Cecilia McDowall
Born in London in 1951, Cecilia McDowall has won many awards, including the 2014 British Composer Awards for choral music, for which she has been short-listed seven times. Her music has been commissioned and performed by leading choirs – including the BBC Singers, ensembles and at major festivals both in Britain and abroad – and has been broadcast on BBC Radio and worldwide.
Commissioned works include: the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund St Cecilia Anthem for the service of St Cecilia at St Paul’s Cathedral, sung by the joint choirs of Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral and St Paul’s Cathedral, and liturgical works for Durham and Liverpool Cathedrals; a commission from the BBC (for the BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year); the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, Jeremy Huw Williams, baritone, David Juritz, violin, conductor, Anthony Hose at the Beaumaris Festival; the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus in conjunction with the NE Community Choir for performance in Aberdeen in October 2011, and, from the City of London Sinfonia, a commission from the Scott Polar Research Institute to celebrate the centenary of Scott’s death in 1912, which was performed in the Birmingham Symphony Hall in February, 2012.
Another choral work, The Shipping Forecast (commissioned by the Portsmouth Festival Choir), gained national media attention. In March 2015 Dulwich College gave the premiere of Some corner of a foreign field at King’s College, Cambridge with the tenor soloist, James Oxley, and the Centenary of the First World War was marked by the chamber opera, Airborne.
Much of her music is on disc; the Deux-Elles label has recorded her works for flute and piano and wind ensemble, performed by Ensemble Lumiere and pianist, Richard Shaw (Piper’s Dream) and includes the specially commissioned Arctic Circle (for piano and wind quintet). Dutton Epoch has released four CDs performed by the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir, Orchestra Nova, conductor, George Vass, and the Joyful Company of Singers, conductor Peter Broadbent. Three Antiphons has been recorded by the International Celebrity Trumpet Ensemble consisting of players from the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic on the Brass Classics label. The renowned American choir, Phoenix Chorale, has recorded Three Latin Motets on the Chandos label (Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary). This CD won a Grammy Award in February 2009 and was nominated for Best Classical Album. Current projects include a disc of choral and organ repertoire from Trinity College, Cambridge, conducted by Stephen Layton, Standing as I do by the choir of NFM Wroclaw on Signum, and Hilary Campbell’s Blossom Street Choir recording of Come Home, Little Sister.
Cecilia is a house composer with Oxford University Press and she is currently composer-in-residence at Dulwich College, London. In 2013 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of Portsmouth. Cecilia’s Da Vinci Requiem, for choir and orchestra, received its world premiere at the South Bank Centre in May 2019 from the Wimbledon Choral Society. In August 2018, the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain gave the first performance of Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo. Her future commission diary includes an anthem for King’s College, Cambridge and a carol for St John’s College, Cambridge.
