Welcome to AFYM – Abertawe Festival for Young Musicians

Festival Adjudicators

Performing at AFYM provides the unique opportunity to receive expert feedback from our incredible team of world-class adjudicators. Expect supportive and thorough adjudication designed to take your technique for future performances to the next level.

Meet Our Adjudicators for 2024
Pam Wedgwood – AFYM 2024 Festival Adjudicator

Pam Wedgwood

An inspiration for teachers and pupils alike, Pam Wedgwood has been a staple diet for young musicians throughout the world for almost twenty years. She began her long association with Faber Music in 1988 with the highly acclaimed series Jazzin’ About, followed by the Up-Grade! series and It’s Never Too Late to Play Piano. Pam is recognised around the world as one the UK’s most prolific and successful composers of popular repertoire for young instrumentalists.

Born in 1947, Pam’s musical career began with the recorder and piano, and Tenor Horn and Euphonium through the brass band tradition at her school. She then took up the Cello and French Horn, entering Trinity College of Music in London to study Piano, Horn, Cello and composition at the age of sixteen.

After graduating she began a career as a professional French Horn player, working with the Royal Ballet Touring Orchestra, The Royal Opera, the BBC Concert Orchestra and many West End shows. Marriage and a young family led her to take up an appointment as a peripatetic instrumental music teacher in Surrey in the late 1970s, and she began composing pieces for her pupils.

In 1988 her long association with Faber Music began with the publication of Jazzin’ About, a series that now numbers over 30 books and has featured on many an examination syllabus. Since then her output has grown to over 200 books including the successful Up-Grade! and After Hours instrumental series, the recorder method RecorderWorld and the adult piano method It’s Never Too Late to Play Piano. In the UK she has led many workshops for the European Piano Teachers’ Association and has inspired teachers in workshops as far afield as Singapore and Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. Pam now concentrates on composing and teaching, though she is also a keen sportswoman and international traveller!

Haim Choi – AFYM 2024 Festival Adjudicator

Haim Choi

German-born South Korean violinist Haim studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music with Itzhak Rashkovsky. She has also received tutelage from Maxim Vengerov, Shlomo Mintz, Zakhar Bron, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Alfred Brendal, to name but a few.

Haim is a prize winner of many national and international competitions, including Seoul National Symphony, Kloster Schoental, Wieniawski and Lipinski International Violin Competitions and recently was awarded 1st Prize and Luigi Boccherini Award at the Virtuoso & Belcanto Chamber Music Competition, as a Violin & Piano duo. She was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal presented by HRH Prince Charles, as he then was.

New Class For AFYM 2024: Rehearse With The Adjudicator Conceived by last year's string adjudicator Haim Choi, this new class gives a small group of musicians the chance to rehearse with Haim, who will also play along with them in the final performance. Sign up now

Haim is a passionate chamber musician and has performed all over the UK and Europe. She is a founding member and 1st violinist of the Salome Quartet, which has been described as “strikingly intelligent and expressive” by The Strad, recognised for their heartfelt interpretations and electric communication, they are now regarded as one of the UK’s most exciting young string quartets. The Salome quartet is a multinational ensemble who met as students at the Royal College of Music in London. They have performed all over Europe and beyond at prestigious venues in Vienna, Saltzburg, Paris, London, Warsaw and Israel.

As an orchestral player she has performed regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, English Touring Opera, Glyndebourne Tour Opera and Sinfonia Cymru.

Some of her recent concerts include performances at the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Southbank and Barbican Centres, as well as multiple concerto performances with Thames Philharmonia and RCM Orchestra.

Haim has been appointed Cultural Ambassador of UNESCO Korea, and enjoys her teaching engagements at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Eton College.

Robert Plane – AFYM 2024 Festival Adjudicator

Robert Plane

Robert Plane has been a distinguished clarinettist for over 3 decades, his career as a solo and chamber clarinettist is rich and varied. He has performed a wide range of concertos in Europe, Asia and North America. He is a champion of new music as well as the classics, Rob is equally at home performing music ranging from Christian Jost’s concerto ‘Heart of Darkness’ to Finzi and Copland with the London Mozart Players. He has given the world premieres of concertos by Judith Bingham, Diana Burrell, Piers Hellawell and Mark Boden.

Robert has tirelessly pursued a particular passion for British clarinet music in concert and on award winning discs. He has performed and recorded with the Gould Piano Trio for thirty years, and their recording of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time to mark the composer’s centenary was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as the ‘finest modern recording’ of this epic masterpiece.

Rob has explored the clarinet quintet repertoire with many of the finest string quartets. He has given concerts in Germany and the USA with the Mandelring Quartet and at home in the UK with, amongst others, the Marmen, Castalian, Maggini, Brodsky, Heath, Solem, Carducci, Sacconi and Callino Quartets.

Rob is clarinettist of Ensemble 360 and enjoys exploring chamber music of all kinds with them at their home in the Crucible, Sheffield and country-wide. Rob has enjoyed a thirty-year long relationship with the Royal Over-Seas League since winning the competition’s Gold Medal in 1992, highlights of which have included a recital tour of New Zealand and a gala performance of Bruch’s Double Concerto with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka in Colombo as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Rob was principal clarinet of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for over twenty years and also with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia. He has performed with many orchestras including Aurora Orchestra’s performances of Brahms 1 from memory. He holds the post of Head of Woodwind Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Philippa Harrison – AFYM 2024 Festival Adjudicator

Philippa Harrison

Praised for her ‘sympathetic and pristine playing’, Philippa Harrison has an extensive and varied career performing as soloist and chamber musician throughout the UK and abroad.

Philippa is a champion of contemporary and neglected music, having commissioned and premiered a large number of works with the Albany Trio and Willshire Duo, and has recently released her first recording of a critically acclaimed collaborative disc of solo piano music with the Prima Facie label.

Philippa’s versatility in music is shown by the variety of work she does, from her children’s workshop leadership initially through Live Music Now and more recently through invitation, to her role as Head of Keyboard at The King's School, Gloucester and frequent commissioning of new music. Alongside her teaching and performing roles, Philippa is the Regional Organiser for Epta Gloucestershire, and a joint piano secretary for the Cheltenham Performing Arts Festival.

Philippa is also a founder member of the Christian Musicians’ Collective, organising concerts in churches around the UK for herself, and many other musicians in the Collective.

Philippa studied at Chetham’s School of Music before pursuing her training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After finishing her Masters degree, she was awarded the Richard Carne Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music with the Albany Trio. She is a Park Lane Group and Concordia Artist.

www.pippaharrison.com

James Willshire – AFYM 2024 Festival Adjudicator

James Willshire

As a pianist, James Willshire has performed at the BBC Proms, live on BBC Radio 3, and at the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, Bridgewater Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Purcell Room, Glasgow City Halls, and Queens Hall Edinburgh.

James is a committed advocate of contemporary music, giving over 25 world premiere performances of works by Ronald Stevenson, John McLeod, Rory Boyle, Nicola LeFanu, Robin Holloway, Errollyn Wallen, Thomas Simaku, Jay Capperauld, Jia Chai, Lynne Plowman, David Lancaster, Michael Parkin, Ailís Ní Ríain and David Power.

His performance of ‘Endlings’ by Jay Capperauld with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland received a five-star review from The Herald and was broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland.

As a recording artist James has been highly acclaimed, with his most recent disc a 2021 recording of the chamber music by Stuart MacRae with the Hebrides Ensemble. His double-disc recording of Ronald Stevenson was described as “a major achievement” and awarded an IRR Outstanding by International Record Review, and was reviewed by BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and Classical Music magazine.