CHORUS ANGELICUS AND GAUDEAMUS: What Child Is This? Directed by Paul Halley

Chorus Angelicus and Gaudeamus

What Child Is This? Directed by Paul Halley

© 2006 Pelagos Incorporated (672590100523)

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A beautiful array of carols for Christmas, this newest offering from Paul Halley and his choirs is spiced with the adventurous harmonies, captivating lyricism, and fresh immediacy for which these choirs are celebrated.

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Paul Halley's renowned choirs Chorus Angelicus and Gaudeamus pair up for another spectacular offering. The choirs sing with precision and clarity while incorporating a warmth and immediacy to the performance of each song. What Child Is This? comprises a selection of the new, adventurous, and less familiar sacred Christmas repertoire, much of it performed in recent years in the choirs’ annual Christmas Angelicus concert series (now in its sixteenth season and broadcast annually by National Public Radio.) More than half the arrangements on the CD are Halley's work, which adds a refreshing, new sound to this mix of Christmas music. Halley’s arrangements and compositions, written for these choirs and previously unrecorded, deliver the adventurous harmonies and captivating lyricism for which he is celebrated. As Absolute Sound magazine observed in an earlier CD review "Halley's descants soar above ... fresh, audacious, and thrilling, lifting a familiar carol into realms of glory.”

About Paul Halley:
PAUL HALLEY, M. A. Cantab, FRCO, ARCT, was born in Romford, England in 1952 and received his early musical training in Ottawa, Canada, where he studied piano, organ and singing. At the age of sixteen, he was made an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. Having been awarded the organ scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge under Dr. Richard Marlow, he 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. Via a circuitous route involving two years teaching in Jamaica, W.I., and the study of Development Economics at the University of Victoria, BC, Halley became Organist and Choirmaster at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City where he served for thirteen years, 1977 to 1990, transforming the Cathedral’s music program into a rich combination of classical and contemporary music. Concurrent with his tenure at the Cathedral, Halley became a principal member of The Paul Winter Consort and earned four Grammy Awards for his contributions as featured writer and performer on many Consort recordings.

Following his departure from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1990, Halley settled in rural northwestern Connecticut and founded Joyful Noise, Inc., the non-profit organization which administers the children’s choir, Chorus Angelicus and the adult ensemble, Gaudeamus. These choirs continue to bring their celebrated sound to audiences throughout North America and Europe through an annual concert series of classical masterworks and contemporary repertoire, tours and recordings. In 1999, Halley became Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Church, Torrington, CT and established the Joyful Noise choirs there as Artists-In-Residence. At Trinity, Halley conducts a 30-voice, semi-professional choir, mentors an Organ Scholar from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music, and creates fresh hymn descants and new settings of liturgical music. Halley has expanded the church’s music ministry to include monthly Vespers services, and the Trinity Arts Series, a forum for the work of professional musicians and artists in a sacred space.

Halley’s compositions have been commissioned, performed and licensed by many notable artists and organizations including Sony Entertainment, Windham Hill/BMG Music, Hal Leonard, the New Jersey Symphony, John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra, The Louisville Symphony, Canadian Brass, Margie Gillis, and Jennifer Muller and The Works. Halley receives annual Composer Awards from ASCAP, and his recordings and performances are frequently broadcast on National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Recently commissioned works include a song cycle for singers Louise Winter and Gerald Finley, and the new choral/orchestral work “In Sideribus Domi: At Home In The Stars” for the Clay Center of Science and Art, Charleston, WV through the auspices of the American Composers Forum.

Halley’s compositions and recordings are produced and distributed by Pelagos Incorporated for which Halley acts as Creative Director. Among Pelagos’ celebrated recordings are: Nightwatch, a reissue of Halley’s landmark 1982 improvisation album, recorded on the Great Organ of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine; Sound Over All Waters, a compilation of Halley’s choral works and arrangements for gospel singer Theresa Thomason and the professional choral ensemble, Keramion; Triptych, Halley’s keyboard works for the unique trio of piano, pipe organ, and harpsichord, recorded at Spivey Hall in Atlanta; and Untraveled Worlds, a glorious compilation of world music repertoire presented by Chorus Angelicus.

Halley lives with his wife and business partner Margaret Race on a mountaintop farm in Norfolk, Connecticut. With their six children, they make an annual pilgrimage to the islands off the south shore of Nova Scotia to spend summer days messing around in an endearing catboat which rejoices in the name, “Magnificat”. A fondness for the province is the tenable excuse for an imminent job change and relocation. Beginning July 2007, Halley will assume the Music Directorship of three venerable Halifax institutions: St. George’s Anglican Church, the Atlantic School of Theology, and King's College Chapel, where Halley hopes to establish an Organ and Choral Scholars Program, and a School of Sacred Music.

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