Competitions 2022 - Meet the Adjudicators
We’re thrilled to announce our Competitions 2022 adjudicators, who will be judging all selected performances and providing individual feedback. For full Competition details and to enter, just click below:
School and Young Performer categories
Dr. Julie Maisel, flutist, educator, and academic, moved to Dublin from Florida and has been a lecturer in flute performance at the TU Dublin Conservatoire since 2005. An active soloist and avid chamber musician, she has presented concerts in Ireland, the US, Sweden and England and has performed with orchestras both in the US and Ireland. Her published output can be found in such professional journals as Flute Talk and Flutist’s Quarterly.
She has performed in the Kaleidoscope Music Series, the Castleknock Music Festival, the Castletown Music Series, Lunchtime Concerts in Hugh Lane Gallery, St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London) and in the 2013, 2018 and 2020 National Flute Association Conventions in the US. In 2018 she released her debut CD, Flute Music of Luigi Zaninelli.
Daniel Shao
Daniel Shao is a British-Chinese flautist who studied at the Purcell School, Oxford University, and Royal Academy of Music, with Samuel Coles. He enjoys a varied freelance career, performing with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, Sinfonia Cymru and LSO, as well as coaching in a variety of settings. He has won awards such as the British Flute Society Young Artist, Oxford Philharmonic Concerto Competition, and Royal Overseas League Sussex Prize.
He enjoys new music and interdisciplinary collaboration, having studied contemporary techniques with Sophie Cherrier at Lucerne Festival Academy, and recently recorded a new work by Nico Muhly with soprano Heloise Werner for Delphian Records. As a founding member of Tangram, he works with other Chinese-associated artists to explore many issues, and the group recently received a Jerwood Arts Live Work Grant, Arts Council funding, and the George Butterworth composition prize for their experimental ‘anti-opera’ Ye Xian.
Young Artists category
Kersten McCall
Kersten McCall was born in Freiburg, Germany, and received his first flute lesson at the age of nine. He has been a student of Felix Renggli, Renate Greiss and Aurèle Nicolet and won prizes at several international competitions such as ARD Munich, Prague Spring and Kobe (1st prize). Kersten was principal flutist with the Radio Orchestra Saarbruecken between 1997 and 2006, and was appointed principal flutist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam in 2005.
Emer McDonough
Emer McDonough is Principal Flute of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, where she has served under the artistic directorships of Vasily Petrenko, Daniele Gatti and Charles Dutoit performing in many of the world’s leading venues. She was previously Principal Flute of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for whom she performed the British premiere of the Christopher Rouse Concerto in Marin Alsop's debut concert as Principal Conductor, and was also Principal of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been a regular concerto artist with each orchestra. Alongside her symphony orchestra appointments, Emer is Principal Flute of the Britten Sinfonia and is the flute player of the Haffner Wind Ensemble.
Emer has also enjoyed a varied career as guest principal with all major British orchestras including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the BBC orchestras, CBSO, English National Ballet, English National Opera, Halle, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Overseas, Emer worked with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Opera de Lyon, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. An Irish national, she studied flute with Doris Keogh at The Royal Irish Academy before moving to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where she studied with Peter Lloyd. Emer is professor at the Royal College of Music and has given masterclasses worldwide.
Adult Performers category
Dr Atarah Ben-Tovim MBE Hon D MUs ARAM
As an Ex-Chair of the BFS, Atarah some 20 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 30 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.
Growing up, Joss studied with some of the UK's leading flute professors; the main influences in her playing and technique being John Francis and Peter Lloyd. At 13, she debuted with The London Symphony Orchestra, playing a concerto with them in the Shell/LSO Scholarship competition.
After studying at Chetham's, Joss gained a scholarship to The Royal College, followed by further studies at The Guildhall. As a student, she gained 2nd prize in the wind finals of BBC's Young Musician, 2nd prize in the Shell/LSO Scholarship and was principal flute with the European Youth Orchestra. Her flute playing has taken her all over the world as soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, pit player and educator. Joss is based in London where her teaching is in great demand. She has recently written and published a series of flute warmup books, enthusiastically received by the flute community all over the world.
