Cecilia McDowall

Cecilia McDowall (born 1951 in London, England) is a British composer, particularly known for her choral compositions. Life and career Born in London, McDowall attended Grey Coat Hospital School and read music at the University of Edinburgh, continuing her studies at Trinity College of Music in 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. In 2014 she won the British Composer Award for her choral piece Night Flight. Her publisher since 2010 has been Oxford University Press. Since 2015, she has been Visiting Composer in Dulwich College, London. In 2015, she served on the panel for a Women Composers Competition of The Arcadian Singers of Oxford. She lives in Chiswick. Music McDowall’s music has been commissioned and performed by both professional and amateur choirs. A commission from the Portsmouth Festival Choir, The Shipping Forecast, gained her national media attention in June 2011. The work draws together the poetry of Seán Street, the psalm ‘They that go down to the sea in ships’, and the words of the Shipping Forecas