Examiner Profile: Judy Bellingham

Judy Bellingham MEntre, BA, FTCL, LRSM, Dip Tchg, AIRMT Judy Bellingham is the William Evans Senior Lecturer in Voice at the University of Otago. She trained in Christchurch with Mary Adams-Taylor and Joan Davies, in Australia with Dame Joan Hammond and Antonio Moretti-Pananti, and in England with Otakar Kraus. She has sung many operatic roles, including 6 roles in New Zealand operas, and has sung as soloist with all the major Choirs and Orchestras in this country. Judy’s concert repertoire is extensive and she enjoys all genres of vocal music. She is a national recording artist for both the Australian Broadcasting Commission and Radio New Zealand Concert. Recent concert tours include South America in 2004 and the Baltic States, Portugal and Spain in 2010 as soprano soloist with CBS Music from Christchurch, and a solo recital tour of Libya in 2008 with colleague Terence Dennis. In mid-2009 she undertook an extensive Professional Development tour in the US and Canada, including attending a 6-day residential course at Indiana University entitled Teaching Men to Sing. Judy is a widely respected singing teacher and was President of the New Zealand Association of Teachers of Singing for 6 years. In addition to her University work, she operates a busy private studio. Judy’s students regularly achieve well in Competitions, both nationally and internationally. She is an Examiner for the New Zealand Music Examinations Board and the Australian Music Examinations Board, and is one of the Vocal Consultants to the New Zealand Youth Choir. Judy is in demand as an adjudicator of both vocal and choral Festivals, and as a vocal clinician throughout the country and internationally. In 2010 she worked with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, the Royal Copenhagen Chapel Choir, the David Jorlett Chorale in the USA and the Dan Laoghaire Choral Society in Dublin. She has taught for Glyndebourne Opera, and since 1998 has been the Guest Vocal Lecturer at the International Music Festival held annually at Tunghai University in Taiwan. In 2011, Tunghai University has awarded Judy a Visiting Professorship. Judy is the Director of the New Zealand Singing School, Te Wānanga toi Waiata. She is the author of a book on how to learn to sight-sing "Sing what you see, See what you Sing" and has recorded a CD of New Zealand songs and a DVD "Songs of Old Dunedin." Future plans include a concert tour of Saudi Arabia, Bahrein and Jordan in February 2012 with Terence Dennis, and the completion of her research into the history of the teaching of singing in New Zealand.