Cecilia McDowall is another of the new generation of highly communicative musicians who favours writing which, without being in any way facile, is brightly cogent, freshly witty and expressive in its own right.
She constantly tweaks the ear with her range of spicy rhythms and colours then suddenly produces a highly atmospheric and grippingly expressive interlude which is just as compelling.
Gramophone
2014 British Composer Awards
Cecilia McDowall won the British Composer Award – Choral category – with ‘Night Flight’, for SSATB and cello solo.
2016 British Composer Awards
Cecilia McDowall was finalist in the Choral category with her Three Shakespeare Songs, ‘When time is broke’ performed by the BBC Singers, conductor David Hill.
Honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music 2017
Cecilia McDowall has been honoured as a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music for her outstanding contribution to church music. The RSCM Celebration Day service and ceremony took place in Canterbury Cathedral on 14 October, 2017
BBC Radio 3: on 2 December The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, premiere Cecilia McDowall’s Advent commission, ‘A Prayer to St John the Baptist’, conductor, Andrew Nethsingha, Glen Dempsey, organ. On iPlayer until 30 December.
Earlier this year the BBC Singers gave the London premiere of McDowall’s Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo with violinist, Harriet Mackenzie, James Morgan, conductor, a cantata inspired by Nujeen Mustafa’s remarkable escape from Aleppo; to be broadcast at a later date.
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