Paul Halley is a Grammy Award-winning composer, choral conductor, and organist. He is Director of Music of The University of King’s College Chapel Choir and of The Cathedral Church of All Saints in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

            Born in Romford, England in 1952, Paul Halley was raised in Ottawa, Canada where he received his early musical training as a chorister and assistant organist with The Men and Boys Choir of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church.  At age sixteen, he was made an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto.  Awarded the organ scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, Halley received his M.A. with prizes in composition and performance, and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, winning first prize in the College examinations.  Following four years post-graduate work as a church musician and teacher in Montreal, QC, Jamaica, W.I., and Victoria, BC, 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 his tenure at St. John The Divine, Halley collaborated with The Paul Winter Consort, contributing as principal writer and keyboardist on multiple Grammy Award-winning albums released in the 1980’s and 1990’s. 

            Following his departure from the Cathedral in 1989, Halley settled in rural Connecticut and founded the children’s choir, Chorus Angelicus, and the adult ensemble, Gaudeamus.  In 1999, Halley became Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Church, Torrington, CT where he inaugurated a Choral and Organ Scholars program in conjunction with Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music.  In 2007, Halley relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia to become Director of Music at both the University of King’s College and St. George’s Anglican Church (to 2011), as well as University Musician at Atlantic School of Theology (to 2015).  In 2015 Halley became Director of Music at The Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax, a position which he holds in conjunction with his work at King’s, providing many opportunities for collaboration between the two institutions.

            Halley’s choral and instrumental compositions are distributed internationally by Pelagos Incorporated, the recording, music publishing, and arts management company which he established with his wife, Meg Race in 1998.  Halley’s compositions have been commissioned or licensed by such organizations as Sony Entertainment, John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra, CBC, The Toronto Symphony, and Canadian Brass.  In addition to a regular output of liturgical music, Halley composes three to four new, commissioned works per year.

            Paul Halley and his wife, Meg Race, an artist, live on the South Shore of Nova Scotia where they enjoy exploring the waters of Mahone Bay in a traditional Cape Cod catboat which rejoices in the name, “Magnificat”.