Archive Events

‘Sometimes richly tonal, sometimes more exploratory in harmonic range, her music is always full of invention…’
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

30 August 2026 | Presteigne Festival Eucharist

Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: St Andrew's Church, Presteigne, LD8 2AF, Wales, UK

Choir of King’s College, London
Patrick Allies,
conductor
Service to include:

Cecilia McDowall: Veni, Creator Spiritus
Cecilia McDowall
Missa Marie
Cecilia McDowallCelebration

29 August 2026 | Presteigne Festival | Bird of Time

Time: 7:30 pm
Location: St Andrew's Church, Presteigne, LD8 2AF, Wales, UK

James Gilchrist tenor
Rowan Pierce soprano
Ben Goldscheider horn
Choir of King’s College, London
Presteigne Festival Orchestra
George Vass conductor

Adrian Williams Concerto for string orchestra
Cameron Biles-Liddell Erlid (A Chase), for chamber orchestra | World premiere
Grace Williams The Dancers
Michael Zev Gordon The Gleam of Hidden Skies
Cecilia McDowall Bird of Time

28 August 2026 | Swedish Radio Choir | Baltic Sea Festival

Time: 9:30 pm
Location: Nordic Museum, Djurgårdsvägen 6–16, Stockholm, SE 114 93, Sweden

Swedish radio Choir
Marc Korovich, conductor
Ami-Louise Johnsson, viola
Concert to include:

Cecilia McDowallAlma Redemptoris Mater

27 August 2026 | Presteigne Festival | Opening Night

Time: 7:30 pm
Location: St Andrew's Church, Presteigne, LD8 2AF, Wales, UK

Rowan Pierce soprano
Imogen Whitehead trumpet
Jonathan Gunthorpe narrator
Alexander Knox The Soldier
Alex Wilson The Devil
Presteigne Festival Ensemble
Ruth Evans director
George Vass conductor

Cecilia McDowall The Night Trumpeter
Lillie Harris The aspens talk of rain | World premiere
Igor Stravinsky The Soldier’s Tale

Works for mixed chamber ensemble by Cecilia McDowall and Lillie Harris share this programme with Stravinsky’s pioneering music theatre work. Premiered in 1918 and conceived in collaboration with the Swiss writer C F Ramuz, the piece is based on a Russian folk tale, The Runaway Soldier and the Devil.

29 July 2026 | Exon Singers | John Rutter’s Birthday Madrigals

Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Tavistock Parish Church, 5A Plymouth Rd, Tavistock PL19 8AU, UK

Exon Singers
Joseph Judge, Artistic Director and Conductor
Programme to include:

Cecilia McDowall: Lonely Hearts
1. Autumn Migration                                    
                               2. Night Garden                                                                                               
                               3. Would like to meet…

29 July 2026 | Three Choirs Festival | A Song for St Cecilia

Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, South-West, UK

Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Charlotte Bowden
, soprano
Olivia Ray, soprano
Mark Padmore, tenor
John Savournin, bass
Philharmonia Orchestra
Samuel Hudson, conductor
Programme to include:

Cecilia McDowallA Song for St Cecilia (premiere in a new version for two trumpets and strings)
Rain, steam and speed

A sacred masterpiece – Beethoven’s radiant Mass in C speaks from the heart and is a beautiful, deeply personal contemplation of the divine. The intimate feel and yearning of the music is unusually moving and reflects Beethoven’s desire for the focus of the work to be on the human experience of being in church, rather than on an all-powerful God. Two vivid pieces by Cecilia McDowall, including her joyful A Song for St Cecilia, and Rubbra’s expressive Sinfonia da camera complete the programme of this impassioned concert.

28 July 2026 | Three Choirs Festival | Songs of the Sea

Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, South-West, UK

Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir
Roderick Williams, baritone
Philharmonia Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins,
conductor
Programme to include:

Cecilia McDowallAve Maris Stella

in anticipation of the forthcoming 200th anniversary of Gloucester Docks, experience the majesty of the sea in tonight’s dramatic concert from the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir and Philharmonia Orchestra. Feel the rolling swell of the Atlantic in Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and marvel at the sometimes peaceful, sometimes stormtossed waves evoked in Elgar’s ravishing Sea Pictures. Listen as the storm subsides into calm waters in Cecilia McDowall’s beautiful Ave Maris Stella and set sail with the British Navy in Stanford’s expressive Songs of the Fleet. The rich voice of renowned baritone Roderick Williams will deftly conjure the sea’s many moods, from tranquil to turbulent, from angry to awe-inspiring.

BBC Singers
Guy Johnston, cello
David Dunnett, organ
Ashley Grote, conductor
Concert to include:

Cecilia McDowallStanding as I do before God
Cecilia McDowall: Church bells beyond the stars

12 July 2026 | Genesis Sixteen Music at Rotherfield

Time: 3:00 pm
Location: St Denys' Church, East Sussex, TN6 3FD, UK

Genesis Sixteen Concert
Eamonn Dougan, conductor
Concert to include:

Cecilia McDowallSuch Splendor

11 July 2026 | The London Welsh Chorale | Lightwaves

Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Church of the Holy Spirit, Clapham, SW4 9JU, UK

The London Welsh Chorale
Dr Edward-Rhys Harry, 
conductor