Adjudicators, 2025
We are delighted to welcome the following adjudicators to the Woking Music Festival in 2025.
Cally Foster, LLAM, FSTSD (Speech and Drama)
Since her first appearance in a festival at the age of five Cally has been committed to the festival movement and has pursued a career as a speech and drama specialist.
Cally was the principal of her Buckinghamshire-based drama studio for more than 20 years, combining that role with travelling extensively in the UK, Europe and internationally as an examiner for LAMDA and as an adjudicator. Cally also delivers workshops on all aspects of communication and performance.
She is an adjudicator member of the British and International Federation of Festivals, a former Speech and Drama Representative on the Adjudicators’ Council, and a former Chair of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama.
Cally believes performing in festivals not only encourages an appreciation of the Arts but also develops the communication and presentations skills so important in today’s world. Everyone should have an enjoyable as well as a positive experience.
Belinda Mikhaïl, BMus(Hons), PgDipRCM, ARCM, EMT (Piano)
Belinda Mikhaïl was awarded the Associated Board and the Queen Mother Scholarships to study piano and singing as a joint first study at the Royal College of Music where she won the Hopkinson Gold Medal for her final recital. She has travelled extensively performing both as a soloist and as a chamber musician and has appeared as a concerto soloist at the major London Concert Halls.
She has made numerous recordings for Sony BMG and Universal and is a vocal soloist on EMI’s Vocalise album as used in trailers for ER, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy. She appears as the featured soloist on many film soundtracks and her solo piano playing of the theme from Chariots of Fire was heard at every medal ceremony at the London Olympic Games.
Belinda is also in demand as a vocal coach for classical, musical theatre, pop and rock singers and runs an extensive private teaching practice. She has trained performers as diverse as Siouxsie Sioux, Jennifer Ellison, Jack Garrett, Cathy Tyson, the Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche, as well as the world-renowned dancer Akram Khan. Her students are enjoying major roles in theatre companies up and down the country as well as West End Shows such as Anything Goes, Chicago, Dreamgirls, Haddestown, Dirty Dancing, Book of Mormon and High School Musical, and the hit TV series’, Bridgerton, Downton Abbey and Broadchurch.
Lesley Shrigley Jones, GRNCM, LRAM, ARNCM(VcP), ARNCM(PfT/VcT), KA (Vocal and Choral)
As an Associated Board Scholar, Lesley studied ‘cello, piano, singing and viola da gamba at the Royal Manchester and Royal Northern Colleges of Music.
Later, awards from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and the King Edward V11 Foundation enabled her to join the Master Classes of Antonio Janigro and Paul Tortelier in Salzburg, Nice and Stuttgart, where she achieved the highest honours for performance.
Debut recitals in London, an invitation to join Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s avant garde chamber group, “The Fires of London”, and a standing ovation at the QEH for her performance of Vesalii Icones, led to concerts throughout the UK, Europe, Latin America and Canada. She has broadcast on BBC, ITV and French radio and appeared in BBC2’s Tortelier’s Master Class series.
Lesley’s broad vision of repertoire and skills has led to a wide range of musical partnerships. She has collaborated with dancers: Dance Umbrella Festival; organists, Robin Walker and Christopher Kent: a rich festivity of Bach; visual artist, Rachel Gadsden in: Shamal, a stirring evocation of survival: Russian pianist, Yekaterina Lebedeva in: Fusion: film, photography and music; and has appeared as guest artist on the QE2 and with the Choir of The Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace. Her recordings include Cello in Song with pianist Antony Saunders, and This Holy Earth, music by Charles Camilleri.
In tandem with her performance career, Lesley has for many years accompanied and taught cello and piano; coached both instrumentalists and singers; and developed aural training skills. In addition, she has mentored and examined for the Associated Board and adjudicated for The National Chamber Music Competition and the Deutsche Jugend Musiziert.
She has been an adjudicating member of the British and International Federation of Festivals since 2012
Rosie Whitfield, DipRCM, ARCM, PGCE (Instrumental)
As an experienced adjudicator member of The British and International Federation of Festivals, Rosanna is regularly called upon to adjudicate in the UK and abroad and has forged long-standing links with specialist music schools in Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Her positive, interactive adjudicating style inducing young musicians to participate, year on year.
Rosanna’s vast experience as a performer, teacher and presenter, teamed with an innate love of music, underpins her unstoppable drive as a dedicated campaigner for music in education. Her natural ability to both captivate audiences and inspire young musicians to achieve their dreams stems from an unquestionable belief that music can change lives.
As Director of Music at Whitgift School, Rosanna has devised educational projects for all levels of musician from beginner to advanced, and regularly presents interactive concerts and masterclasses to thousands of primary school pupils. A keen conductor and composer, she directed the world première of her work, The Gift, at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls in November 2012, involving over 300 performers.
Instrumental in developing the Whitgift International Music Competition in 2013, Rosanna continues to promote the outstanding benefits of the many musical projects offered by the school and supported by the Whitgift Foundation.
Rosanna was appointed as Head of Junior Guildhall Conservatoire from January 2020.