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum and the Munich and Leipzig Chamber Orchestras among others. Her versality in music styles and the colorfulness of her playing is recognised internationally, and she appears on several acclaimed orchestra and chamber music recordings. Anna is a founding member of the renowned Leipzig Flute Ensemble ‘Quintessenz’.
Thomas Hancox is co-principal flute of Britten Sinfonia, principal flute of Northern Ballet, and works regularly as guest principal flute with other of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, English National Opera, and English Chamber Orchestra, amongst others. Solo and chamber work has led to collaborations with artists and ensembles including the Allegri and Sacconi string quartets, Trevor Pinnock, and Jeremy Denk.
Thomas read Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford, from where he graduated with a first, before pursuing further studies in Paris with Patrick Gallois, and subsequently at the Royal Academy of Music with Paul Edmund-Davies and Samuel Coles, finishing with a distinction and the honorary DipRAM. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2019.
Adult Amateur adjudicators
Stephen Clark enjoys a busy international career having given recital and concerto performances in 127 countries. A winner of several international competitions including 1st prize at the Alexander & Bueno International Flute Competition in New York, 1st prize at the IMKA Music Competition in Sarajevo and recipient of the Sir James Galway Rising Star Award, Stephen studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Royal Northern College of Music and in Switzerland and America with Sir James Galway. He made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2018. As an orchestral player, he has worked as Guest Principal flute with orchestras in the United Kingdom, USA, Portugal, Spain and Vietnam. In great demand as a teacher, Stephen has given masterclasses around the world. Stephen has released 2 solo albums and in 2015, was endorsed into the Recording Academy of America. He is author of “The Flute Gym” and is a Yamaha Artist.
Dr Atarah Ben-Tovim MBE Hon D MUs ARAM
As an Ex-Chair of the BFS, Atarah some twenty years ago helped create this event which has produced some very fine flautists, who now play or teach in many countries, so she is delighted to be adjudicating this one.
Although her own career was always in the professional sector, performing almost all the major concertos with great conductors, and broadcasting much chamber music and solo flute repertoire on the BBC, she also found time to adjudicate competitions in several countries. Since leaving the orchestra, she has specialised for the last thirty years in teaching adult amateurs from late starters to LRAM level, both one-to-one and at her residential courses in Bloxham and at her converted French farmhouse near St Emilion.
