Latest news

	OUP signs Cecilia McDowall
	Oxford University Press has announced the signing of Cecilia McDowall as an Oxford composer. The OUP press release states that 'McDowall's music is praised for its originality, directness and integrity, and has won her widespread acclaim. Her music is as at home in the concert hall as it is in the cathedral, and she writes effectively for professional musicians, amateurs, and children.'
	Tango Oscuro
	Cecilia McDowall's Tango Oscuro is featured on Dancing in the Dark - a new Chaconne Brass CD from Deux Elles (catalogue number DXL1141). The CD is available from Deux Elles Classical Recordings
	New 2009 choral and vocal CD
...exuberant and ingratiating...irresitible ...has all the potential for widespread appeal	A new CD of Cecilia McDowall choral music, CDLX 7230, has been released on the Dutton Epoch label. Works included are Laudate (2008), Radnor Songs (2005, revised 2009) to words by Simon Mundy, A Canterbury Mass (2007), the anthem I have done what is mine to do (2006), the Christmas carol Now may we singen (2007) and the cantata Five Seasons (2006) to words by Christie Dickason. The CD is available from Dutton Vocalion. GRAMOPHONE REVIEW (2010) (See CDs) With consistently top-notch sonics and helpful presentation, this well-filled and most enterprising collection earns a strong recommendation.
	Deus, portus pacis
	Cecilia McDowall was commissioned by the Musicians Benevolent Fund to write an anthem, Deus, portus pacis, for the Festival of St Cecilia, which took place at St Paul's Cathedral in London at 11am on 18 November 2009. The preacher was the Revd Dr Cally Hammond from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and the readers were Richard Suart and Ruthie Henshall. Further information from the Musicians Benevolent Fund Deus portus pacis is published by OUP (November 2009)
	Grammy award
	Spotless Rose, recorded by the renowned Phoenix Chorale, conductor Charles Bruffy on the Chandos label, has won a Grammy award for Best Small Ensemble Performance. The disc, which was also nominated for the Best Classical Album award, includes performances of Cecilia McDowall's Ave Regina, Ave Maria and Regina Caeli, published by OUP.
	Out of the Cool
	Cecilia McDowall's The Moon Dances are featured on a new CD of British music, out of the cool, from flautist Susan Milan and pianist Andrew Ball, on the Metier label (Divine Art). There's also music by Richard Rodney Bennett, Robert Saxton, Arthur Butterworth, David Heath and Brian Lock. Further information from Divine Art Ltd The Moon Dances . . . this versatile and enjoyable piece opens with bright energy, and takes in a carnivalesque element. The slow movement establishes a darkening mien. It is crepuscular and insinuating and the flute's 'lost in the forest' tone, plaintive and regretful, is eventually displaced by the firefly glitter of the finale. Classic Online 2010
	If there are angels
This is a beautiful song exquistely written... this volume is worth getting for McDowall's song alone. David Owen Norris	Cecilia McDowall's song If there are angels is on the 2009 ABRSM Grade 8 Singing syllabus. The song is published in Boosey and Hawkes Song Collection Volume 2, and a recording is available here, for study purposes. The recording here is of the soprano, Nina Bernsteiner and pianist, István Bonyhádi If there are angels [This] volume saves the best till last. Cecilia McDowall's If there are angels, genuinely of today both in music and in the poem by Caroline Natzler, deserves to be in every singer's repertoire. David Owen Norris, Sheet Music Review September 2006
	British Composer Awards
	Cecilia McDowall has once again been short-listed for the British Composer Awards. A Canterbury Mass, composed for the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir and its conductor George Vass, has been short-listed in the 'Making Music' category of the awards. Three years ago, for the 2005 awards, McDowall was shortlisted in two categories, the motet Regina Caeli in the Liturgical music section, and her large-scale Stabat Mater for the Making Music Award. A Canterbury Mass is a setting of the missa brevis for unaccompanied SATB choir, and was premièred in Kent in June 2007. On that occasion it was performed as a concert work. Cecilia McDowall has enjoyed a long and happy association with the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir, which has commissioned and premièred many of her choral titles, including the Three Latin Motets, recently released on Chandos CHSA 5066 by the outstanding American chamber choir, the Phoenix Chorale conducted by Charles Bruffy, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3's The Choir last month. The British Composer Awards ceremony takes place on Tuesday 2 December 2008 at The Law Society in London, and the ceremony will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 7pm the following evening.
	A Song More Silent
	Four new CDs containing music by Cecilia McDowall released in autumn 2008 and spring 2009: Fire Island - Music for flute and piano, played by Anna Noakes and Caroline Palmer on Dutton CDLX7210. Includes Cecilia McDowall's The Moon Dances and Martin Yates' Sonata for flute and piano Spotless Rose - Hymns to the Virgin Mary, sung by the Phoenix Chorale, conducted by Charles Bruffy on Chandos CHSA 5066. Features Cecilia McDowall's Ave Regina, Ave Maria and Regina Caeli plus music by Britten and Howells. A Song More Silent: new works for Remembrance, performed by the Portsmouth Grammar School Chamber Choir and the London Mozart Players, conducted by Nicolae Moldoveanu on Avie AV 2147. Cecilia McDowall's Ave maris stella is featured alongside music by Lynne Plowman, Tarik O'Regan and Sally Beamish. Susan Milan - works for flute and piano, with Andrew Ball, on Metier msv 28510. Susan plays Cecilia McDowall's The Moon Dances and music by Richard Rodney Bennett, Robert Saxton and Dave Heath. The CD will be released early in 2009
	Christmas Music
	Looking for ideas for your choir this Christmas? Then do have a look at Cecilia McDowall's Christmas works list. Last year OUP published the fifteen minute cantata, Christus natus est, which has been a great success. Angelus Scored for SATB, solo soprano, children's choir (optional), this delightful cantata exists in three accompanying versions: a) chamber orchestra b) brass quintet, organ and percussion (1 player) c) organ OUP publish Now may we singen in a new collection of contemporary carols in the New Horizons series, The Ivy and the Holly, issue date 20 August 2008. Cradle Song for SA and piano is also published by OUP in For Him All Stars. Talking Turkeys (published by Gemini Publications) is a lighthearted setting of the Benjamin Zephaniah poem. A Christmas carol with a difference, it is scored for SATB, piano, double bass and glock. Other carols for SATB include the a cappella Annunciation, Of a Rose, Cantate Astra - all published by Gemini Publications. View a full list of Cecilia McDowall's Christmas music
	The Choir
	Ave Regina, Ave Maria and Regina Caeli were broadcast on The Choir, BBC Radio 3, on Sunday 12 October 2008, 6.30pm. The highly renowned Phoenix Chorale of Arizona have recorded the three motets on a CD entitled Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary (CHSA 5066), which has just been released on the Chandos label.
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