A year after the University of Portsmouth awarded Cecilia McDowall an honorary doctorate they commissioned an organ work from her, to be performed at each of the graduation ceremonies in 2014. Celebration was written especially to accompany the academic procession and was performed on the mighty Guildhall organ by David Price (University Organist). 'I've tried to capture some of that sense of excitement and joy that fills Portsmouth's Guildhall on these occasions and I have woven into the fabric of the piece a quotation from "To Portsmouth", a cheerful round about the city written by Thomas Ravenscroft at the turn of the seventeenth century.'
