A ROSE IN WINTER 2025 - a celebration of Christmas in song and story

One concert only this year - please get your tickets early.

A ROSE IN WINTER

A celebration of Christmas in song and story

The Choir of All Saints Cathedral

directed by Paul Halley
'A Rose In Winter' 2025
Sunday, December 14, 2025, 4:00 PM
The Cathedral Church of All Saints
1 330 Cathedral Lane, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 2Z1

Produced by TO THE POINT PRODUCTIONS
Tickets available here at

Tickets sold here on Eventbrite are for the Sunday, December 14, 2025 performance at The Cathedral of All Saints, Halifax - 4:00 pm. HALIFAX PERFORMANCE

This year there will not be an additonal performance in Lunenburg. Apologies to our Lunenburg friends who have supported our concert in the past at St. John's. We hope you'll come to the Cathedral for our single performance this year.

A ROSE IN WINTER - A celebration of Christmas in song and story.
Grammy Award-winner Paul Halley directs The Choir of All Saints Cathedral in a concert performance celebrating this joyous season. A program of choral music and readings from an impressive array of composers and authors will inspire the soul and warm the heart. Members of the choir will act as narrators, reading the stories and poems that alternate with the choral offerings in the program.

A Rose in Winter, now in its fourth year with the Cathedral Choir, has become a Christmas tradition for audiences in Nova Scotia. The Halifax concert sells out weeks in advance of the concert date, so the purchase of tickets as early as possible is advised. The Halifax concert takes place in the beautiful and historic Cathedral Church of All Saints on Cathedral Lane. Please note that there is only one performance of this beautiful concert this year.

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Notes from Paul Halley in his Mailchimp mailing of October 31, 2025:
'This year, because of personnel and scheduling challenges, we are only offering the one presentation of ‘A Rose in Winter’ at the Cathedral on December 14th at 4:00 p.m. Sadly, we have decided not to hold a second concert at St. John’s, Lunenburg, the lovely carpenter-gothic structure that was host to many of our concert in past years. Barbara and Janelle at Musique Royale were very welcoming as always; the difficulty was entirely on our end, trying to sort out a rehearsal schedule with our singers that would jibe with all the other Christmas concerts and engagements in their schedules. Apologies to all our friends and supporters on the South Shore; we urge you to make the drive to the Cathedral this year to hear the concert.
On the good news front, the Cathedral Choir are in fine fettle and keen to offer a broad range of repertoire from Josquin to Lauridsen, including a healthy smattering of Renaissance compositions and twentieth century classics from Howells and Warlock.
Our poster this year features a painting by the artist, Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932), entitled "An Upland Stream" (1904) which reminded Meg and me sufficiently of a Nova Scotian upland scene on a sunny winter day that we decided it would be fitting for our poster.'

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A description from the Cathedral website declares the building to be worth a visit on any occasion, and it is especially suitable for a choral concert since the accoustics are unmatched.

"To step into All Saints Cathedral is indeed to experience scenery that its rather plain grey stone exterior belies. Soaring arches highlighted in deep reds and gold rise toward the vaulted ceiling nearly seven stories in height! The sights and sounds of the busy city of Halifax, which has grown up around All Saints over the past 100 years, are hushed in the vast expanse bathed in the soft colors of the striking stained-glass windows, and warmed by the intricate oak carvings.
An architectural jewel, the cathedral is one of the finest examples of perpendicular gothic style in Canada. To appreciate the cathedral’s beauty, one only must see its great east window commemorating the sacrifice of the people of the Diocese who gave their lives in World War I or the Bicentenary window marking the 200th anniversary of the arrival of our first bishop, Charles Inglis.
Notable features include the intricate wood carvings of Robert “mousie” Thompson in the sanctuary, the chancel and the signature pulpit. Altogether these carvings took 30 years to complete and are the only example of Thompson’s work in Canada. Equally notable is the cathedral’s 5,000 pipe organ, the second largest in the Maritimes."

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The Halifax performance of A Rose In Winter is a presentation of TO THE POINT PRODUCTIONS, Margaret Race, proprietor, on behalf of Paul Halley and members of The Cathedral Choir. Margaret Race and Paul Halley have collaborated on music productions for more than thirty years, presenting concerts, and building non-profits and music publishing enterprises. If you have questions, please contact Margaret Race through the Contact section of this Eventbrite listing organizer profile. Please do not contact the Cathedral about this event.

About P aul Halley

Paul Halley is a Grammy Award-winning composer, choral conductor, and organist, living and working in Nova Scotia, Canada. Paul currently serves as Director of Music and Organist at The Anglican Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax. Notably, Paul was Director of Music at The Cathedral of St. John The Divine, NYC, and was a long-time member of The Paul Winter Consort. From 2007 to 2021, Paul directed The Chapel Choir of The University of King's College in Halifax, earning acclaim for the ensemble through concert performances and recordings with audiences locally and worldwide. Paul's choral and keyboard recordings, and his extensive catalogue of sheet music, are available from Pelagosmusic. In January 2023, Paul was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for his Service to Arts and Culture in Nova Scotia by the Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Nova Scotia.

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About The Choir of All Saints Cathedral, Halifax

The 20-voice Cathedral Choir comprises an ensemble of professional singers and choral scholars from the city of Halifax and environs. Its members include some of Nova Scotia’s finest young singers, most of whom were trained by Paul Halley since his arrival in Halifax in 2007, and who are now accomplished soloists in their own right. The Cathedral Choir sings at the 11:00 am Choral Eucharist and 4:00 pm Evensong on Sundays, from September through early June, as well as services on Feast Days, Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter. The choir is also presented in two seasonal concerts each year, at Christmas (A ROSE IN WINTER - A Celebration of Christmas in Song & Story) and in the late Lenten season (PASSION - Music of A Thousand Years), by TO THE POINT PRODUCTIONS, and Musique Royale.

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