About

Musique Royale announces a province-wide concert tour featuring Capella Regalis Choirs, directed by Nick and Vanessa Halley, with piano and organ accompaniment by Paul Halley, across Nova Scotia in June 2023, with 4 performances held in historic venues in Annapolis Royal, Liverpool, Mahone Bay, and Halifax. This will be the first Capella Regalis tour to include the newly-formed Girls Choir alongside the Men & Boys Choir.

Expect a feast for the ears showcasing the choir’s range of voices, from solos and duets to full ensemble singing. The program includes selections from the choirs’ Evensong repertoire this season, songs from various folk traditions, and of course fabulous Paul Halley arrangements for choir, organ, piano, and percussion. Founded in 2010, Capella Regalis is a Canadian charity dedicated to training singers within a centuries-old tradition, and performing choral music of the highest excellence.

About Capella Regalis

With the launch of the Capella Regalis Girls Choir in Fall 2022, girls and young women as well as boys and young men are now receiving a free music education in a centuries-old tradition. Capella Regalis is open to any child who passes a basic audition. Although we encourage donations from families who are able to support the program, there is no dues requirement. The choir also provides volunteer-based transportation from school to regular rehearsals for youth who otherwise would not be able to participate.

The choir regularly sings Choral Evensong in the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax, as part of the Cathedral’s Sundays at Four series, and rehearses twice weekly at St Andrew’s United Church, Halifax. The choir also performs concerts around Nova Scotia and beyond in a busy September – June season.

Annual performances include tour programs of sacred and secular repertoire from across the Western tradition, and the choir’s popular, annual Christmas series, To Bethlehem With Kings. In addition, Capella Regalis frequently collaborates with other organizations and world-class musicians in productions of major works such as J.S. Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, Handel’s Te Deum, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Monteverdi’s Selva Morale e Spirituale, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bizet’s Carmen, the Paul Winter Consort’s Missa Gaia/Earth Mass, Britten’s Saint Nicolas, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

Capella Regalis has hosted other choirs and performing artists from the local community as well as from across Canada for special projects and has itself received performance invitations from presenting venues across Nova Scotia, as well as venues in New Brunswick, PEI, Quebec, and Ontario. The choir has completed five tours in the Maritimes. The Scotia Festival of Music invited Capella Regalis to premier a work in the 2020 Festival line-up (postponed to 2022 due to Covid-19). Most recently, on May 1, 2021, during the Covid pandemic, Capella Regalis managed to produce an audio-video recorded performance of J.S. Bach’s Easter Cantata BWV 4, recorded with chamber orchestra in St Mary’s Basilica, Halifax, thanks to a project grant from Arts Nova Scotia. The video is available on this website and on the choir’s YouTube channel.

Capella Regalis has released three CDs: Love Came Down: Carols for Christmas (2019), Greater Love (2017) and My Eyes for Beauty Pine (2014), as well as various online performance broadcasts (visit our Shop and Video pages for more information). The choir has also collaborated with other non-profit organizations on charitable causes ranging from nature conservation to food drives, and has given performances hosted by different Lieutenant Governors of Nova Scotia over the years. The choir has provided many free, interactive choral performances in elementary schools in Halifax, and led workshops for other children’s choirs.

In addition to services, concerts, and recordings, the boys and girls of Capella Regalis enjoy a summer choir camp in the last week of August and other musically and socially enriching outings and experiences.

The journey to adulthood for any child is a challenge that has garnered the interest of researchers, educators, and social critics over the last few decades. A men and boys choir, with its built-in system of mentorship, is uniquely capable of addressing the issues of leadership, mental focus, and inspiration that boys and girls face at this stage of life. The result of such training is to access some of the greatest music humankind has produced over the last eight centuries.

Capella Regalis is a free program open to any boy or girl who passes a basic audition (although we encourage donations from families who are able to support the program, there is no dues requirement). The choir also provides volunteer-based transportation from school to regular rehearsals for boys and girls who otherwise would not be able to participate. Capella Regalis is a registered Nova Scotia non-profit society, and an educational outreach program of Musique Royale, a music presenting charity in Nova Scotia.