ADJUDICATORS FOR MORAY MUSIC FESTIVAL 2008
Biographies of the our prestigious adjudicators are at this time being processed and added.
Alan Fernie Brass Michael Johnson Music
Colin Touchin Music Donald Goskirk Scots Fiddle
Iain MacFadyen Piping Jean Martin Dance
Silvie Taylor Speech
ALAN FERNIE
Alan Fernie was born in the Scots mining village of Newtongrange. At the age of 13 he learned
to play trombone both at school and with the local brass band, and he went on to study music in
Glasgow and in London.
After a short period as an orchestral musician, Alan moved into instrumental education, spending
over 20 years teaching in schools all over the East of Scotland. It was during this time that he
began conducting, and he has since conducted bands at all levels, winning many awards.
He began writing for brass whilst still a student, and his music is now published, performed and
recorded throughout the world.
Alan now lives in the Scottish Borders, working as a freelance musician. He is principally a writer,
but also finds time to conduct, teach, perform, adjudicate, lecture and act as compere throughout
the UK and beyond.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Michael Johnson studied at the Royal College of Music, London where he gained diplomas in
Singing, Violin and Piano and a London B.Mus degree. His teachers included Hervey Alan for
singing, Antonio Brosa for violin and Herbert Howells and Anthony Milner for harmony.
For nine years, he was Director of Music at two schools before being appointed Chief Music
Manager for Leeds City Council in 1979. In Leeds, he founded and directed the Leeds International
Concert Season, at 250 concerts a year, Britain's largest local authority music programme.
During his eight years in the city, he was Executive Director of the Leeds International Piano
Competition, founder of the Leeds Conductors Competition and Director of the Leeds International
Film Festival.
Following his time at Leeds, Michael Johnson became General Manager of St David's Hall, Cardiff
and latterly Chief Executive of Plymouth Pavilions, a major new concert and conference centre in
the South West. Since 1994 he has been self-employed, engaged in a wide range of musical
activities including being Director of the Jacqueline de Pré International Cello Competition,
sponsorship consultant for IMG Artists and Administrator of the Southwell Minster Music Festival,
where for a while he was a Tenor Lay Clerk.
While working in the southwest, Michael Johnson was also Director of the University of Plymouth
Choral Society and the South West Chamber Choir. He still directs the West Devon Chorale in three
concerts a year in West Devon.
Much of his time presently is spent as an Examiner and overseas Co-ordinator for the Associated
Board and he has travelled to all parts of the world on exam tours. He teaches singing, violin and
piano at the University of Bath and is Director of West Wiltshire Music Limited. He is also a Mentor
for the Associated Board's CTABRSM TME courses for teachers.
Michael Johnson is an adjudicator member of the British and International Federation of Festivals.
COLIN TOUCHIN
Colin Touchin is a conductor, composer, clarinettist and recorder-player and
has been an adjudicator for thirty years.
During eight years at Chetham's School of Music ( including two as head of
Composition ) and almost fifteen as Head of Music at the University of Warwick,
Colin has a distinguished record of conducting, composing for, and encouraging
young musicians in orchestras, bands, and choirs.
With the University of Warwick Chamber Choir he has gained gold or silver
awards at almost every international festival entered including televised semi-
finals of Sainsbury's Choir of the Year in 2000, and performed with the London
Mozart Players and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. With wind ensembles from the University of
Warwick, Colin commissioned new works and gained many awards in the National Concert Band
Festival, including Gold at the Open Class Final in 2002; it is believed this award and the Choir's
competition record are unique for any British university.
He has founded several ensembles - including Warwick orchestral Winds, the British Universities
Honours Band and the National Youth Recorder Orchestra - and has conducted the National Youth
Wind Orchestras of both Britain and Luxembourg.
His compositions have been broadcast on national and local radio and television, and increasingly
he is in demand to write to commission, and to lead workshops in conducting, clarinet, recorder,
teaching and adjudication, having given such presentations now in over twenty countries.
He is Conductor of Derbyshire City and County Youth Wind Band, Musical Director of Warwickshire
County Youth Orchestra, a regular guest conductor of the Essex Chamber Orchestra, Associate
Conductor of London Charity Orchestra, and founder/conductor of Spires Philharmonic Orchestra
and Chorus in Coventry.
He has played a significant role in the activities of the British and International Federation of Festivals
during the last decade, including membership of the Core Team for the Festival of Festivals, and the
post of Vice-Chairman.
DONALD GOSKIRK
Donald Goskirk studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and from 1964-1971
played in the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Since then he has taught stringed instruments in schools
in Sutherland and has also worked as a choral conductor. His friendship with the late Hector
Mcandrew reflected his lifelong interest in Scottish music.
IAIN MACFADYEN
Iain MacFadyen comes from a piping background - four brothers and a sister all played - and now
his own son and daughter are following the family tradition. He served in the Queen's Own Cameron
Highlanders from 1957-1960 and has won every major award in piping.
He has been teaching in Skye and Lochalsh since 1973 and in 2003 was made a Fellow of the
Educational Institute of Scotland for his services to piping in schools.
JEAN MARTIN
Jean Martin is enjoying having more time to dance and teach, now that her term of office as Chairman
of the RSCDS is long past. She began Scottish Country Dancing during her schooldays and has been a
member of Aberdeen Branch of the Society since the mid '60s. Her first experience of teaching
Scottish country dancing was in Swaziland when she and her husband were working there.
She has taught a range of classes in Aberdeen, where she has also had a long involvement with
demonstration teams and festival work, both as a dancer and as an instructor. Jean has taught at
RSCDS Winter and Summer Schools and at day and weekend schools elsewhere in the UK, and
overseas.
Recently, Jean was appointed as an examiner for the RSCDS. She is looking forward to meeting the
dancers at the Moray Music Festival.
SILVIE TAYLOR
Silvie Taylor is from Broughty Ferry and has been a member of the British and International
Federation of Festivalsfor over thirty years.
After teaching privately, she opted for the greater flexibility offered by adjudicating and this
has taken her throughout the UK, to Canada, Zimbabwe and on many occasions to Hong Kong.
Large or small, she enjoys them equally and looks forward to this return visit to Elgin.
She is currently President of the Scottish Association of Writers, contributing articles, fiction
and book reviews to a variety of magazines. "There hasn't been a time," she says, " when I haven't
been fascinated by words, be they spoken, written or read, and I try to share this enthusiasm with
all age groups."