Cecilia McDowall

Last updated

Cecilia McDowall (born 1951 in London, England) is a British composer, particularly known for her choral compositions. [1]

Contents

Life and career

McDowall attended Grey Coat Hospital School and read music at the University of Edinburgh, continuing her studies at Trinity College of Music, London and later completing an MMus in composition. She studied with Joseph Horovitz, Robert Saxton and Adam Gorb. She has won many awards and has been short-listed seven times for the British Composer Awards. [2] In 2014 she won the British Composer Award for her choral piece Night Flight. [3]

In 2010, Oxford University Press signed McDowall as an 'Oxford' composer. Since 2015, she has been Visiting Composer in Dulwich College, London. [4] In 2015, she served on the panel for a Women Composers Competition of The Arcadian Singers of Oxford. [5]

Music

McDowall's music has been commissioned and performed by both professional and amateur choirs. A commission from the Portsmouth Festival Choir, [6] The Shipping Forecast, gained her national media attention in June 2011. [7] The work reflects the mystery and force of the sea, drawing together the poetry of Seán Street, the psalm 'They that go down to the sea in ships', and the words of the Shipping Forecast itself.

Her choral works often take their inspiration from extra-musical influences. [8] The large scale Da Vinci Requiem was written to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death. It was premiered by the Wimbledon Choral Society and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on 7 May 2019. The five-movement cantata Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo (2018), was based on Nujeen Mustafa's biography, retold by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Night Flight was composed in 2013 to commemorate the pioneering flight of American aviator Harriet Quimby across the English Channel. Its first performance was given by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge at the Fringe in the Fen Festival on 6 July 2013. Another cantata, 70 Degrees Below Zero, was commissioned by the Scott Polar Research Institute and the City of London Sinfonia as part of the Scott 100 Festival of Events in 2012, and premiered at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on 3 February 2012. [9]

Other choral pieces include When time is broke (Three Shakespeare Songs), written for the BBC Singers in 2016, Adoro te devote for the Westminster Cathedral Choir in 2015, and another large scale work, the Stabat Mater, for St Albans Choral Society in 2004. [10] Also from that year, the Three Latin Motets were commissioned by the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir in 2004, and have since been recorded by the American choir Phoenix Chorale.

Although choral music dominates her output, McDowall has also composed four stage works (including the chamber opera Airbourne, 2014), orchestral music (such as Great Hills for solo violin, 2 flutes and strings, 2007, and Dance the Dark Streets, a concerto grosso with piano obbligato, 2005), and a considerable body of chamber and instrumental music (including Dream City for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet, 2002 [11] and the String Quartet No 1, subtitled the case of the unanswered wire, from 2004. [12] The impressionistic Y Deryn Pur ('The Gentle Dove') was written for the 2007 Presteigne Festival and scored for oboe, violin, viola and cello. [13]

Selected recordings

Notable recordings of McDowall's music include:

Related Research Articles

William Southcombe Lloyd Webber was an English organist and composer, who achieved some fame as a part of the modern classical music movement whilst commercially facing mixed opportunities. Besides his long and prestigious career, composing works ranging from choral pieces to instrumental items and more, he is known for being the father of both fellow composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and virtuoso cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. He also notably served as a teacher, instructing pupils on music theory at the Royal College of Music for many years until his death in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Milford</span> English composer (1903–1959)

Robin Humphrey Milford was an English composer and music teacher.

Rutland Boughton was an English composer who became well known in the early 20th century as a composer of opera and choral music. He was also an influential communist activist within the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toivo Kuula</span> Finnish composer (1883-1918)

Toivo Timoteus Kuula was a Finnish composer and conductor of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods, who emerged in the wake of Jean Sibelius, under whom he studied privately from 1906 to 1908. The core of Kuula's oeuvre are his many works for voice and orchestra, in particular the Stabat mater, The Sea-Bathing Maidens (1910), Son of a Slave (1910), and The Maiden and the Boyar's Son (1912). In addition he also composed two Ostrobothnian Suites for orchestra and left an unfinished symphony at the time of his murder in 1918 in a drunken quarrel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armstrong Gibbs</span> English composer (1889-1960)

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs was a prolific and versatile English composer. Though best known for his choral music and, in particular, songs, Gibbs also devoted much of his career to the amateur choral and festival movements in Britain. Although his music is rarely played today he attained a high level of popularity in his lifetime. His slow waltz "Dusk" for orchestra and piano earned him more royalties than any of his other works combined. It was requested by Princess Elizabeth to be performed on her 18th birthday.

Susan Gritton is an English operatic soprano. She was the 1994 winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award and has sung leading roles in a wide-ranging repertoire from Handel and Mozart to Britten, Janáček and Strauss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Hurd (composer)</span> English composer, teacher and author (1928 - 2006)

Michael John Hurd was a composer, teacher and author, principally known for his dramatic cantatas for schools and for his choral music.

The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge is a mixed choir whose primary function is to sing choral services in the Tudor chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. In January 2011, Gramophone named the choir the fifth best choir in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Russell Hulme</span> Welsh conductor and musicologist

David Russell Hulme is a Welsh conductor and musicologist. He is an emeritus reader and the former director of music at Aberystwyth University and is known for his research and publications on the music of Arthur Sullivan, the composer of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. He is also an authority on the music of Edward German.

Benjamin James Dale was an English composer and academic who had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music. Dale showed compositional talent from an early age and went on to write a small but notable corpus of works. His best-known composition is probably the large-scale Piano Sonata in D minor he started while still a student at the Royal Academy of Music, which communicates in a potent late romantic style. Christopher Foreman has proposed a comprehensive reassessment of Benjamin Dale's music. Dale married one of his students, the pianist and composer Kathleen Richards in 1921.

Saint Peter's Singers (SPS) is a chamber choir associated with Leeds Minster, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England that celebrated during the Season 2017/2018 the fortieth anniversary of the choir's formation by Harry Fearnley in 1977. An anniversary concert took place at Leeds Minster on Sunday 25 June 2017 with the National Festival Orchestra and soloists Kristina James, Joanna Gamble, Paul Dutton and Quentin Brown. Further anniversary year events included Bach Cantatas and Music for Christmas at Fulneck Church in August and December respectively, Handel Coronation Anthems at Holy Trinity, Boar Lane as part of the Leeds Handel Festival in September and a tour of East Anglia in October. In November at Leeds Town Hall, the Singers participated in Herbert Howells's masterpiece Hymnus Paradisi with Leeds Philharmonic Chorus and Leeds College of Music Chorale under the direction of Dr David Hill with the Orchestra of Opera North. 2018 began with a concert of Sacred Choral Masterworks at Leeds Town Hall in February and Bach's Mass in B minor at Leeds Minster on Good Friday 2018 in memory of long-serving member Jan Holdstock. The final concert of the current season takes place at Leeds Minster on Sunday 24 June at Leeds Minster at 5.30. At this event will be presented the first performance of a new work from composer Philip Moore commissioned for the Singers' 40th anniversary – the motet Tu es Petrus – along with music by E W Naylor, Arvo Part, Sir Hubert Parry, Judith Bingham and Maurice Durufle.

Ronald Geoffrey Corp, is a composer, conductor and Anglican priest. He is founder and artistic director of the New London Orchestra (NLO) and the New London Children's Choir. Corp is musical director of the London Chorus, a position he took up in 1994, and is also musical director of the Highgate Choral Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Owen Norris</span> British pianist, composer, academic, and broadcaster

David Owen Norris, is a British pianist, composer, academic, and broadcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Arcadian Singers</span>

The Arcadian Singers of Oxford is an independent, student-run chamber choir based in Oxford, England, originally formed in 1976 as a madrigal choir. It is a leading choir in the city and performs a wide range of music. Jamie Powe is the current musical director of The Arcadian Singers. Previous conductors have included Christopher Ward and Alexander Campkin.

Paul Spicer is an English composer, conductor, and organist. He taught choral conducting at the Royal College of Music and conducted the RCM Chamber Choir between 1995 and 2008. Until his retirement in July 2022 he also taught at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and conducted their chamber choir which records for Somm Records. He also teaches at Oxford and Durham universities. Since 2004 he has been the conductor of the Petersfield Festival. He was Senior Producer for BBC Radio 3 for the Midlands Region based in Birmingham between 1984 and 1990 after which he moved to be artistic director of the Lichfield Festival. He also produced for various record companies over many years. He founded the Finzi Singers in 1984 making many recordings for Chandos Records. He conducts the Birmingham Bach Choir and the Whitehall Choir in London. His compositions include two oratorios for Easter and for Advent with libretti by the Dr Tom Wright and a choral symphony 'Unfinished Remembering' (2014) to a libretto by Euan Tait commemorating the outbreak of World War 1. He runs a series of choral courses under the banner of The English Choral Experience based mainly at Abbey Dore in Herefordshire.

Roderick Gregory Coleman Williams OBE is a British baritone and composer.

The Fairhaven Singers is a chamber choir based in Cambridge, UK, directed by Ralph Woodward. The choir is a mixed ensemble of about 48 amateur singers singing choral repertoire from the 15th century to the present. Among the major works it has performed are Bach's St John Passion and St Matthew Passion, Mozart's Requiem, Brahms' Requiem, and James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross. It has commissioned and premiered new works from composers that have included Jonathan Dove, Will Todd, Bob Chilcott, Carl Rütti and Cecilia MacDowall.

The London Oriana Choir is a choral group comprising around 120 singers, based in London, England. It was formed in 1973 by Leon Lovett, who acted as conductor and musical director. David Drummond became the choir's musical director in 1996, and Dominic Ellis-Peckham began his term as musical director in September 2013. The choir has developed a following through performances at London venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank, St Paul's Cathedral, St Martin-in-the-Fields and St James' Piccadilly. In 2016 the choir launched a five-year project 'Five 15' to promote the work of women composers with 15 new commissions from five composers, workshops and recordings. The five commissioned composers-in-residence were Cheryl Frances-Hoad (2016/17), Rebecca Dale (2017/18), Jessica Curry (2018/19), Anna Disley-Simpson (2019-2021), and Hannah Kendall (2021/22). Composer Cecilia McDowall accepted the role of Patron of the choir in 2021. The choir celebrates its 50th anniversary in the 2023/24 season and has commissioned a new piece from Cecilia McDowall, to be premiered at a gala concert at St John's Smith Square in March 2024.

Ēriks Ešenvalds is a Latvian composer, mainly of choral music. From 2011 to 2013 he was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

Joseph Phibbs is an English composer of orchestral, choral and chamber music. He has also composed for theatre, both in the UK and Japan. Since 1998 he has written regularly to commissions for Festivals, for private sponsors, and for the BBC, which has broadcast premieres of his orchestral and chamber works from the Proms and elsewhere. His works have been given premieres in Europe, the United States and the Far East, and he has received prestigious awards, including most recently a British Composer Award, and a Library of Congress Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Award. Many of his works have been premiered by leading international musicians, including Dame Evelyn Glennie, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Sakari Oramo, Vasily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, and the Belcea Quartet.

References

  1. ↑ "Biography". Ceciliamcdowall.co.uk. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  2. ↑ "The Ivors Academy | Champions of Music Creators". The Ivors Academy. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  3. ↑ Gramophone, 3 December 2014
  4. ↑ "Visiting Composer - Cecilia McDowall - Dulwich College". Dulwich.org.uk. Archived from the original on 1 February 2018. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  5. ↑ "Women Composers Competition – The Arcadian Singers of Oxford". NewMusicScotland.co.uk. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  6. ↑ Portsmouth Festival Choir Archived 29 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine , UK.
  7. ↑ "Music inspired by Shipping Forecast". BBC News . UK: BBC. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  8. ↑ Conway, Paul, Notes to Hyperion CD A68251 (2021)
  9. ↑ Notes to Signum Classics CD 749 (2023)
  10. ↑ Barlow, Jill. 'Cecilia McDowall's Stabat Mater and Night Trumpeter', in Tempo, Vol. 59, No. 232 (April 2005), pp. 84-85
  11. ↑ Conway, Paul. 'Review', in Tempo, Vol. 60, No. 237 (July 2006), pp. 66-67
  12. ↑ Conway, Paul. "Presteigne Festival 2004" in Tempo', 'Vol. 59, No. 231 (Jan., 2005), pp. 44-45
  13. ↑ Robert Matthew-Walker. Notes to British Chamber Music, SOMM CD 0653 (2022)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.