A message from our Don Krehbiel, our Director of Music:
“In September of 2022, I commissioned Paul Halley, Grammy award-winning composer, choral conductor, and organist, to compose two pieces for piano and organ. We received these pieces earlier this month and Alan Dyer and I are excited to premiere them this Sunday, February 26th. With the knowledge that we would be performing these pieces during Black History month, I requested that he incorporate an African American spiritual into one of the pieces, and also requested that the dedication on the title page of these pieces read: “Commissioned by First Unitarian Church of Dallas in honor of their commitment to social justice and racial equity”. I hope you can be in attendance as we offer these two pieces during our morning services.”
More on Paul Halley:
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 of 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 to 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 (to December 2021) 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 he held in conjunction with his work at King’s, providing many opportunities for collaboration between the two institutions. Although retired from King’s, Paul continues to inspire as Director of Music at the Cathedral and hopes to expand the Cathedral’s current music program to include a new concert series.