Tenebrae is proud to introduce the panel of internationally renowned composers who will form the jury for Undiscovered Voices: A Composition Competition for Emerging Composers in celebration of our 25th Anniversary.
Joanna Marsh
Joanna Marsh, an award-winning British composer, has established herself as a significant figure in contemporary classical music. Hailed by The Guardian as “one of today’s leading composers for the voice,” Marsh’s work is celebrated for its emotional depth, structural clarity, and ability to resonate on both intimate and grand scales.
Born in Bolton but raised in South Wales, Joanna’s early exposure to music came through her parents, who would soothe their young children to sleep with a record collection dominated by Romantic symphonies. The family also had a piano, and from an early age, Joanna enjoyed improvising and creating short pieces on it. Her father, Leslie, a Methodist minister, encouraged both his daughters to learn the organ, and they gained early public experience by playing at Sunday services when local Methodist churches were in need of an organist. At 12, Joanna attended Kingswood School in Bath, which at the time was predominantly attended by the children of Methodist ministers. There, she won a music scholarship and became increasingly focused on the organ, later pursuing her studies at the Royal Academy of Music (1988–89) and as an organ scholar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (1989–1992).
After graduating, Joanna began her career as a school organist, first at Cranleigh School (1992–94), followed by St. Peter’s, York (1994–97), and later Christ’s Hospital (1997–2000). During these years, she continued composing, primarily for ensembles she conducted. Encouraged by the warm reception her music received from colleagues, she chose to pursue composition more seriously. She began taking lessons with Richard Blackford and later with Judith Bingham, who became a pivotal mentor, guiding her in shaping a professional path as a composer.
Joanna Marsh’s compositional output spans a broad spectrum of genres, from orchestral and choral works to chamber music and song. Her pieces frequently delve into intricate polyphonic textures rich in harmonic dissonances and suspensions, reflecting her early fascination with medieval and Renaissance music. Her voice as a composer is recognized as having a distinctively contemporary edge, while embodying the craftsmanship of those formative influences.
Joanna’s music has been widely performed internationally, and she has been commissioned by prestigious ensembles, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Her BBC Radio 3 20-minute commission SEEN was featured by the BBC Singers at the 2023 Proms. For this work, Joanna collaborated with librettist Fiona Lindsay on a text exploring the stories of famous women from Greek mythology that have been misinterpreted over time. The work also incorporated live electronics by multi-instrumentalist and music producer Glen Scott.
In recent years, Joanna has enjoyed a special relationship with Cambridge choirs. In 2023, she was commissioned to write a triptych of anthems for The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, which included the prestigious opportunity to write for the college’s annual Advent broadcast. She also completed a five-year residency with the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, which culminated in the release of her album Sanctifica Nos in 2021. In 2022, she was honoured with a prestigious Ivor Novello Composer Award for her composition All Shall Be Well, praised by the panel as “a superbly crafted, elegantly original, and beautifully wrought work for voices.”
Joanna Marsh’s life in the Middle East since 2007 has opened up unique creative opportunities, including composing for the inauguration of the Burj Khalifa and writing a fanfare for Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Abu Dhabi. Living in Dubai, where there is no government-funded arts sector, Joanna has had to be proactive in creating opportunities, drawing on her deep network of collaborators and commissioners across the UK and Europe, while frequently engaging with artists visiting the region. Her 2020 album Flare takes its name from her commission for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The piece was inspired by the short story “Oil Field” by the Saudi writer Mohammed Hasan Alwan. The album also features performances by the BBC Singers, London Mozart Players, and The Choir of Royal Holloway, University of London, who commissioned her cantata Pearl of Freedom with librettist David Pountney. This work, which tells the story of suffragette Emily Davison, premiered on the centenary of the Representation of the People Act.
Beyond her commissioned work, Marsh is deeply reflective about the creative process. She champions boldness in compositional choices, urging others to take risks and trust their instincts. A dedicated mentor to young composers, she is also a passionate advocate for creative expression in all its forms.
Jason Max Ferdinand
Jason Max Ferdinand, Professor – Conductor – Composer – Speaker, is an inspirational musician, leader and teaching mentor whose gifts are sought after by choirs and orchestras in the USA and internationally.
Since 2022 he has served as the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Maryland, College Park, having spent the preceding 14 years as professor at Oakwood University, where he conducted the renowned Aeolians of Oakwood University.
He is the founding artistic director of The Jason Max Ferdinand Singers which since its inception in 2021 has performed to enraptured sell-out audiences. He led its debut at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 2024.
He is a published author and composer with GIA Publications, featuring the book Teaching with Heart: Tools for Addressing Societal Challenges Through Music, and The Jason Max Ferdinand Choral Series (Walton Music).
Ferdinand began his tenure at Oakwood University in 2008. Performing a repertoire from the baroque to the 21st century he led the Aeolians of Oakwood University in performances throughout the United States and in Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, the UK, Europe and Russia. In 2012 the Aeolians visited Moscow as part of the Russia-US Bilateral Presidential Commission on development of cooperation between Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama. The same year their performance at the 7th World Choir Games earned them three gold medals and the overall championship for the Spiritual category. In 2015 Ferdinand made his debut at Carnegie Hall conducting the Aeolians, the Altino Brothers Concert Chorale, and the Beyond Boundaries Symphony Orchestra. He directed the Aeolians as they accompanied soprano Kathleen Battle at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center in Birmingham, Alabama, as part of her “Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey” Concert Series. He returned to the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center in 2016 to direct the Alabama Symphony Orchestra as they accompanied the Aeolians in a collaborated annual Martin Luther King, Jr. tribute. The 2017 Aeolians won the coveted “Choir of the World Award” with Ferdinand being awarded the “Most Outstanding Director”. In 2018 his choir won three gold medals in the 10th World Choir Games and were overall champions in both the University Choir and Spiritual categories. In 2019 the Aeolians gave a landmark performance at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Convention with popular consent agreeing that “They broke the ACDA”. Their album The Aeolians was also released in 2019.
The unique circumstances of 2021 opened the opportunity to birth The Jason Max Ferdinand Singers in an online concert filmed for the VOCES8 Foundation’s LIVE from London festival. The ensemble began its unifying journey to breathe life into choral works of underrepresented composers and positively affect the cultural health of our world. The Jason Max Ferdinand Singers album Solace was released in 2021. In 2023 the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers performed at the ACDA National Conference in Cincinnati which included a surprise appearance from Jacob Collier. This followed their appearance on Saturday Night Live with Coldplay and Jacob Collier. He led its debut at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 2024. In 2025 they gave the Presidents Concert at the TMEA Convention.
Cultural maladies presented during the Covid pandemic inspired the compilation of Teaching with Heart: Tools for Addressing Societal Challenges Through Music to provide support and encouragement for music educators. He continues to actively compose and curates The Jason Max Ferdinand Choral Series for Walton Music. His greatest passion is watching the young composers and conductors he has mentored to become conductors and composers in their own right. He loves to teach and was honored to be the 2017-18 “Teacher of the Year” at Oakwood University.
Ferdinand maintains a busy schedule as guest conductor and lecturer at schools, universities, churches, and choral festivals and conferences, in both the USA and internationally. In 2025 he directed, amongst others, the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus at Severence Music Center and the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra. He is honoured in 2026 to guest conduct Seraphic Fire, the Houston Chamber Singers, appear at 2 ACDA Regional conferences as well as lead choirs at Carnegie Hall. He has enjoyed collaborations with Jacob Collier, Donald Lawrence, Take 6 and others in recent years.
A native of Trinidad & Tobago, Ferdinand received his Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance from Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), his Master of Arts in Choral Conducting from Morgan State University, and his Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of Maryland. He is thankful for his parents, Dr. T. Leslie, and Mary Ferdinand, who are both retired educators. He is married to Meka, a registered nurse, and they are the parents of Caleb, Ava, and baby Jamē.
Cecilia McDowall
Cecilia McDowall (b.1951) is one of the UK’s leading composers of sacred and secular choral music and has won many awards including, in 2014, the British Composer Award in the Choral category for her haunting work, Night Flight. McDowall’s distinctive style fuses fluent melodic lines with occasional dissonant harmonies and rhythmic exuberance. Her music has been commissioned and performed by such leading organisations as the City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, BBC Singers, The Sixteen, Tenebrae, Oxford and Cambridge choirs, Kansas City Chorale and at festivals worldwide.
In 2020 McDowall was presented with the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for a ‘consistently excellent body of work’. This was a ‘Gift’ from The Ivors Academy. Many of her works have
been recorded, including her sacred works by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 2021. Also in 2021, McDowall was given the coveted annual commission by King’s College,
Cambridge, to write the carol for the Choir of King’s College and their music director, Daniel Hyde, to be part of the much-loved Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast worldwide on Christmas Eve. The carol, There is no rose, is published by Oxford University Press and has been recorded by St Martin’s Voices on Resonus Classics, 2023.
In 2023, Signum released a CD of McDowall’s Da Vinci Requiem and orchestral song cycle, Seventy Degrees Below Zero, performed by Roderick Williams, Kate Silver, Ben Hulett,
Wimbledon Choral with the City of London Sinfonia, conductor Neil Ferris.
International Record Review has praised her for “a communicative gift that is very rare in modern music”.