Acclaimed Norfolk-based choral conductor to reside in Halifax

By Suzanne Hinman

Paul Halley, composer, conductor, organist and Grammy award winner, is departing Norfolk early this summer to pursue a new career in Halifax, Canada.

Halley, a Canadian, was lured back home by several challenging job offers. He will serve as Director of Music at both St. George’s Anglican Church and at University Kings College chapel. He will also join the faculty of the Atlantic School of Theology, where he will conduct a student choir and teach a course in liturgical music. “Down the road,” says Halley, “I hope to begin collaborating with Kings College in creating a church music school.”

Halley discovered Norfolk 16 years ago when he was told to contact Judy Meade about shooting a cover photograph for a CD he had just completed. Driving with Meade along the back roads of Norfolk, he found not only the perfect shot for his CD, but an ideal place to raise his three children, Vanessa, Samantha and Nick. Previously the Choir Director of St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York, he was ready to leave the hectic pace and social pressures of city life. “In Norfolk,” he says, “I found the space, freedom and peace that enabled me to become a more productive musician.”
Music was always at the center of Halley family life. When renting a house from the Robertson Alfords at Doolittle Lake, choir rehearsals were often held at home in front of the fireplace. Later, after marrying Meg Race, and moving up to the Meade’s house on Bald Mountain with their combined six children, their home was a frequent gathering place for family and friends. These gatherings inevitably ended with Paul at the piano surrounded by young and old, their voices raised in song. This was such an integral part of their family life that Vanessa Halley once remarked that it was years before she realized that it was not the norm for families to sing grace before dinner in perfect four-part harmony.

Sixteen years is a fleeting moment in the history of our town, but Halley has made a musical impact that will reverberate long into the future. He is perhaps best known locally as the founder of Joyful Noise, an umbrella organization that includes Chorus Angelicus, the children’s choir, Gaudeamus, the adult choral ensemble, the Battell Chamber Orchestra and The Battell Brass. Through Chorus Angelicus, he has inspired in children a life-long passion for music.

Filling Halley’s shoes will not be easy. The recently expanded board of directors of Joyful Noise has begun a global search for a new Artistic Director. Halley is optimistic that Joyful Noise will continue to grow and thrive, and hopes that someone will be found who will also take on his other current position as Music Director at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington. Trinity’s choir includes many members of Gaudeamus.
Halley’s own childhood was shaped by qualifying for a choir for boys and men in the Anglican tradition. “When our voices changed,” he recalls,” we simply moved one row back to the adult section.”

Borrowing from his own experience, young children in Chorus Angelicus learn from the older ones, and from performing with adult singers and musicians.  “Chorus Angelicus in isolation would be just another children’s choir,” says Halley. “It is the continuum between the two choirs that produces such high quality results.”

Many Chorus Angelicus alumni, as well as singing in Gaudeamus, continue to be involved with the organization, working in the Joyful Noise office and teaching and assisting with the children. It is this ongoing commitment that may well ensure the continuation of the organization.
Photo by Anne Day.