A free music education in a centuries-old tradition.  Inspiring and accessible professional performances.

Capella Regalis is a Canadian charity dedicated to training singers and to offering excellent choral music presentations to the public. Founded in Nova Scotia by director Nick Halley in 2010 to build upon the best aspects of the centuries-old 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). Our children's choirs are free and open to any child who passes a basic audition.

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, and engage the public in many music outreach initiatives.

Annual performances include tour programs of sacred and secular repertoire from across the Western tradition, and the popular, annual Christmas series, A Chorister's Christmas. In addition, Capella Regalis frequently collaborates with other groups and world-class musicians in productions of major works such as J.S. Bach’s Easter Cantata BWV 4, J.S. Bach's Saint Matthew Passion, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Bizet’s Carmen, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, Britten’s Saint Nicolas, Fauré's Requiem, Handel’s Te Deum, Monteverdi’s Selva Morale e Spirituale, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Orff’s Carmina Burana, the Paul Winter Consort’s Missa Gaia/Earth Mass, and Schütz's Musikalische Exequien. 

Access to excellence.

In the performing arts world, a major barrier to participation is cost. At Capella Regalis, we are passionate about making professional-level choral music available to everyone because music has the power to transform the life of a person, whether that person is a child finding their voice or a listener finding beauty in a soul-stirring performance. We are also committed to maintaining a level of excellence in singing because we believe it is essential to the preservation and development of our cultural heritage.

Our free Probationers Program introduces children as young as six years old to the basics of music literacy and the joy of singing.

Our free Boys Choir and Girls Choir advance the musical and social growth of choristers through a disciplined approach to music studies. The result of this training for the children is access to some of the greatest music humankind has produced over the last 1,000 years, including new repertoire that responds to and expands that heritage.

Our free Young Men’s Program gives teenage boys with changing voices a pre-professional music training and leadership skills within a mentorship-based framework to help them navigate the challenging journey to adulthood. Many of our Young Men go on to become paid singers in our Men's Choir. 

Capella Regalis supports the artistic practice of professional musicians living and working in Nova Scotia and across Canada. Our Men’s Choir employs a roster of professional adult singers to provide the alto, tenor, and bass voices for Capella Regalis performances, forming the backbone of our annual season of professional presentations, together with instrumentalists and other collaborating artists.

The two goals of musical excellence AND accessibility for everyone inform all Capella Regalis programming decisions. The choirs regularly provide free or pay-what-you-can access to artistic online presentations of major works in tandem with their live performances. Capella Regalis also partners with local organizations to present free, family-friendly performances of iconic works such as Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and Fauré's Requiem. The choirs share a diverse range of musical repertoire with schoolchildren through free, interactive performances in local elementary schools. Most recently, Capella Regalis embarked on a Community Music Literacy project to teach the basics of music reading through an online course made freely available for anyone to learn at their own pace. 

We invite you to visit capellaregalis.com for more information.