2026 Adjudicators

Speech Adjudicator: Arminelle Fleming

Arminelle Fleming is an actor and teaching artist with TheatreiNQ, an independent theatre company based in Townsville. She works with the company both as a performer and through ThiNQ Ed, TheatreiNQ’s education arm, which delivers theatre training for schools and educators across North Queensland. Arminelle is also the owner and operator of Acting with Arminelle (AwA), a Townsville-based acting studio supporting children and young people aged 5–28 years.

A Townsville local, Arminelle began her theatre journey at a young age, working with companies including Trellis of Lizards, La Luna Youth Arts, and Tropic Line Theatre (later Tropic Sun Theatre). She later relocated to Brisbane, where she graduated from the Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Arts (Drama/English). During this time, she worked with a range of respected companies including Matrix Theatre, Zen Zen Zo Theatre, and deBase Theatre.

Arminelle returned to Townsville after accepting a position with La Luna Youth Arts, continuing her professional acting work with Tropic Sun Theatre while deepening her practice as a teaching artist. She holds both a Bachelor of Arts (Drama) and a Master of Teaching from QUT and is a registered teacher. Her professional training includes national and international programs with Shakespeare & Co. (USA), Acting Coaching Scotland (UK), Trinity College London (UK), and Chopt Logic (Australia). In addition to delivering training programs across North Queensland, Arminelle is also a Teaching Artist Mentor with Queensland Theatre. Above all, Arminelle is passionate about live theatre and its power to connect, challenge, and inspire audiences and participants alike. She is deeply committed to sharing that passion with young people, educators, and fellow artists, and to fostering vibrant theatre practice within her community.

Music Adjudicator: Louise King

Louise King is an award-winning, internationally-trained, Australian-made cellist and a homegrown festival Artistic Director and music education program designer. She has lived and created on Gubbi Gubbi country, Sunshine Coast for twenty years.

Louise is an independent, crossover, contemporary cellist, equally comfortable in the sonic worlds of new music, experimental improvisation, classical, baroque, jazz and global folk traditions. She is an ABC classics, Corella and Naxos artist and her recording output includes twenty-two albums ranging from new music to baroque to collaborations with singer-songwriters.

As an award winning graduate of the Royal College of Music, London and Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, England and the Global Teaching Artist Lab at Juilliard School, Lincoln Centre, New York, Louise is in demand as a trained facilitator in music for social change and community engagement. She designs music programs for youth, community practitioners, professional development for teachers, and mentors emerging musicians.

Louise is the Artistic Director of Long Listen, a new boutique annual music festival on the Sunshine Coast, the founding inaugural Artistic Director of Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival, the Cello Dreaming Intensive Summer Retreat, and Rising Stars, an intensive chamber music program for emerging musicians. She is a guest tutor for the Australian and Queensland Youth Orchestras and guest coach for CGEN (Creative Generation).

Louise “exudes a vigorous artistry that surely appeals to a younger generation of music lovers” (The Australian) and has worked with leading Australian artists such as Kate Miller-Heidke, Katie Noonan, John Farnham, Jack Carty, Karl Williams, Ziggy Alberts, Eric Avery, Joe Geia, William Barton, Fred Leone and Kate Ceberano.

Choral Adjudicator: Chris Burcin

Chris is an active choral conductor, teacher and performer. He is Cultural Middle Leader at St. Monica’s College, an all-girls Catholic school and the oldest school in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, where he teaches Music and Junior Maths. Chris worked with Gondwana Choirs, led by Lyn Williams OAM, as choral conductor at National Choral School in Sydney and with the Cairns Gondwana Indigenous Choir from 2013-2019. Since 2020, he has regularly conducted vocal ensembles in regional Queensland and Brisbane as part of The Queensland Conservatorium’s State Honours Ensemble Programs (SHEP), Queensland’s state-wide program for gifted and skilled young musicians. In 2021 & 2023 Chris toured the state as an adjudicator of the Queensland Choral Fanfare Regionals & Regional Finals. He has adjudicated the choral and vocal sections of the Townsville Eisteddfod (2023) and Mackay Eisteddfod (2022).

He was Associate Conductor with the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir (2007-2008) and performed as a member of Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir for ten years, representing New Zealand nationally and internationally. Chris’ choirs have won many awards including Gold Awards at the Queensland Catholic Schools Music Festival (QCMF), and Silver and Bronze Awards at The Big Sing National Finale, NZ. When not performing or conducting, Chris sings with Cairns and Regional Opera (CARO) Voices and masquerades as an instrumentalist, performing on piano and accordion with Tango Amor.