Adjudicators and Workshops

Beth Cohen graduated in music from Brandeis University and earned a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Wisconsin (USA). She  worked for over 30 years throughout the New York City metropolitan area where she gained a reputation as an enthusiastic, energetic, and dedicated educator and conductor. 

Beth made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Manhattan Philharmonic and subsequently conducted the New American Chamber Orchestra, Inter Schools Orchestras of NY and Stevens University Orchestra.  Beth’s work as a conductor was highlighted on CBS News 60 minutes the New York Times Magazine and other national publications and reviewed by the New York Times. 

Beth is founding Music Director of the non-profit Youth Music Group and was CEO of the for-profit educational consulting company, Cohen Arts & Education.

Since emigrating to NZ, Beth has conducted Saint Matthews Chamber Orchestra, Dunedin Youth Orchestra, Christchurch School of Music Camerata Strings and ISO Orchestras, Canterbury Regional Schools Orchestra, Resonance Orchestra, APO “Play in South” and outreach concerts, and has served as orchestra and bands adjudicator of the KBB Music Festival. She currently serves as conductor of Christchurch’s Garden City Orchestra and Auckland’s Victorious March Band which recently earned Gold at Festival 2019 Auckland.  Beth is scheduled to guest conduct the Nelson Symphony Orchestra in 2023.

She has recently completed her PhD at the University of Canterbury entitled: “Classical music and audience engagement: Updating the Bernstein model”.

More about Beth’s work can be found at www.bethcohenconductor.com

John Snowling has been involved in music and bands all of his life after being raised in the Ipswich Citadel Corps of the Salvation Army in England. From 1966 to 1971 he was a musician and principal trumpet in H. M. Coldstream Guards Band, London. This included performing on State occasions such as Trooping the Colour, Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace, Royal Investitures, Radio and Television Broadcasts, Recordings and Concerts.

In 1978, John emigrated with his family to New Zealand. He has conducted many ensembles since then including the Hastings Citizens’ Brass Band, Bay Cities’ Symphonic Band, Canterbury Youth Brass Band, Hawke’s Bay Youth Band, New Zealand National Youth Brass Band and as Associate Conductor of the inaugural New Zealand National Youth Concert Band.

John is now in demand as an adjudicator and has supported events for NZCBA and the New Zealand Brass Band Championships. He has also judged all but one of the provincial Brass Band Contests in New Zealand and has twice been invited to be part of the international panel of judges at the Pacific Basin Band Festival in Hawaii.

John was President of NZCBA, a position he was elected to for three consecutive years. In 2003 he was awarded Life Membership of the Hawkes Bay Orchestral Society for Services to Bands and received a Community Services Award from the Hastings District Council for his contribution to the Arts. This was followed by Life Membership of NZCBA in 2010.

Yvette Audain plays many instruments (clarinet, saxophone, flute, piano, recorders, Irish whistles, ukulele) but not nearly enough. She is also a singer, composer and tutor. After her undergraduate studies at the University of Auckland, Yvette gained her Master of Music from Victoria University of Wellington, following this with a Graduate Diploma in Teaching from the University of Auckland. She has played professionally for the Royal New Zealand Navy Band and the Band of the Wellington and Hawkes Bay Regiment, among many other ensembles in styles ranging from classical to jazz to Celtic to free improvisation and beyond. Yvette has also been an associate saxophonist for Auckland Philharmonia, for whom she is still an arranger and orchestrator – her ultimate dream gig would be a fully orchestrated programme of progressive rock.

Her composition, Skirmish in Seven, commissioned by Manukau Concert Band in 2011, is on the repertoire list of New Zealand Youth Symphonic Winds Winter Event 2022. https://www.sounz.org.nz/works/21013?locale=en

Bill Stoneham completed a Bachelor of Music at Birmingham Conservatoire, UK, and moved to New Zealand in 2005. During his education he has been tutored by acclaimed trumpet players from the UK, Sweden, Finland, Russia, USA, New Zealand and Australia.

Bill has performed with major orchestras in both New Zealand and Australia, including the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, but in 2011 made the move from the back of the orchestra to the front of the stage and hasn’t looked back since.

His solo career has seen him touring the length and breadth of New Zealand performing with singers, organists, pianists and orchestras. He has been broadcast on television and radio numerous times in New Zealand, with a recent television broadcast reaching over 30 countries.

For the past several years Bill has been focusing on music education in Hamilton and the Waikato region. His pupils have gained positions in the National Youth and Secondary Schools’ Orchestras and the National Youth and Secondary Schools’ Brass Bands. Bill is a big supporter of the local orchestra scene in the Waikato. He has been the principal trumpet with Opus Orchestra for more than the last ten year and more recently the brass tutor for the Youth Orchestra Waikato.