Adjudicators for 2025

Teddy Tahu-Rhodes (bass) – voice category.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes has performed with the opera companies of San Francisco, Austin, Washington, Philadelphia, Dallas, Cincinnati, Houston, the Metropolitan Opera, Hamburg Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper – Munich, Théâtre du Châtelet – Paris, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera.
Past seasons include Escamillo (Carmen, Hamburg, Paris, Munich, Bilbao, Metropolitan Opera, OA), Don Giovanni (OA, WA Opera), Emile de Becque (South Pacific, OA Australian Tour), and The King and I (OA Australian Tour). Teddy debuted the roles of Méphistophélès (Faust, SOSA and WA Opera) and Sweeney Todd (Victorian Opera), a concert tour From Broadway to La Scala (Australia, and NZ) and Scarpia (Tosca, WA Opera, Opera NZ). More recently Teddy has performed in William Tell and I Capuleti ei Montecchi (Victorian Opera), Titurel (Parsifal, Victorian Opera), Lord Sidney (Il Viaggio a Reimes, OA) and Enrico VII (Anna Bolena, OA).
Most recently Teddy performed Theseus (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Adelaide Festival), Nourabad (Les pêcheurs de perles, Victorian Opera), Festival of Outback Opera (Opera Qld); he toured with Josh Pitterman and Guy Noble in Concert; was head judge for the Lexus Song Quest in New Zealand; toured with flautist Jane Rutter; performed Jack Rance (La Fanciulla del West, Freeze Frame Opera WA), Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola, Launceston, Victorian Opera), a series of Christmas concerts in WA (Freeze Frame Opera); Opera by the Lake; Opera in the Quarry; Mozart Reqieum; Capriccio (Victorian Opera); an Australian concert tour with Guy Noble; The Piolot (The Little Prince, Freeze Frame Opera), St Matthew Passion with Perth Symphonic Chorus, Elijah with Sydney Symphony Choir and Rambaldo (La Rondine, Victorian Opera).
Awards include an ARIA, two Helpmann Awards, a Limelight Award, a Green Room Award plus an MO Award. Solo discography includes ABC Mozart Arias, The Voice, Vagabond, The Bach Arias, and Mozart Requiem.
In 2024 Teddy has been appointed to the University of Adelaide’s Elder Conservatorium of where he will play a leading role in its Classical Voice department as a teacher and mentor.

Edith Salzmann (cello) – string category.

Edith Salzmann is a German/NZ cellist with an extensive career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She began her studies at the Music Academy in Detmold in Germany at the age of fourteen and went on to study at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA), where she studied with Janos Starker. She has performed She was a member of the Tibor Varga Chamber Orchestra, the Corda String Quartet, the Musikfabrik Duesseldorf, and various other New Music ensembles and has performed extensively all over Europe, America, Asia, and Australasia.As a chamber musician and soloist, she has performed in major European concert halls, such the Berlin Philharmonie, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Cologne Philharmonie, Gasteig Munich, the Barbican London, and the Tonhalle, Zuerich with, amongst others, Heinz Holliger, Christoph Poppen, Eduard Brunner, Gustav Rivinius, Menahem Pressler, Nobuko Imai, Erick Friedman, Luba Edlina, Clio Gould, Hansjoerg Schellenberger, Michael Endres and others. Her discography includes many releases on Naxos, Stradivarius, EMI Germany, Atoll, and Rattle records. Recent recordings for Naxos records include the complete chamber music of William Shield with the Dorrit Ensemble and the Hummel Beethoven Symphonies and the Pleyel trio with the Pettman Ensemble.
Edith is a highly successful teacher, with many of her former students now having careers in professional orchestras or as chamber musicians. She was Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland and has, in recent years taught at the University of Melbourne. She is in demand for masterclasses and regularly teaches in Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Italy, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland.
In 2005, she founded the Pettman National Junior Academy, a privately sponsored scholarship program for highly talented young musicians. To date, this program has been going from strength to strength, with multiple international prize winners coming out of its ranks. Edith is the artistic director of the International Akaroa Music Festival, a chamber music and masterclass festival in Akaroa, NZ, and the Director of the Pettman Open Chamber Music Program, a concert career-development program for young musicians. She regularly tours with the Pettman Ensemble, the Jade String Quartet, and the Dorrit Ensemble.

Darren Skelton (clarinet) – wind category.

In 1985 at the age of 17 Darren interrupted his diploma studies at the Flinders Street School of Music to enlist as the youngest member of the Band of the South Australia Police, serving for three years as Principal Clarinettist performing across Australia as soloist in concerts and recordings. During this time he completed his diploma studies with distinction, studying primarily with Gregory Blackman.
After completing further study with Alan Vivian at the Canberra School of Music in 1989, Darren was appointed second and Principal Eb Clarinetist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, a position he still holds.
Whilst performing with the ASO, Darren also obtained a Bachelor of Music Degree in Orchestral Studies at the Flinders Street School of Music.
He has appeared as soloist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra, of which he was also Principal Clarinettist. Darren has performed in the Barossa Music Festival with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players and as a core member of the Adelaide Wind Quintet. He has also taught clarinet both at the Elder Conservatorium and the Flinders Street School of Music.

Penelope Cashman – piano category

Collaborative pianist Penelope Cashman draws audiences into vivid worlds of song, the shared human experience of poets and composers across time and culture. Her performances have been compared to “a Turner painting… iridescent” (GlamAdelaide). She has performed with singers at the Haus der Musik (Vienna), Ukaria Cultural Centre (SA), and the Holywell Music Room (Oxford). Her extensive repertoire ranges from Strauss and Puccini to Boulanger, Cawrse and Price.

During the 2024 season Penelope gave four world premiere performances of vocal chamber works, including two at the Adelaide Town Hall for Chamber Music Adelaide’s Perspectives series. Other recent projects include “And the Earth Turns” a semi-staged recital with soprano Bethany Hill, supported by Chamber Music Adelaide’s “Space to Create”. 2025 marks the inaugural season of Magpie Artsong, a recital series co-directed by Penelope and Kyle Stegall (tenor).

Penelope’s credits include serving as pianist for the WAAPA International Art Song Academy and the Bel Canto in Tuscany Summer Opera School (Italy). Opera work has taken her to the Pieve di San Leolino (Chianti, Italy), Theater Akzent (Vienna), and the Festival Theatre (Adelaide). As music director and pianist for Opera Queensland’s Moving Opera she performed for 22 schools and communities across Queensland. As repetiteur for State Opera South Australia, she has played for numerous productions including Così fan tutte and Madama Butterfly.

Penelope was adjudicator at the 37th National Liederfest (Melbourne) and has presented guest masterclasses at The University of Waikato Conservatorium of Music (NZ), the Elder Conservatorium, and for Co-Opera. A fluent German speaker, she teaches German and Italian lyric diction at the Elder Conservatorium. Her academic research regarding 19th century Viennese song repertoire and lyric diction pedagogy has earned awards from the Viennese Ministry of Culture and the University of Adelaide respectively. 

Penelope studied a masters in song accompaniment at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien (Austria). Penelope holds a PhD from the University of Adelaide and is also a graduate of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (The Netherlands), and the Australian National University.