Coleraine Music and Speech and Drama Festival events

The Music adjudicator this year is Helen Deakin.

Helen Deakin studied piano and clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music. She has considerable experience

of solo and choral singing, of both instrumental and choral directing and of the string repertoire. She performs as a soloist and as an accompanist and with many chamber groups and orchestras at venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, concerts at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

As an ABRSM examiner, Helen has worked extensively throughout the UK and around the world, including Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, New Zealand and the USA. As well as examining, she is also a regular presenter for the ABRSM Annual Conferences and workshop days across the UK. As a member of the ABRSM Professional Development Panel, she has worked with instrumental teachers in the UK and overseas. She is much in demand, giving presentations and workshop days on all aspects of performing and teaching.

Helen is a very experienced teacher and has run a flourishing private teaching practice for over 25 years. She directs a series of chamber music courses and runs workshops for both pianists and piano teachers, which have proved very popular. Helen is very busy as an adjudicator and is on the panel of the British and International Federation of Festivals. She is delighted to be making a return visit to Coleraine.

The Speech and Drama adjudicator this year is Arthur Webb. After graduating from Queen’s University, Belfast with a B.Ed degree in English and Drama, Arthur studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and subsequently completed an MA in Drama and Media at Ulster University.

He taught in a large grammar school for 25 years where he was Head of the Creative and Expressive faculty. He is Chief Examiner for Drama in Northern Ireland and Examiner for A level Performing Arts with CCEA.

As Arts Education Adviser with Belfast Education and Library Board, Arthur was responsible for introducing Drama to the NI Curriculum as a discrete and statutory subject.

He is an Associate with the British Federation of International Adjudicating and has adjudicated at many festivals in the UK and Ireland.

He is also an Examiner with New Era Academy, London and has been recently examining and adjudicating in Hong Kong. He was Director of the Youth Lyric Theatre for 16 years and Drama Coach for Children’s programmes with the BBC.As a professional director he has toured Northern Ireland and Scotland with 5 Shakespeare productions for schools.