New for 2026

Electric Guitar Classes are new to the festival and are included in the Strings classes.

Meet the composer

We are delighted to announce that our "Meet the composer" this year is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

Our adjudicators for 2026

PETER DAYSON (Speech and Drama)
Peter started his career over 55 years ago as an Actor in stage, television and film, progressing to Producing, Directing, and Writing. As a Director, Peter has been responsible for over 60 productions, Artistic Director for Stafford Gatehouse for 8 years, worked for DISNEY as an Executive Producer and Director and, also worked for RUG Theatres, BBC, ITV as well as working for E.M.I for 2 years as a writer and producer. 
As an Actor Peter has appeared in many tv series, ‘DOCTOR WHO’, ‘BLAKES SEVEN’ and ‘PLAY FOR TODAY’ and sit-coms, ‘ALLO ‘ALLO. ‘SORRY’,’THREE OF A KIND’, on stage played John Macey in ’MONDAY AFTER THE MIRACLE’ (West End) Chris Keller in ‘ALL MY SONS’, Private Hamp in ‘FOR KING and COUNTRY’, Tom in ‘GLASS MENAGERIE’ and Danny in ‘NIGHT MUST FALL’. His many musical roles include the leads in ‘GODSPELL’, ‘JOSEPH’ and ‘GREASE’ with rep seasons ranging from Nottingham, Manchester, Swansea, Basingstoke and Watford. As a writer Peter has written several plays, 8 musicals, 30 Pantomimes, a sketch for ‘SPITTING IMAGE’ and currently working on a spy-thriller. Peter has just finished on a Production with Dame Judi Dench and Dame Stella Rimmington for Television in Redditch, a new musical ‘HAZLEWOOD HEROES’ In Leeds and currently developing a film script ‘VAVASOUR’.
He ran the two-time award- winning International Community Cross-Over Project which took children and students from across the London Boroughs and performed in the West End, (Palladium, His Majesties, Drury Lane) and transferring to Stuarts Opera House, Ohio, U.S.A.  This involved artists from the industry working with local actors and special needs students.
Peter’s passion is working with children, students and young performers, particularly special needs to nurture, encourage, support and develop them with perhaps a career in the industry or just ‘Life Skills’.

EVA MARIA DOROSZKOWSKA(piano classes)
Eva Maria Doroszkowska has performed internationally with festival appearances in the uK and across Europe. 
Concerts include recitals at the Crush Room, Royal Opera House London, St martin's in the Field's, Steinway Hall, Chopin Society, London, Chopin celebrations in Bergen for Holland Music Sessions, Bachzaal, Amsterdam and Rundetarn Copenhagen. She has appeared at the Tivoli Mozart Festival, Copenhagen, International Prague Budapest Vienna Chamber Festival as well as many British festivals including Tunbridge Wells, Greenwich and Docklands and Edinburgh Fringe. 
Television appearances include broadcasts on the BBC and T.V. Polonia as well as Polish radio, SWR Kultur Radio in Germany, Portuguese Radio and Radio 3. 
In 2025 she was awarded an Honorary Associate from the Royal Academy of Music where she teaches piano in the Junior Department. Her latest release for CD, Baltic Tides for FHR records this year has garnered high praise. Andrew Mellor for Gramophone wrote "This is a beautifully conceived and executed album meticulously crafted. Eva Maria Doroszkowska's contribution here is significant and just the sort of album I long for musicians to make", Classical sentinel - "Eva Maria Doroszkowska flawlessly brings out each composer's individual traits and attributes". 
Eva Maria is also an adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals and mentors for Help Musicians UK. She has published articles for IP magazine and EPTA journal. 
Eva Maria won a scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music. Funded by the Countess of Munster Trust she completed postgraduate studies there before winning a government scholarship to study under Professor Jasinkski at the Szymanowski Academy in Katowice, Poland.

OLIVER GLEDHILL(strings classes)
Oliver Gledhill, cellist, was a Scholar at the Guildhall School of Music and won numerous awards including the ISTEL/Redditch Music Society Competition. He studied with many eminent cellists including William Pleeth, Edmund Kurtz and André Navarra. He has given acclaimed recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, including three in the Kirckman Concert Society Series. Festival appearances have included solo performances in England, France, Italy, Mallorca and the Czech Republic. Oliver has recorded nine CDs, including the complete works for cello by Léon Boëllmann, which was awarded five stars for performance by BBC Music Magazine, and has been played on the radio in Australia, Belgium and the USA, and W.H. Squire – Miniatures for Cello and Piano for the British Music Society/Naxos, which was featured as John Brunning’s Drive ‘Discovery’ of the week on Classic FM, and followed a PhD at the Royal Academy of Music/University of London on W.H. Squire, his cello miniatures and the portamento. 
Dr Gledhill teaches the cello at Junior Guildhall, in London, and is a member of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Research Ethics Committee. He also teaches for the Music Specialist School at City of London Academy Highbury Grove. He has edited music for Peters Edition and Durand. His published writings include articles and reviews for the Strad magazine and the British Journal of Music Education. Oliver Gledhill is an Examiner for Trinity College London, and as their cello syllabus consultant composed fifteen graded studies for the current TCL Cello Scales book. As an Adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals, he has adjudicated at over one hundred festivals, including the Finals of Music for Youth on five occasions. His pupil successes include Most Promising String Player awards at the Bedfordshire, Chelmsford, Hatfield, Southend and Watford Festivals, the winner of Junior Guildhall’s Lutine Prize 2020 and the only cello finalist in the Strings Category of BBC Young Musician 2020.







MELANIE RAGGE(wind classes)
melanie Ragge HonARAM MPhil (Cantab), MA (Cantab), DipRCM, LRAM
Oboist Melanie Ragge has performed nationally and internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral player.  Performances have taken her to far flung venues such as Vancouver Island, Malta, and Northern Sweden as well as UK venues such as St John’s Smith Square, the Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall. A founding member of one of the UK’s leading wind ensembles, the New London Chamber Ensemble, she has released several CDs, including Nielsen’s Wind & Piano Chamber Music.
Originally a medical student at King’s College Cambridge, Melanie ultimately graduated with a Master of Philosophy degree in Musicology. She was subsequently awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship at the Royal College of Music where she studied oboe with Michael Winfield, contemporary oboe with Edwin Roxburgh and piano with Phyllis Sellick.
Melanie has since collaborated with numerous artists including the Dante, Schidlof and Emperor string quartets, pianists Angela Hewitt, Michael Dussek, Julian Jacobson and Ann Martin-Davis, baritone Gerald Finlay, and tenor James Gilchrist. Her performances have included recitals with the New London Chamber Ensemble at Wigmore Hall, the premiere of the ensemble’s newly commissioned Nonet by Martin Butler with the Dante Quartet at the Cheltenham Festival, touring and recording Mahler’s 10th Symphony at Philharmonie Hall in Berlin with the International Mahler Orchestra, and recitals at the Royal Opera House with pianist Susanna Stranders and the Ellipsis Ensemble. Her most recent recordings include a disc of Martin Butler’s chamber music with the New London Chamber Ensemble and Navarra Quartet, and 'Revellings & Reckonings', a new work for Quintet and percussion, on Ailís Ní Ríain's debut disc - The Last Time I Died - with the NLCE and Dame Evelyn Glennie. She regularly coaches, adjudicates and gives masterclasses; she has been a guest tutor for numerous projects, including Chamber Music International, the Aberystwyth Music Festival, Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater and the Penderecki Musik Akademie, and was for many years Associate Director and woodwind tutor for the National Youth Chamber Orchestra. As well as her work at the Royal Academy, she teaches at the Purcell School of Music, and coaches for Cambridge University. Her scientific interest continues in the form of ongoing research into the use of Electromyography to help to reduce strain injuries in musical training.
Melanie’s musical passions lie in chamber music and education. Originally a medical student, she graduated with an MPhil in Musicology from King’s College Cambridge, then studied oboe as a Leverhulme Fellow at the RCM with Michael Winfield and Edwin Roxburgh and piano with Phyllis Sellick.
She now teaches oboe at the Purcell School of Music and is an oboe professor at the Royal Academy. Melanie is also an Adjudicator for The British and International Federation of Festivals.
A founder member of the New London Chamber Ensemble, she has released several recordings and, nationally and internationally, has worked with leading artists such as the Dante & Schidlof string quartets, pianist Angela Hewitt, tenor James Gilchrist and percussionist Evelyn Glennie.




JANE WILKINSON (singing classes)
Lancastrian soprano Jane Wilkinson trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, completing a BMus with Honours. She then completed her Graduate Diploma at the Royal College of Music. Whilst at the RCM she won the Godfrey van Someren Competition for English Song and was a runner up in the BBC Radio 3 Kiri Te Kanawa Competition. Her opera career took her to South Africa and Europe on concert tours promoting English Song. Performances have taken place in such venues as Edinburgh Festival Theatre, The Usher Hall, Bridgewater Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. Her operatic performances are extensive ranging from the baroque to the contemporary working some of the major opera houses in the UK and Europe. Jane is an experienced recording artist across a wide array of genres including on four progressive rock albums with Otherworld on Spaceword Records. She is a session singer across all genres working at Abbey Road and Air Studios. She has a passion for working with current composers and developing new vocal repertoire. Jane has premiered four roles in newly commissioned contemporary operas - The Clown of God (Mander), The Ancient Mariner (Mander), These Things Happen (Pease), Hey Jack! (Nasseur) and The Dowagers Oyster (Mander). Pantomime credits include Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Wizard of Oz, Babes in the Wood, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. At present, Jane is a singing tutor at Imperial College London, Brunel University and Laine Theatre Arts. She has a thriving private singing practice in London and enjoys developing voices for future careers. Jane toured internationally with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and currently conducts New Malden Voices Choir. Jane is a vocal and choral adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals and an examiner for Music Teachers Board Exams.

NANCY LITTEN (additional instruments, solo versatility, mixed ensembles)

Nancy Litten won an open piano scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, London, at sixteen, winning further prizes during her studies there. Her career has involved piano solo, orchestral, and chamber music, and being a piano accompanist. She has also been a solo and freelance orchestral violinist and leader of a string quartet. She has diplomas in four instruments, including singing, and has directed several choirs. She was founder and director of National Electronic Keyboard Courses from 2005-2012. 
Nancy has examined for ABRSM since 1998 and adjudicates for BIFF; she was on the Adjudicators’ Council for seven years, including as vice-chair. She has taught for over forty years, all age-groups and on courses and masterclasses; many of her pupils are pursuing a musical career. She has 19 books published: violin tutors, keyboard tutors, books for singers, choirs and accompanists, trio arrangements (violin, cello and piano) of well-loved pieces, and solo piano albums (Alfred, EVC Music, Clifton Press, Hal Leonard); her arrangements and original pieces are in TCL and ABRSM exam syllabuses and accompanying publications. 
www.nancylitten.com
https://www.youtube.com/c/NANCYLITTENsalonpiano

Class Dedications

The Helen Turner Class in the piano section was brought about when a friend asked Maidstone Music Festival to help her find a way in which to commemorate her mother. She suggested providing a cup, but it was decided that a more worthwhile way to honour her mother’s memory would be to name a class after her. Her mother loved piano music, especially that which could be described as "easy listening”, so the popular music class was renamed. 

We are now able to offer this opportunity to anyone who would like a class dedicated either to themselves or to a loved one. For £250, a class will be dedicated to the person of your choice for 10 years. After this time, you will be given the opportunity to renew this if you would like to do so. 

For more information, please email the Festival Chairman, Sue Greenham [email protected] 

Accompanist fees

Years ago, we were offered an annual donation by a local firm. They wanted this to be for something specific, so we decided that we would use this to pay our accompanist. Because of this, we have been able to manage financially without charging performers for the use of our accompanist. Unfortunately, the financial support from the firm has now come to an end, and as a result of this, we now have to include a charge for using the festival accompanist. We are really sorry to have to do this but we do have to budget very carefully in order to keep Maidstone Music Festival running.