CONDUCTOR

Paul Hale is Rector Chori & Organist of Southwell Cathedral, where he directs a distinguished professional choir in daily services, concerts, broadcasts and tours. Since September 1990 he has also been musical director of the Nottingham Bach Choir. Paul was a Music Scholar at Solihull School (where he won an Associated Board Silver Medal for his marks in Grade 8 organ) then Organ Scholar at New College, Oxford. He taught at Tonbridge School then moved to Rochester Cathedral as Assistant Organist. Whilst there he directed the Rochester Choral Society and the Tudor Consort singers. Paul is an Oxford MA and holds the FRCO and ARCM organ performing diplomas as well as a post-graduate teaching diploma. In 2006 he was elected an FRSA; in 2008 in Canterbury Cathedral he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Guild of Church Musicians for having ‘served the cause of church music with distinction’, following that with an honorary Fellowship of the Royal School of Church Music in May 2010.

In addition to his daily cathedral duties, NBC work and giving about two dozen recitals and lectures a year he is Diocesan Organ Adviser to Southwell and Lincoln (South), a Diploma Examiner for the Royal College of Organists, a Trustee of the Percy Whitlock Trust and of the Nottingham Albert Hall Binns Organ Trust, Chairman of the RSCM Southwell & Notts Area, an accredited member of the Association of Independent Organ Advisers, and is currently national Chairman of the Diocesan Organ Advisers’ annual Conference.

He is in wide demand as an Organ Consultant, currently/recently for projects as diverse as the civic churches at Doncaster, Wolverhampton, Darlington, Rotherham and King’s Lynn, Leicester’s De Montfort Hall and Lancaster’s Ashton Hall, Bridlington Priory, Glasgow and Exeter Universities and Merton College Oxford, Glenalmond, Repton and Solihull schools. He also designed the tonal schemes for the organs in the cathedrals of Rochester, Birmingham and Southwell, has supervised restoration work at Leicester and Oxford Cathedrals and is currently involved with organ projects at the cathedrals of Ripon, Newcastle (both CofE and RC), Nottingham RC, Manchester, Carlisle and Norwich.

As a player and choral conductor he has performed in many venues in England, in Europe and the USA, as well as on the major UK television and radio channels. He has appeared at the Three Choirs Festival and lectured at the St Albans International Organ Festival, and was a consultant and author/reviser of twenty-three articles for the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, responsible for 20th century organists. Paul was honoured by being elected President of the Cathedral Organists’ Association for the period 1999-2001. In 2005 he represented the UK in the annual Brussels Organ Festival; in September 2007 he performed by invitation at Ste Sulpice, Paris, and undertook a concert tour in Indiana and Illinois, USA in October 2008. 2009 saw Paul giving several Inaugural Recitals on new organs and the August Bank Holiday recital at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and 2010 finds him as busy as ever.

His recordings (both with his cathedral choir and also solo organ) have received critical acclaim in the national press including Gramophone. His solo concerts and appearances as Conductor of Nottingham Bach Choir have also received warm praise – “my most invigorating choral experience of the year” was the Church Times’ comment on the NBC Stanford Requiem.

Paul Hale has reviewed music and recordings for numerous publications including BBC Radio 3’s Record Review, and is internationally known for his writings in the journal of the IAO, Organists’ Review, of which he was Editor from 1990 to 2005.

Paul's official website can be found at www.PaulHale.org

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Roger became the accompanist and deputy conductor for the Nottingham Bach Choir in 2007. He brings great enthusiasm and passion for music and a broad experience as a conductor, soloist and accompanist. He has a special interest in working with choirs and choral societies in both sacred and secular repertoire. He directs the thriving Choral Society at Newark and is also Musical Director of the Trent Chamber Academy.