The City of Plymouth Music Vocal Festival
2024
We are very excited to announce that the 2024 Instrumental section of our Music festival has been scheduled to run on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th November. As usual it will be held at Sherwell Church, PL4 8ER. Directions to the venue are available on this page.
Entries for the Vocal Festival have closed.
Adjudicator
We are pleased to announce that our Vocal adjudicator is:
Ben Costello
Ben is a freelance musical director, adjudicator, singing coach and accompanist, working internationally. He is also Artistic Director of Thames Concerts, and a generalist music adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals, having joined in 2009. He is also a music examiner for LCME and a consultant on their musical theatre syllabi. A specialist in musical theatre, he has been musical director for numerous productions across the UK, and a reflective product of this has been his continuing work as a musical director and singing teacher at the cutting edge of performing arts training in London, with his portfolio over the years including Arts Ed, Mountview Academy, Trinity Laban, Laine Theatre Arts, Italia Conti, Guildford School of Acting, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the Royal Academy of Music, Drama Studio London, and the London School of Musical Theatre.
At these colleges his work has included teaching singing technique, portfolio, acting through song, audition technique, and auditioning thousands of prospective students. Countless of his former singing students enjoy successful careers in the West End and beyond. He also teaches singing at Kingston Grammar School and Tiffin Girls’ School.
Born and based in London, Ben trained initially as a flautist before majoring in piano, singing and conducting. He read Music at Kingston University and the London College of Music, subsequently joining the teaching staff as the College’s first resident MD. Ben remains much sought-after as an accompanist, and collaborates in a variety of genres with countless singers and instrumentalists in many performing environments, working with several distinguished singers including Michael Chance CBE, James Bowman CBE, Robin Blaze, Hugh Cutting, Alison Pearce, Joanne Lunn, Peter Savidge, Richard Suart, Lotte Betts-Dean and Mark Dobell. He is one of the regular pianists for Cantabile (The London Quartet), and has given concerts with them in Germany, Belgium and the UK. Ben is a Liveryman and on the Court of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He chaired the Company’s prestigious annual musical direction scholarship for eight years, and is presently Chairman of the Company’s Jazz Committee.
For the Federation, in addition to his work as a generalist music adjudicator, he has been on the Adjudicators’ Council since 2014, is an adjudicator mentor, and is also a member of the interviewing panel for potential new music adjudicators.
Outside music, Ben is a keen motorcyclist and wine bore
Return of Cups and Trophies
Auditing and preparing returned cups ready for presentation is a mammoth task and requires a lot of time, effort and space.
The cups and trophies need to be returned by October 1st 2024, and are those which had been presented in the previous years.
Cups and trophies should be engraved with the name of the performer who had won the class and had been presented with the award. Similarly, the names of all performers in duet, trio and quad classes should be engraved on the award.
If you have any queries regarding the return of your cup or trophy, please use our contact form and select Cups and Tropies.
Supervision of Performers
Please remember that for the duration of the festival all teachers, parents, guardians and carers are responsible for the continuous care and supervision of their own children or pupils. If they are unable to attend personally, they must delegate their responsibilities to an identified adult and ensure that their children or pupils are aware of the identity and name of the person responsible for their care. This includes supervision throughout all Festival venues, performance and practice and changing areas that are be provided. The carer of a performer must be over 18 years of age.
For your information, please read Plymouth Festival’s Safer Festivals Statement which can be downloaded from the bottom of every page.
The Festival Performance
The Festival experience differs from the examination situation in that it offers participants the opportunity to perform on a public stage in front of an audience and receive a mark and feedback from a qualified adjudicator.
The adjudicator will therefore look for a complete performance, including attention to dress, entrances and exits, announcing and acknowledging both applause and, where appropriate, the accompanist.