The Caroling Competition secures some of the brightest and best musical people in our community to judge this event each year. They willingly devote five nights from their busy holiday schedule to the fair and equitable adjudication of this Competition.

ANTONIO ARROYO, (Tony) has always been a lover of choral music. Educated in Spain by the Salesian Brothers, he studied guitar, violin and mandolin. He is an active member of both his school and church choirs and participated in numerous competitions throughout the country.

YVONNE BARCLAY is a multi-faceted musician. Born in Cuzco, Peru, she studied piano with Eduardo Pimentel and Jorge Delgado, a disciple of Claudio Arrau in Chile. She studied cello with Prof. Andre Benoit and guitar with Jean Peirre Sirois. She has played with the Ibanez Chamber Music Group, Miami Symphony and the Orquestal Cuzco.

GENE COKEROFT for 40 years, the Director of the Singing Miamians of Pinecrest, an a capella singing group. A local boy, he graduated from Miami Edison, attended FSU and MDCC, studying music theory and sight singing. He’s a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society, a certified music judge, a nationally recognized arranger, songwriter, vocal coach and chorus director. He now serves as a workshop clinician for High School Youth Harmony Workshops, teaching young people how to sing in harmony.

MARY CRABILL, a graduate of Denison University, received a B.A. with special emphasis on drama and dance. Her forte has always been musical production. She performed in summer stock musicals and served as Director of Arts for the Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church Arts Forum. She was a Drama Teacher at Westminster Christian School.

JEFFREY HALLER, a S. Florida resident for 11 years, is a member of the councils of Sarasota, Glimmerglass, Metropolitan and Florida Grand opera companies, started Musical Makers in 2003, with the intention of offering unknown theater to international audiences.

LARRY LAPIN, pianist, composer, arranger and educator, has performed with jazz greats Gerry Mulligan, Sarah Vaughn, Cab Calloway & Tony Bennett. His arrangements are performed all over the country, most recently by Peter Nero and the Philly Pops. He is currently professor of jazz studies and director of the studio music and jazz vocal program at the University of Miami.

FRANK LYNN is a graduate of Westminster Choir College with a double major in organ and conducting. A student of Alexander McCurdy, he received his Master in Music from Temple University. He has sung under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, Bruno Walter, Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini. A realtor and resident of Coral Gables, he has been a judge since 1988.

ADELE de los SANTOS received her Bachelor of Music from Barry University and her Master of Music from the University of Miami. A Miami-Dade County School teacher for 34 years, she opened the music program at Homestead Senior High and established a Magnet music program at Southwood Middle School for the performing arts, where she taught for ten years.

KEVIN RUTLEDGE, graduated Howard University where he performed with the University Civic Chorale. With a Master of Music from UM, his internship was at the Duke Ellington School in Georgetown. Fine Arts Chair at Miami Northwestern Senior until 2008, he was Lead Teacher of the Performing and Visual Arts Center and taught Piano, Choir, and Music Theory. He's twice honored as Teacher of the Year. Active in church music for 30 years, he is Music Director for Universal Truth Center, served as Musical Director for the Urban League's Inner City Children's Choir and Greater Miami Boys Choir. An adjunct faculty at MDCC, he founded the Music Business Institute, an educational forum dedicated to the fundamentals of the Music Industry

CAROLYN STANFORD graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music. Awarded a John Hay Whitney Fellowship, she studied at the Akademie fur Darstellende Kunst in Vienna. Professor (Emeritus) Stanford began teaching at Drake University and the State University of New York at Fredonia. She taught at UM for 15 years, retiring in 1994 as Full Professor. Since retiring she serves as Instructor of Voice in the Music Department at FIU. a Grant Panelist for the Florida State Division of Cultural Arts and Miami Dade County Cultural Affairs, and an adjudicator for the National Foundation for Advancement of Arts.

TERESITA WESSELS, educated in Havana, Cuba, took lessons in music, guitar and voice at an early age. Life gave her many opportunities to share musical experiences with composers and musicians both in Cuba and Spain. She participated in many musical events and with children’s choruses in South Africa, Mexico, Nigeria, New York and Holland. Now a permanent resident of Coral Gables, she is a member of the choir at St Thomas The Apostle Church

CANDACE WICKE, known to the Competition from her years as the award winning Director at Lourdes Academy, she made her Carnegie Hall conducting debut in 2002. In 2008 she is appearing with the Vienna Philharmonic at the prestigious Festival de Musica Sacre in the Vatican. Currently she is Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for Creato Continuo and Interim Director of Music and the Arts at Central Presbyterian Church in Summit, NJ. She received her doctorate from UM and is a graduate of Evangel University.