Adjudicators

DAVID KIRBY-ASHMORE L.R.A.M. Dip. R.A.M. 

David Kirby-Ashmore – Baritone - was awarded a scholarship to study at The Royal Academy of Music.  In addition to recitals and concerts in major London venues including The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Purcell Room, St. John’s Smith Square, and The Royal Albert hall, David’s career has taken him all over the world including Hong Kong, Indonesia and the USA. 

He has taken principal rôles throughout the UK from Holland Park to Welsh National Opera via the Edinburgh festival as well as in Europe including Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) in Austria; Schaunard (La Bohème) and Masetto (Don Giovanni) for Opéra de Nantes; Johnny Johnson for Opéra de Caen and a world tour in the title role of Rigoletto including Singapore and Malaysia. Other rôles include Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Figaro and Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Escamillo (Carmen), Onegin and Balstrode (Peter Grimes).

David has appeared as soloist at many of the major British Festivals including Bath, Buxton, Nottingham and Kings Lynn. Other concert venues include The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh and The National Arts Club New York.  His repertoire of Oratorio and concert works includes Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew passions, Handel’s Alexander’s Feast and Messiah, Mozart, Brahms and Fauré Requiems, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and The Kingdom, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Alongside his performing career, David has always maintained a thriving teaching practice from teenagers to professional singers. He has worked for the education departments of Opera 80, D’Oyly Carte Opera, the Royal Opera and English National Opera’s Baylis Programme as well as giving masterclasses and workshops including for The Jakarta Academy of Music and The Hong Kong Cultural Centre. He is currently director of Milton Keynes Youth Choir and Youth Opera.

David was one of the consultants for the Danesborough Chorus’ CD Rom guide for Choral Singers, which is available through the NFMS, being mainly responsible for writing technical and physiological parts of the course. In addition to being an adjudicator for the Festival movement David has been Chairman of his local Festival and advises on repertoire for many festivals.  In 2007 he was Vocal and Choral director at European Youth Summer Music.

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