A Chorister's Christmas 2026

About

Capella Regalis Men & Boys Choir, directed by Nick Halley, will return to the historic Saint John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg for a performance of its cherished annual Christmas concert series now in its 17th year, presented by Musique Royale. The concert program will feature a fresh slate of carols, both ancient and modern, arranged for choir, trumpet, horn, and organ. Capella Regalis South Shore Program choristers will make a special guest appearance!

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

About the Artists

Capella Regalis

CAPELLA REGALIS CHOIRS is a Canadian charity dedicated to training singers 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 (including Young Men with recently changed voices) as well as two introductory choirs in Halifax, and a satellite program in Lunenburg for children from Nova Scotia’s South Shore communities. There are currently more than 120 children singing in Capella Regalis programs every week. All Capella Regalis 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, including the ground-breaking annual, free masterwork collaboration, For All The City (presentations to date include Fauré Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Haydn’s Missa in angustiis), the popular annual Christmas series, A Chorister’s Christmas, and annual tour programs of sacred and secular repertoire. In March 2026, Capella Regalis presented J.S. Bach’s St John Passion, inaugurating an annual spring masterwork performance series. Capella Regalis projects include top-notch musicians from around the world, and the choirs engage the public in many music outreach initiatives.

Capella Regalis has completed eight performance tours in the Maritimes presented by Musique Royale, and in May 2026 made an 11-day tour to Quebec and Ontario, with invitations at presenting venues in Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto. Capella Regalis has released five CDs, most recently Songs of the Sea (June 2025), as well as many online performance broadcasts. For more performances by Capella Regalis, please visit capellaregalis.com or YouTube.

Nick Halley

NICK HALLEY is a drummer/percussionist, keyboardist, composer, and conductor. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Capella Regalis Choirs, and Assistant Director of Music at the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax. Nick founded and for eleven years (to 2021) directed The King’s Chorus, a choral society for members of the King’s and Dalhousie University communities. Nick also served as Assistant Director of the University of King’s College Chapel Choir from 2008 to 2021. As an educator, Nick is passionate about making musical excellence accessible to people of all ages and diverse backgrounds, and about helping people to – quite literally – find their voice. In 2012, Nick was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his contribution to Canada and Nova Scotia through the arts, particularly for his work with Capella Regalis. For the 2013-14 season, Nick was broadcast across Canada as Host of CBC’s national radio program Choral Concert.

As a drummer and world percussionist, Nick performs and records internationally with a wide range of musicians including with American icon James Taylor, Dinuk Wijeratne, Kinan Azmeh, the late Nazih Borish, Layale Chaker, Roberto Occhipinti, Sandeep Das, Old Man Luedecke, Chris Norman, Suzie LeBlanc, Viradouro Escola de Samba, the late Oscar Castro-Neves, Glenn Patscha, Mike Murley, and Paul Halley. He has been a featured performer with Orchestra symphonique de Montréal, Symphony Nova Scotia, Scotia Festival of Music, LAMP, Boxwood Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, and Morgenland Festival (Germany), among others, and has taught rhythm, music theory, and improvisation at workshop venues around the world. He is featured on many recordings, including a CD of his own compositions performed by an ensemble of young jazz stars (Barnum Hill, 2008). nickhalley.com.

Paul Halley

PAUL HALLEY is a multi-Grammy Award-winning composer, keyboardist, and choral conductor. He is the Director of Music at The Cathedral Church of All Saints in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Born in England, Halley was raised in Ottawa, Canada where he received his early musical training with The Men and Boys Choir of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church. Awarded the organ scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, Halley received his M.A. with prizes in composition and performance. Following four years post-graduate work in Canada and Jamaica, Halley was appointed Organist and Choirmaster at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City where he served for twelve years from 1977-1989. During that time, Halley collaborated with The Paul Winter Consort as principal writer and keyboardist. Halley later settled in rural Connecticut, founded the children’s choir, Chorus Angelicus, and the adult ensemble, Gaudeamus, and served as Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Church, Torrington, where he inaugurated an Organ Scholars program in conjunction with Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. In 2007, Halley relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia as Director of Music at the University of King’s College (to 2021), also becoming Director of Music at All Saints Cathedral, Halifax in 2015. Halley’s choral and instrumental compositions have been commissioned or licensed by such entities as Sony Entertainment, the Boston Pops Orchestra, CBC, The Toronto Symphony, and Canadian Brass, and are distributed internationally by Pelagos Incorporated (pelagosmusic.com).

For more please visit:
https://pelagosmusic.com/about/paul-halley