Adjudicators 2024

Teresa Allred was born and raised in Cardston, Alberta. In Cardston and Lethbridge, she won various awards and scholarships in music festivals from the time she was 6 years old. She would like to extend a special tribute to Beatrice Foster of Lethbridge who taught her from Grade VII through her Western Board Performer/ Teacher degree. She is a graduate of Brigham Young University (BA – piano / choral).

Teresa studied music in Salzburg, Austria for 7 months and student taught one semester in the music department for BYU-Hawaii. She lived in Hinton, Alberta for 10 years teaching private piano, serving as Community Theatre Music Director, and teaching in the High School.

Teresa graduated with a Bachelor Arts Degree-Piano/Choral from Brigham Young University She has been involved in adjudicating piano at music festivals throughout Alberta for the last 25 years. Teresa has resided in Red Deer for 33 years where she maintains a 20+ private piano/vocal studio. She co-conducted Red Deer Chamber Singers for 17 years, served as Provincial President for both the Alberta Registered Music Teachers Association and The Alberta Music Education Foundation, and served on the Red Deer Performing Arts Festival Board for the past 4 years.

The Keyboards for Kids Program sponsored by AMEF has been in Red Deer for 10 years and Teresa has taught the program at Aspen Heights Elementary School for 8 of those years. She has also been music director for several Hunting Hills High School Musical productions and Treehouse Theatre productions.

A milestone for Red Deer music teachers was reached when Teresa initiated the groundwork for a new city by-law which allows private teachers to have business licenses for $55 a year without student limitations. Her husband Drew, also from Cardston, is a retired French immersion teacher. She is mother of 4 married sons and grandmother to 10 grandchildren….6 of them girls! Justice!

Hobbies: Music, tennis, pickleball and hiking.

Born in Calgary and raised in Regina, Esther Bing grew up in an artistic family that led her to Vancouver and Boston for her academic pursuits. With degrees in Piano Performance, including an ARCT, B. Mus from UBC, and M. Mus from The Boston Conservatory (where she attended on a full scholarship), Ms. Bing went on to become an RCM Piano Examiner and is a former off-campus piano teacher for Mount Royal University. She also headed the Calgary Piano Diploma Association for over a decade.

A seasoned performer herself, Ms. Bing has graced the stage alongside musicians from the Edmonton and Calgary Symphonies, recently performing as the orchestral pianist with the Calgary Civic Symphony. Her commitment to excellence extends beyond the stage to her thriving piano studio, where her students consistently earn accolades, from RCM and ARMTA, as well as awards in local, provincial, national, and international competition. In addition to traditional piano instruction, Ms. Bing also shares her passion for jazz piano, with her students making waves in the U of A Medical Jazz Band and performing gigs around town.

Embracing technology in her high-tech studio, Ms. Bing leverages innovation to enhance and streamline the learning experience. Beyond the piano, she has a fascination with movement, having certified as a Personal Trainer in 2020. Ms. Bing has presented about the importance of movement through her own movement paradigm, MoveMuse, to music organizations across the country. In addition, she serves as the ARMTA Musician’s Health Convenor.

Outside the studio, you might find Ms. Bing navigating a Parkour gym, working on vaults, flips and handstands, playing on the monkey bars, or just out for a run. After a long day, she enjoys crafting cocktails and whipping up a quick meal for her husband, Matt, and her 17-year-old cat, Ziggy. The latter is a white, domestic short-hair, who walks on a leash, shakes a paw for treats, and even plays the piano for guests!

Ms. Bing is an inspiring force in the world of piano education. She hopes to bring expertise, passion, and a touch of unconventional flair to the Airdrie Rotary Music Festival.

Justin Macosky loved choral music from a young age. He spent 11 years singing with the Mount Royal Family of Choirs, touring across Canada and to Mexico. During his time with the Mount Royal Youth Choir, he was a student at Central Memorial High School in the Performing and Visual Arts Program in vocal music as a countertenor.

Starting in 2007, Justin was the choral director for Forest Lawn United Church, directing both the adult choir and children’s choir. He also served as Artistic Director and Conductor for the Ismaili Muslim Youth Choir from 2009-2012.

From 2010-2021 Justin was the Director of Choral Programming at Hillhurst United Church and served as the Southern Alberta Programming Assistant for Choir Alberta (formerly Alberta Choral Federation) from 2012-2015, organizing ChoralFest South, and Alberta Youth Choir 2013.

Justin graduated from Mount Royal University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s degree in Child Studies with a minor in Early Learning and Child Care. Currently, Justin is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Airdrie Community Choir, Choral Director of McDougall United Church in Calgary, PAC member for Choir Alberta, and is a preschool teacher with P.L.A.Y. Daycare in Kensington Calgary.

Elizabeth Raycroft, soprano, trained in Edmonton, Houston and in Vienna. She has performed with Edmonton Opera and many local symphony orchestras. She has worked with world renowned conductors and directors. 

For three years, she performed the role of Mother in edmonton coOPERAtive’s Christmas performances of Amahl and the Night Visitors. In 2014, Ms. Raycroft performed in the Edmonton Fringe megahit Propylene Glycol, Maltodextrin, Retinol Palmitate and Other Words I don't Understand Like Love, which also toured throughout Alberta in June and July 2015. In 2019 performed the role of Signora Naccarelli in Walterdale Theatre’s The Light in the Piazza.  She most recently performed the roles of Abbess in Puccini’s Suor Angelica and La Frugola in Puccini’s Il Tabarro, Fringe productions by Pop Goes the Opera.  She is an avid performer of new music, performing the World Premiere of Four Songs, Op. 15 by Joseph Lai.  

She regularly shares her experience and knowledge in masterclasses, workshops and through adjudicating festivals throughout Western Canada. Her students consistently excel at local, provincial, and national festivals. 

Many of her students have performed with the Edmonton Youth Orchestra, in local, provincial, and national musical theatre productions, with the Edmonton Opera, and in international opera houses.

She maintains an active and full studio at MacEwan’s Alberta College Conservatory of Music. She recently retired from The King's University College where she taught voice, diction, theory, history and vocal pedagogy.

Originally from Argentina, Maria Medlow grew up playing the violin and piano. Upon moving to Canada, she was accepted at the Senior Academy at Mount Royal Conservatory and studied with prominent teachers including Lise Elson, Cenek Vbra and John Lowry.  Maria completed her ARCT certification in both violin and piano and moved to complete her music performance studies at the University of Calgary under the direction of Edmond Agopian.

Maria is currently an active member of the Calgary Musicians Association and is also the Registration Chair for the Cochrane Youth Talent Festival and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Alberta Music Education Foundation.

She has performed and recorded solo and chamber concerts with members of the Calgary Opera, Calgary Cowtown Opera, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Red Deer Symphony, Metropolitan Opera of New York, Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra, Cirque De Soleil and played alongside Michael Bublé for his 2014 Canada Tour. She was invited to record for the Canadian Country Music Awards and was featured in the CBC Television special for the CCMA awards.

Maria runs a thriving private studio in Calgary. Her students have been finalists in the Canadian Music Competition, placed in provincials at the Kiwanis Music Festival, and won medals and scholarships for RCM exams. She has prepared her students for successful admission to classical string programs throughout North America. Maria continues her active role as a teacher, adjudicator and performer, hosting and playing numerous concerts and fundraisers in support of different charities. 

Soprano and Pianist Robin Idestrom has performed in operas, classical recitals, and musicals, as well as gospel, jazz, pop, and choral music with many orchestras and ensembles from California, Calgary, Europe, and Italy, and has been featured on several albums.

The recipient of the Birgit Nilsson Scholarship in Voice, Ms. Idestrom received her Master’s degree in Classical Voice from Manhattan School of Music in New York, where she studied under the renowned Joan Patenaude-Yarnell.

Robin has found great joy in inspiring students of all ages through teaching voice for many years, including at Rocky Mountain College in Calgary.

Before returning to Calgary from the East Coast of the US with her husband and son in 2020, she was an Artist-in-Residence at HC Crittendon Middle School in Armonk, New York.

Robin celebrates the joy and freedom that result when her students stop being their own worst critics, and instead abandon themselves to the music.
"Years of discipline for an instant of freedom” -Eugene Peterson

Susan Duska has wide experience in all areas of theatre, performance, vocal coaching, and teaching.  

She is on faculty at the Conservatory at Mount Royal University and maintains a busy schedule teaching private and group lessons, as well as theory classes and adjudicating across the country. In addition, she coordinates Presentation MRU, a non-competitive speech festival for Calgary speech students.

She is an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music and also examines for the International Schools Association in Argentina and Uruguay.

Recent projects include Poetry and Presentation – Sonnets and Rap for Grade Nine students, Shakespeare for five Grade Three classes – mini productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and The Tempest.

She holds a B.F.A. in Drama from the University of Calgary, is an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto, as well as an Associate and Licentiate of the Mount Royal College Conservatory.

Murray Visscher has performed a wide variety of music for audiences in Canada and the United States. Although his formal education is primarily in Classical music, his diverse background has put him on stage with some of Canada’s elite jazz, folk, rock and fiddle artists. Murray’s recent efforts include many premieres of new music written for the Oberon Guitar Trio (along with colleagues Ralph Maier and Brad Mahon).

Murray is in demand as an instructor and educator and currently serves on the faculties of Mount Royal University Conservatory and Ambrose University in Calgary Canada. He adjudicates frequently at festivals and competitions throughout Western Canada and has served on the editing team for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s guitar series.

Murray’s students include finalists and winners of the Guitar Foundation of America competition and the Northwest Guitar Festival competition. His students are frequent winners at the Alberta Music Festival, the National Music Festival and the Canadian Music Competition.