Meet the Adjudicators.

Voice/Choral/Speech Arts Adjudicator

Gail Hakala has led an active professional career as a singer, actor, educator, clinician and adjudicator from coast to coast. Gail holds a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Voice Performance and Literature from the University of Toronto. Equally at home in all genres of voice, her passion is evident in her fearless and playful approach to her adjudications.

Gail was a member of the Shaw Festival Theatre Company for nine years and 20 productions. Favourite roles at Shaw include Minerva in Mr. Cinders, Bonnie in Anything Goes, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan and Netta Lake in Cavalcade. Other favourite roles: Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera (Pantages Theatre and the Canadian tour), Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show (Bathurst Street Theatre), Domina in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Sudbury Theatre Centre), and the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella (Stage West Calgary). Gail has also starred on the concert stage with Patty LuPone, Betty Buckley and Mandy Patinkin in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (Pantages Theatre). Most recently, Gail was seen as Mavis in Church Basement Ladies (Victoria Playhouse Petrolia), Mrs. Paroo in The Music Man (Capitol Theatre), Mrs. Pearce in My Fair Lady and Aunt Eller in Oklahoma (Drayton Entertainment), Mrs. Barry/Mrs. Blewett in Anne of Green Gables (Charlottetown Festival) and Widow Corney in Oliver (Centaur Theatre).

Gail was the former Head of Music Theatre and Vocal Discipline at Sheridan College in the Honours Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance Program. She has also been the Resident Voice Coach at the Shaw and Charlottetown Festivals and Artistic Director and Advisor of The Toronto Youth Music Theatre Company. Gail is an active member of Canadian Actors Equity, ACTRA, CMFAA and NATS. Gail is thrilled to have been invited to do what she loves best, adjudicate music theatre and voice at the Sault Ste Marie Music Festival.

Strings Adjudicator

An award-winning violist and chamber musician whose playing has been described as "absolutely splendid ... dancing with emotion," (The Day) Dr Jamie Arrowsmith's career spans genres and pushes boundaries. He has collaborated with Asian and Arabic musicians as part of the London, UK-based Notes Inégales Improvisation Ensemble, and has appeared at several leading music festivals, including the BRAVO! Vail Valley Music Festival, the Strings in the Mountains Chamber Music Festival, and the Southbank Centre New Music Biennial. Jamie frequently appears as part of the Cambrian Concert Series, and continues to perform as a guest soloist and chamber musician around Northern Ontario.

Jamie holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Kent State University and Brunel University London. He has won numerous first prize awards as a chamber musician, including the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, the MTNA Chamber Music Competition and the Green Lake String Quartet Competition. In 2014, he joined the distinguished panel of judges for the Guangya Chengdu International Violin Competition in Chengdu, China. He has also been recognized by Northern Ontario Business as a 40 Under 40 award winner for community arts leadership, and was a co-recipient of the Joan Mantle Music Trust Community Award. In 2022, he was honoured to receive the Positive Impact Award from the Cambrian Student Council, for his work supporting student success and wellbeing. His academic work focusses on the intersection of professional and amateur practice in community orchestras, a topic for which he has published and presented papers at conferences around the world.

Jamie is the Music Director of the Sudbury Youth Orchestra, and the founder and director of the Sudbury Sound Collective Improvisation ensemble. He has also been Resident Conductor of the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra, and has twice been named as Music Director for the Northern Ontario Music Festival Honour Band. He is an active clinician and adjudicator, and continues to teach in the School of Music in Sudbury, Ontario, where he also maintains a private teaching practice.

Piano Adjudicator

A faculty member at Northwestern Michigan College since 1996, Dorothy Vogel teaches music theory, sight singing and ear training, class piano, and applied piano. Vogel also teaches on the summer piano faculty at Interlochen Center for the Arts and maintains an independent piano studio in Traverse City, Michigan.

She holds a B.M. in piano performance from Oberlin Conservatory, an M.M. in piano performance from Western Michigan University, and a D.M.A. in Music Education from Boston University. Her research articles have been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, and American Music Teacher. Nationally certified, she is also active in the Michigan Music Teachers Association as an adjudicator, guest lecturer, and former member of the executive board.

Previously, Vogel served on the faculties of Hope College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College and as staff accompanist at Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is currently principal pianist for the Traverse Symphony Orchestra, accompanist for the Grand Traverse Chorale, and an active chamber musician.