NYPA Adjudicators

Dual Adjudicators were first appointed in 2016 for both the Tap Dance and Ballet sections.  This continued in 2017 with dual Adjudicators for the Modern Dance section. The Dual Adjudicator system has worked so well that the decision was made to continue offering dual Adjudicators for the ever growing dance genres of Modern, Ballet and Tap Dance sections.
For the MEGA NYPA PLUS 2022 the decision was also made to add an additional level of transparency for the three dance genres of Ballet, Tap Dance and Modern Dance, we were excited to announce that those genres would have THREE adjudicators per genre instead of the usual TWO adjudicators. 

2025 will see THREE adjudicators for Modern Dance and solo adjudicators forMusical Theatre, Instrumental and Speech & Drama
 
The Troupe/Group section was re-introduced in 2016 as part of the 40th Anniversary Celebrations. This section was so popular that it was decided to continue offering this award for the foreseeable future.
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​In 2025, the 3 Modern Dance Adjudicators and 1 Musical Theatre Adjudicator will form the base of the Troupe/Group judging panel and will be joined by  additional Adjudicators to cover all the necessary dance genres.
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                                ADJUDICATORS FOR 2025 ARE YET TO BE ANNOUNCED

Jeremy Arnold
Tap Dance Co-Adjudicator

Jeremy Arnold earned his MFA in Dance and Social Justice from the University of Texas at Austin in May 2020. He is an alumnus of the tap program at The School at Jacob’s Pillow under the direction of Michelle Dorrance. Jeremy was a principal dancer with Tapestry Dance Company from 2014 through 2017, performing in the United States and abroad and was featured in the PBS docuseries Arts In Context. Before joining Tapestry, Jeremy toured nationally with Shelley Oliver Tap Dancers.
This past year, Jeremy joined the faculty of Temple University teaching various courses rooted in American vernacular dance.
From 2015 through 2020, Jeremy was a lecturer on the faculty of University of Texas at Austin dance department, and taught courses in rhythm tap, jazz, and music theory. He served as artistic director for several mainstage productions. Since 2013, Jeremy has worked with Charles O Anderson’s Dance Theatre X, performing in and choreographing works which premiered at American Dance Festival, New York Live Arts, MANCC at Florida State University, The Fuzebox Festival, and The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. In 2020, he was associate director of and performed in the dance film (Re)current Unrest, described by Sightlines Magazine as a “masterpiece.” Jeremy has served on the faculty of many tap festivals including Soul 2 Soul, True Sound Rhythm Festival, Riff, Phoenix Tap Fest, Little Rock Tap Fest, and SynCoPate.
​He has taught master classes at Pace University, Wayne State University, and University of Alabama. He tours nationally with Revive Dance Convention and National Dance Honors. Most recently, Jeremy can be seen dancing alongside Karissa Royster in Mood Indigo, a short dance film produced by Amplified Productions.

Leanne Driel
Tap Dance Co-Adjudicator

Leanne Driel is one of Perth’s premier tap dancers and teachers. She has been dancing since the age of 5 studying tap, jazz and ballet. A love of dance and music developed quickly, setting Leanne on her way to relentlessly pursue her passion for tap dance around the globe.
Since gaining teaching accreditation in 2005, Leanne has continued to further her tap studies in both Australia and overseas, recently returning to the USA in 2019, studying with Heather Cornell and Barbara Duffy. Leanne has also completed a Level 1 and Level 2 certificate in Tap Dance Teaching from the American Tap Dance Foundation in New York. Leanne has been a student of the Australian Tap Dance Festival since its inaugural year and joined the teaching faculty in 2018.
Leanne’s extensive teaching and performing experience led her to create her debut choreographed show, the tap dance pantomime ‘Sole Mates’, which premiered at Perth Fringe Festival in 2015. Leanne was also part of the ensemble cast for the award-winning ‘LUCHA ROYALE’ variety show at the 2012 Perth Fringe Festival.
Leanne was the 2016 recipient of the Capezio Future of Tap award at the Australian Tap Dance Festival for her own choreography. Leanne’s other choreographic credits also include Tarzan the Musical and Anything Goes for Stray Cats Theatre Company, the Fiesta Choreographers’ Ball, ROAR Choreographers’ Ball, RAW Artists, Shakespeare WA and numerous street festivals around Perth.
Leanne is the founder of the Perth Tap Jam community and the WA Tap Dance Orchestra and regularly teaches open level tap classes, as well as a range of classes from absolute beginner through to advanced, for teens and every age of adult. Her classes are known for their fun and musical components, her swinging style and sharing some of tap’s amazing history through both steps and stories.
Leanne is grateful for all the knowledge passed to her by her current and former teachers and mentors including Brenda Bufalino, Barbara Duffy, Heather Cornell, Michelle Dorrance, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Roxane Butterfly, Sarah Reich, Jason Samuels-Smith, Gregg Russell and many others.
Leanne is committed to studying and sharing the art of tap dance and inspiring dancers of all ages and barriers to embrace the joy of TAP! 

 
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Daniel Gaudiello
Ballet Co-Adjudicator

Brisbane-born Daniel Gaudiello strapped on his first pair of dancing shoes at the age of six at the Johnny Young Talent School, then at Promenade Dance Academy.
Later he completed the Queensland Dance School of Excellence and Queensland Ballet professional year before being accepted into The Australian Ballet School, where he participated as an exchange student with The National Ballet School of Canada and the School of American Ballet in New York. Daniel joined The Australian Ballet first seconded out of his last year of the ballet school in 2003 and then formally in 2004 and in early 2007, on scholarship, participated in classes with some of the world's finest ballet companies in London, Amsterdam, Munich and Paris. Daniel made his choreographic debut with a piece called “Notte in Bianco” for Bodytorque. To the Pointe in 2009, then “South of Eden” and “Tristan and Isolde”. Daniel was promoted to principal artist in 2010.
Daniel’s principal roles with The Australian Ballet include both Des Grieux and Lescaut in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, Basilio in Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote (2010), Petrouchka in Petrouchka (2009), the Prince in Alexei Ratmansky’s Cinderella(2013), Siegfried in Stephen Baynes’ Swan Lake (2012), Franz in Peggy van Praagh’s Coppélia (2010) and works by Christopher Wheeldon and Jiří Kylián. As a guest artist he has appeared with Houston Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, New Zealand Ballet, Queensland Ballet, West Australian Ballet and English National Ballet.
​He was the recipient of the 2011 Australian Dance Award for outstanding performance by a male dancer in Coppélia, a Green Room Award and was nominated for three Helpmann Awards for most outstanding male dancer. Daniel is now head of ballet stream at the Queensland College of Dance and has recently Co produced and choreographed his first feature film “The red shoes- The next step” that premiered in the box office in 2022. 

 
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Claire Phipps-Males
Ballet Co-Adjudicator

Queensland Ballet Academy Pre-Professional Program Coordinator
 
Claire grew up in the coastal town of Kiama NSW and moved to Sydney aged 14 and then went on to graduate with Honors at The Australian Ballet School’s Advanced Diploma course.
Claire then joined The Australian Ballet under the directorship of Ross Stretton and danced many corps and soloist roles.
Moving north she became a Soloist with The Queensland Ballet and later Ballet Mistress under the directorship of Francois Klaus.
Claire has had the honour of working with such names as Natalia Makarova, David McAllister, Li Cunxin, Ross Stretton, Graeme Murphy, Stanton Welch, Francois Klaus, Paul Boyd, Natalie Weir, Noah Gelber, Greg Horsman, Mario Schroeder, Young Soon Hue-Simon and Nils Christie.
Claire has a Certificate Four in Training and Assessment; and a Diploma of Dance Teaching Studies (DDTS) through the Royal Academy of Dance London.
Claire has taught as a freelance teacher for various schools and companies including The Australian Ballet education program, Queensland Ballet, Bangarra, Expressions Dance and is currently teacher and coordinator for the pre-professional program at Queensland Ballet Academy. Claire has also staged and rehearsed a wide variety of repertoire from numerous classical and contemporary choreographers.
Claire has adjudicated for many auditions, competitions, eisteddfods and scholarships in various genres and enjoys witnessing emerging artists within the industry.

Anke Hoeppner-Ryan
Vocal Adjudicator

Anke graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns-Eisler Berlin (Hanns Eisler University of Music, Berlin) in 1990 with a Masters in Performance and Opera (with High Distinction).
 She has twenty five years professional experience as an opera singer including performances at the Staatsoper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, Neue Opernbühne Berlin, Opera Australia, Otono Festival Opera in Madrid, London Opera Festival, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater, Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg, West Australian Opera, South Australian Opera and Opera Queensland.
 Roles performed by Anke include Turandot, Tosca, Minni in La Fanciulla del West, Butterfly, Mimi in La Boheme, Procne in The Love of the Nightingale, Emilia Marty in Vĕc Makropulos, Leonore in Fidelio, Iphigénie in Iphigénie en Tauride, Jenufa, Lucretia Janz in Batavia, Giulietta in Tales of Hoffmann, Elvira in Don Giovanni, Charlotte in Werther, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Fata Morgana in The Love For Three Oranges, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Abigaile in Nabucco, Lisa in Pique Dame, Jane Seymour in Anna Bolena, Gerhilde and 3rd Norn in Der Ring des Nibelungen, the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel and many more.
 She also has twenty five years professional experience as a concert artist, including performances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic State Orchestra Halle, the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Symphonic Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Philharmonia Choir, the Melbourne International Festival, the Barossa Music Festival and the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra.
 Anke has worked with leading directors Harry Kupfer, Neil Armfield, Graeme Murphy, Christine Mielitz, Stephan Blüher, Michael Gow, Lindy Hume, Stuart Maunder, Moffatt Oxenbould, Nigel Jamieson and Andrew Sinclair and performed under the batons of some of the world’s leading conductors, including Sir Charles Mackerras, Simone Young, Shao Chia Lü, Carlo Felice Cillario, Patrick Summers, Lionel Friend, Andrea Licata, Johannes Fritzsch, Jörg- Peter Weigle, Aldo Salvagno, Prof. Rolf Reuther, Josef Colaneri and Joachim Willert.
 Anke holds masterclasses with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Sydney Philharmonic Choir, Cantors of the Archdiocese of Berlin, the young artist programs at Opera Australia and Western Australian Opera and The Australian Singing Competition
 She has been a Member of the Music Advisory Council of The Opera Foundation for Young Australians since 2010  and has adjudicated Major Australian and New Zealand Singing Competitions since 2010
 Anke has performed for Broadcasts in Europe (Klassik Radio Berlin, Berliner Rundfunk, WDR) and the ABC in Australia and has received many Awards including award for the best vocal graduate in the former German Democratic Republic, 1st prize in the inaugural Hanns-Eisler Song Competition in Berlin, the inaugural Helpmann Award for best female operatic performer as well as Greenroom Award and Helpmann Award Nominations
 Anke has been a  Lecturer in Voice and German Diction at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the University of Sydney since 2007.


 
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Glen Riddle
Pianoforte Adjudicator

Glenn Riddle is Senior Lecturer in Keyboard at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, an AMEB Federal Examiner, member of the AMEB International Examining panel, member of the National Committee of the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference, Research Associate at the University of Waikato New Zealand, and Visiting Professor at the Nanjing University of the Arts, China.
has recorded for Tall Poppies, Move Records, Hal Leonard Publishing and ABC Classics, and has edited or co-edited 12 volumes of piano music for the AMEB, including Series 15. One of Australia’s leading piano pedagogues, his students have won every major piano competition in Australia, performing with the likes of the Sydney, Queensland and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras,
​They have also won numerous prizes internationally performing with such prestigious orchestras as the Russian National Academic Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Radio Symphony, the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, the Orchestra Philharmonique de Maroc, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra, and the Jakarta Concert Orchestra.  

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Somi Kim
Official Accompanist for Instrumental

Hailed for her “breath-taking range of colour, tone and inflection”, South Korean born New Zealand pianist Somi Kim has established herself as one of today's most versatile young pianists, with a string of competition successes and extensive concert experience.

Somi is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Performance and Master of Arts with Distinction, a DipRAM, and the HRH Princess Alice the Duchess of Gloucester’s Prize.
A winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Accompanist Prize and the Gerald Moore Award for accompanists, Somi is sought after as a chamber musician, song accompanist and répétiteur.

​She is an official pianist and coach at the International Holland Music Sessions, International Vocal Competition ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Gisborne International Music Competition and the New Zealand Opera School. Somi made her debut with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 2021 performing the Gershwin Piano Concerto, and her future appearances include Het Concertgebouw, Slovak Philharmonic and Wigmore Hall. 

 
http://www.somikim.com


Contact
[email protected]  ​
 
                                    
 

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