About

Musique Royale presents Capella Regalis Men & Boys Choir, directed by Nick Halley, as they return to the historic Saint John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg for a performance of its 16th annual Christmas concert series, featuring a fresh slate of carols arranged for choir, trumpet, horn, and organ.

This year’s program will reflect Nova Scotia’s multicultural population and celebrate the diverse heritage of our choir members with music in languages spoken by the choristers, from Arabic to Igbo!

The concert features Capella Regalis Men & Boys Choir, directed by Nick Halley (organ) with Gina Patterson (horn), Shaw Nicholson (trumpet), and guest appearance by Capella Regalis South Shore Program choristers.

This concert is a fundraiser for Lunenburg Food Bank & Second Story Women’s Centre.

About The Artists

Capella Regalis

Capella Regalis is a Canadian charity dedicated to training singers within a centuries-old choral tradition and performing choral music of the highest excellence. Founded in Nova Scotia by director Nick Halley in 2010 to build upon the best aspects of the European tradition of church choirs and to revitalize this method of music training in Canada, Capella Regalis now comprises a Boys Choir, Girls Choir, and professional Men’s Choir based in Halifax. In November 2024, Capella Regalis launched its South Shore Program, which provides weekly singing rehearsals in Lunenburg for children from Nova Scotia’s South Shore communities. All Capella Regalis children’s choirs are free and open to any child who is keen to learn music.

Capella Regalis Choirs regularly sing Choral Evensong in the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax, as part of the Cathedral’s Sundays at Four series. The choirs also perform concerts around Nova Scotia and beyond in a busy September – June season, and engage the public in many music outreach initiatives. Recent performances include J.S. Bach’s Easter Cantata BWV 4, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien, Rutter’s Visions, and the Paul Winter Consort’s Missa Gaia/Earth Mass; annual tour programs of sacred and secular repertoire from across the Western tradition, and the popular, annual Christmas series, A Chorister’s Christmas.

Capella Regalis has released four CDs, with a fifth one due out in time for this tour: Songs of the Sea (coming spring 2025), Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols (2023), Love Came Down: Carols for Christmas (2019), Greater Love (2017) and My Eyes for Beauty Pine (2014), as well as many online performance broadcasts. To see and hear audio and video recordings, find upcoming events, and learn more about the programming and philosophy of Capella Regalis, please visit https://capellaregalis.com.

Nick Halley

Nick Halley is a drummer/percussionist, keyboardist, composer, and conductor based in Nova Scotia, Canada. Born in New York City, he studied drumming and percussion with Jamey Haddad from an early age, majored in jazz and classical percussion at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and spent a year training and performing in Brazil prior to returning to New York City to attend The New School University’s jazz and contemporary music program.

As a drummer and world percussionist, Nick has performed and recorded internationally with a wide range of musicians including American musical icon James Taylor, Paul Halley, the late Oscar Castro-Neves, Glenn Patscha, Old Man Luedecke, Suzie LeBlanc, Chris Norman, David McGuinness & Revenge of the Folk Singers, Concerto Caledonia, and Viradouro Escola de Samba. Nick often performs with Dinuk Wijeratne in ensembles of musicians from around the world, including Kinan Azmeh, Nazih Borish, Joseph Petric, Roberto Occhipinti, and Sandeep Das. In 2008, Nick released his debut recording Barnum Hill, featuring Nick’s own compositions performed by Matt Brewer, Adam Niewood, and other young jazz stars, and produced and engineered by the late, great Tom Bates. Nick has taught workshops in percussion, music theory, and rhythm at Boxwood Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Interlochen Summer Festival, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (LAMP), and in other venues around the world.