Cecilia McDowall facts for kids

Cecilia McDowall (born in London, England, in 1951) is a talented British composer. She is especially known for writing music for choirs, which are groups of singers.

A Life in Music

Cecilia McDowall grew up in London. She studied music at the University of Edinburgh and then at Trinity College of Music in London. She also earned a master's degree in composition.

She has won many awards for her music. She was chosen seven times for the British Composer Awards. In 2014, she won a British Composer Award for her choral piece called Night Flight.

Since 2010, her music has been published by Oxford University Press. This means they help share her music with the world. Since 2015, she has been a special Visiting Composer at Dulwich College in London. She lives in Chiswick.

Her Amazing Music

Cecilia McDowall's music is performed by both professional and amateur choirs. A "commission" means someone asks her to write a new piece of music for them.

One of her famous pieces is The Shipping Forecast. She wrote it for the Portsmouth Festival Choir in 2011. This music uses poems, a psalm (a religious song), and even words from the actual Shipping Forecast. The Shipping Forecast is a special weather report for ships at sea.

Many of her choral works are inspired by interesting stories or ideas.

• 70 Degrees Below Zero was written for the Scott Polar Research Institute. It was part of a festival celebrating the explorer Robert Scott in 2012.
• Night Flight was composed in 2013. It honors Harriet Quimby, the first American woman to fly across the English Channel.
• Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo (2018) is a five-part cantata. A cantata is like a story told through music. This piece is based on the true story of Nujeen Mustafa, a brave girl from Aleppo.
• The large-scale Da Vinci Requiem was written in 2019. It uses words from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks and from a traditional Requiem Mass. It was written to mark 500 years since da Vinci's death.

She has also written other choral pieces using traditional religious or literary texts. These include the Stabat Mater and the Three Latin Motets. Her piece Adoro te devote was written for the Westminster Cathedral Choir.

While she is best known for choral music, Cecilia McDowall also writes other types of music:

• Stage works: These are pieces for the stage, like her chamber opera Airbourne. An opera tells a story using singing and music.
• Orchestral music: This is music for a full orchestra. Examples include Great Hills and Dance the Dark Streets.
• Chamber and instrumental music: This is music for smaller groups of instruments. Some examples are Dream City for flute, clarinet, harp, and strings, and her String Quartet No 1.

Selected Recordings

Here are some notable recordings of Cecilia McDowall's music:

• Rise heart; thy Lord is risen, All shall be Amen (2023)
• Da Vinci Requiem, 70 Degrees Below Zero (2023)
• Sacred Choral Music (2021)
• Works for Organ (2021)
• If I Touched the Earth (2020)
• A Time for All Seasons (2019)
• Colour of Blossoms (various chamber music) (2017)
• Three Latin Motets (No. 3) (2015)
• Laudate (2009)
• Spotless Rose (2008)
• Stabat Mater, On Angel's Wings, Three Latin Motets (2007)
• Proclamation (2006)
• Seraphim (2005)
• Ave maris stella , Magnificat (2004)
• Piper's Dream (2002)