Sarah MacDonald MA FRCO ARSCM (b. 1968)
Fellow and Director of Music, Selwyn College
University Organist, University of Cambridge
Director of the Girl Choristers, Ely Cathedral
President, Royal College of Organists
Works published by MoV
Crux fidelis (SATB)
Hymn for the Feasts of St Joseph (T solo, TBarB (& opt. A in German))
Let the silent voices sing
O beata Trinitas (S (some divisi) and organ
Crux fidelis (SATB)
An anthem for Passiontide, or for use on Holy Cross Day (14th September). This piece was especially written for this first volume of the Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers.
I have used the Latin phrase ‘Faithful Cross’ as a meditative refrain, and I hope that the mantra-like repetition of this motif will evoke in listeners both an emotional and a prayerful response to the image of the crucifixion. By contrast, the narrative words of Emily Dickinson and Emilia Lanier tell the story of the cross more literally, from the point of view of the faithful thief, and of an observer. Emily Dickinson uses no punctuation apart from the dash (–), which I have rendered in the music with rests. Singers should observe the rests accurately, even when they occur in the middle of sentences, since that reflects Emily Dickinson’s own idiosyncratic and unconventional syntax, as she attempts – hesitatingly – to discern truth. (Sarah MacDonald)
Sarah MacDonald (b. 1968)
Sarah MacDonald is a Canadian-born organist, conductor and composer, currently living in the UK, where she is a Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of the Girl Choristers at Ely Cathedral. She has been at Selwyn since 1999, and is the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge chapel. MacDonald studied at Toronto's Glenn Gould School and at Cambridge University; her teachers were Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, John Tuttle, and David Sanger.
MacDonald has performed across the UK, North America, the Middle East, and mainland Europe, and is in demand internationally as a conductor, organist, and teacher. She has made over 35 commercial recordings and has over 60 published works for choir and organ. She holds the Fellowship diploma of the Royal College of Organists, and writes a popular monthly column for the American Guild of Organists' magazine, The American Organist.
Her first solo disc, a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations performed on the Steinway-D piano in Ely Cathedral was released in May 2024.
In 2018 MacDonald received the honorary ARSCM (Associate of the Royal School of Church Music) in recognition of her contribution to choral music. Sarah took up the office of President of the Royal College of Organists in July 2024. She is an Honorary Patron of the Herbert Howells Society, a Patron of the Society of Women Organists, and President of the School Organists’ Association. She was appointed University Organist at Cambridge in 2022, and is the first woman to hold that prestigious ceremonial role, which dates back to 1670
Photo: Nick Rutter