Meet Our Adjudicators

Bill Dimmer was delighted to be asked to adjudicate our festival again.  He played trumpet with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, retiring in 2015.  He has also played with the Tommy Banks Band and The Plumber’s Union when they gave a command performance for the Queen at the 1978 Commonwealth Games.  He is a graduate of the University of Calgary and has studied in Denmark with the members of the Royal Danish Orchestra and in Chicago with members of the Chicago Symphony.  He is currently the music director and conductor of Nova Musica. He has also been active as an adjudicator and conductor.

He is host/narrator of the ESO’s Educational Concert Series, is a former director of MusiCamrose, and has been on the faculty of U of A, Grant McEwan/Alberta College Conservatory and Concordia College.  He is also an avid pilot

Miriam Mahood was also excited to be returning to Vermilion to help us re-establish our festival.  She is a music examiner who has examined music students from all over North America.  Since Covid began, she has examined 780 candidates, mostly from North America, but also from all over the world.  She has also adjudicated many festivals in Alberta.

She is a graduate of the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria, the Universities of Saskatchewan and Alberta and the Royal Conservatory of Toronto.  She has also served as music director, organist and choir director in various churches, most recently St. George’s Anglican.  For many years, she was the scholarship chair of the Johann Strauss Foundation.  Ms. Mahood also runs a very successful private piano studio dedicated to student success.

Judith Richardson is a soloist and teacher from Edmonton.  She studied at the University of Alberta, Western Board of Music and received a Higher Diploma in Opera from Pretoria, South Africa.  She has been a soloist with the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, and the Lethbridge and Red Deer symphonies.  She is a frequent participant in classical concerts in Edmonton with a variety of other performers.

She has performed frequently in the UK.  She has also given vocal and speech master classes at Chichester and at Rhodes University in South Africa.  She is a frequent adjudicator and masterclass clinician and teaches singing, piano and speech arts.  She is currently the president of the Edmonton Chapter of Singing Teachers. She is also on staff at Metro College for Continuing Education teaching music appreciation and speech arts.