2026 Adjudicators
Meet this years adjudicators
Jenny Thornton
Speech & Drama
Jenny trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama gaining awards for Character Acting and for Most Promising Teacher. Jenny has led the performing arts teams in large comprehensives, been an Assistant Principal for Edexcel and a LAMDA examiner. She has run her own performing arts school to include drama, dance and musical theatre. She has written plays and one-off monologues and duologues.
Her play called “Gone” gained a Commended when performed at The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond as did her most recent play “Young Love”. She has been delighted that LAMDA chose pieces for their acting anthologies.
Jenny loves adjudicating and making it a very enjoyable and positive experience for all concerned.
“Drama is a life skill that changed me from a stuttering introvert to a confident individual. We can give our children no better opportunity.” - Jenny Thornton
Rebecca Vines
Speech & Drama
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 theatre 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 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.
Louise Manders
Speech & Drama
Louise first trod the boards when only five days old. Her professional theatrical career, which included repertory, musicals, television, films and touring within the UK began with Haymarket Stage Productions.
Louise is presently not only an adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals and the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, but is also an adjudicator member of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama. Her work takes her all over the UK as well as abroad.
Louise was Artistic Director of the Phoenix Youth Theatre in Southend, formerly the New Focus Theatre for many years.
She teaches all ages, including adults, and specialises in the LAMDA examinations. She runs workshops and master classes, directs plays, open air productions and musicals, devises original drama compositions, writes poetry and has written many musical plays for children and students. Louise even finds time to dance flamenco!
Elizabeth Emberson
Choirs and Singing
Soprano soloist, choral conductor and voice teacher, Elizabeth began singing lessons with Betty Middleton when she was eleven years old, and quickly established herself on the Festivals circuit in the North of England, winning many prizes in the process. At eighteen she went to the Guildhall School of Music, where she studied with Joyce Newton and Anna Berenska, spending a year on the Opera Course there.
Whilst at the Guildhall she won the English Song Prize, was a semi- finalist in the Susan Longfield Award and gained several scholarships for further study.
On leaving the Guildhall, she studied with Erich Vertheer and John Kitchener. Using her maiden name (Watson), Elizabeth’s singing career took her all over England, France and Eire, before she decided to concentrate on her teaching career.
She now teaches at two highly respected girls’ schools in Oxford.
Eva Maria Doroszkowska
Piano
Eva Maria is an international pianist whose dramatic and colourful interpretations have earned her high acclaim.
She enjoys a busy teaching and performing schedule which takes her round the world. She has appeared on BBC and Polish television and radio.
A keen interest in contemporary music, she has worked with two of the 20th Century’s finest composers, Gorecki and Per Norgard.
Eva is passionate about chamber music and enjoys giving masterclasses and workshops. She mentors for Young Talents and has been teaching at the Royal Academy Junior Department since 2001. She has enjoyed a varied life as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist and has performed at The Royal Opera House, St Martins in the Fields, Tivoli , Copenhagen and at the Buszko - Zroj Summer festival. She won a scholarship to study with Professor Jasinski at the Katowice Szymanowski Academy in Poland, also studying in Amsterdam, Holland and a travel bursary for Soloist Class in Copenhagen. She won a scholarship for her undergraduate studies at the Royal Northern where she completed both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
Alongside her performing, teaching and adjudication work, Eva Maria has worked closely with Alexander Technique for the last 15 years and is a freelance music journalist for International Piano.
Oliver Gledhill
Strings
Oliver Gledhill, cellist, was a Scholar at the Guildhall School of Music and won numerous awards including the ISTEL/Redditch Music Society Competition. He studied with many eminent cellists including William Pleeth, Edmund Kurtz and André Navarra. He has given acclaimed recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, including three in the Kirckman Concert Society Series. Festival appearances have included solo performances in England, France, Italy, Mallorca and the Czech Republic. Oliver has recorded nine CDs, including the complete works for cello by Léon Boëllmann, which was awarded five stars for performance by BBC Music Magazine, and has been played on the radio in Australia, Belgium and the USA, and W.H. Squire – Miniatures for Cello
and Piano for the British Music Society/Naxos, which was featured as John Brunning’s Drive ‘Discovery’ of the week on Classic FM, and followed a PhD at the Royal Academy of Music/University of London on W.H. Squire, his cello miniatures and the portamento.
Dr Gledhill teaches the cello at Junior Guildhall, in London, and is a member of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Research Ethics Committee. He also teaches for the Music Specialist School at City of London Academy Highbury Grove. He has edited music for Peters Edition and Durand. His published writings include articles and reviews for the Strad magazine and the British Journal of Music Education. Oliver Gledhill is an Examiner for Trinity College London, and as their cello syllabus consultant composed fifteen graded studies for the current TCL Cello Scales book. As an Adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals, he has adjudicated at over one hundred festivals, including the Finals of Music for Youth on five occasions. His pupil successes include Most Promising String Player awards at the Bedfordshire, Chelmsford, Hatfield, Southend and Watford Festivals, the winner of Junior Guildhall’s Lutine Prize 2020 and the only cello finalist in the Strings Category of BBC Young Musician 2020.
Philip Dewhurst
Woodwind, Brass and groups
Philip Dewhurst was born and educated in Bolton, Lancashire. He read music at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne under Professor Denis Matthews where he specialised in performance on the oboe. After finishing his degree, he completed a Post Graduate Certificate of Education and pursued a career in teaching. Philip has held several posts as Director of Music in prestigious independent schools in the North West most recently at Cheadle Hulme School, Cheshire from where he has recently retired.
Philip gives occasional recitals and enjoys orchestral and chamber music playing on a freelance basis. He has a passion for choral music and has conducted and directed
choirs & choral societies throughout his career as well as being musical director for many musicals and shows.
As well as adjudicating at music festivals around the country, Philip is an examiner for Trinity College London and an experienced GCSE and A level moderator.
Libby Crabtree
Singing
After graduating from Cambridge, Libby sang and recorded with The Sixteen and other leading Baroque ensembles for over 30 years. She now focuses on conducting, presenting workshops, and examining. She also teaches the choristers at St Mary’s Music School Edinburgh and runs adult courses in sight reading and musical theatre.
ABRSM examining, ten years’ experience as department Head of Music, and acting and singing on stage in London’s West End, have combined to give Libby an unrivalled breadth of expertise.