Eleanor Daley

Childhood and Education

Eleanor Daley grew up in Parry Sound, Ontario. Her father was a doctor, her mother a homemaker and an amateur singer and pianist. Eleanor and her three brothers all received music lessons from an early age. She played in a rhythm band at age four, started piano lessons at five, and accompanied school choirs and musical theatre productions from elementary school onwards. Daley also played the flute and sang in choirs until the end of high school. She began playing the organ in high school as well and accompanied services at a Baptist church in her final year.

Daley received a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1978. She also holds diplomas in piano and organ from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, and Trinity College, England. While at Queen’s, she worked as an accompanist for various groups within and outside the university. This exposed her to a large variety of choral music; British-Canadian composer Healey Willan became a favourite. After graduation, she continued to freelance in and around Kingston as an accompanist and church choir director for three years.

Choir Director and Accompanist

In 1981, Eleanor Daley moved to Toronto in search of better opportunities as a freelance musician. In January 1982, she became director of music at Fairlawn Heights United Church (now Fairlawn Avenue United Church), where she has remained ever since. At Fairlawn, she established a thriving choral program, consisting of a semi-professional adult choir, a children’s choir, and an intermediate choir (middle school/high school age).

Daley also continued to freelance. As an accompanist or choral clinician, she has worked with the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Toronto District School Board and various theatre groups and choirs, notably the Elmer Iseler Singers, Amadeus Choir and Bach Children’s Chorus.

Early Compositions

Although Eleanor Daley did not study composition in university, she began composing regularly at Fairlawn. It happened “by accident,” as she describes it, and “out of necessity” due to a lack of variety in the music available there. She said in an interview, “One day, I decided that I would go out of my mind if we did one of [the few available introit songs] again: so I started to write some for the choir. I realized that I really enjoyed doing this, and [...] decided to write one every week.”

Soon, Daley expanded from introits to a wider range of vocal church music: descants, psalms, pieces for the full choir and solo quartets, as well as anthems. Much of this early work has remained unpublished.

Public Recognition

Through her work as an accompanist in the 1990s, Eleanor Daley connected with other choral conductors such as Lydia Adams (then conductor of the Amadeus Choir), Linda Beaupré (Bach Children’s Chorus) and Elmer Iseler (Elmer Iseler Singers). These connections became instrumental in her career: through observation and collaboration, Daley, who had not formally studied conducting, gained conducting experience of her own. More importantly, in the early 1990s, her colleagues began performing Daley’s compositions and commissioning new pieces.

The first recording of Daley’s music appeared in 1992, when the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir included her song, Rejoice and Sing This Christmas Morn, on their CD Christmas at Roy Thompson Hall. One of her first commissions was the Requiem for the Elmer Iseler Singers, which premiered under Iseler’s direction in 1993; in 1994, it won the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors’ National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Composition of the Year.

Published Work and International Commissions

Eleanor Daley’s first published work was a book of introit songs. Since then, more than 160 of her works have been published by publishing houses in Canada, the US and Great Britain. Hundreds more are unpublished. There are over 90 recordings of her music.

Daley has received commissions from all over North America and Europe. In Canada, choirs that have commissioned works include the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Amadeus Choir, the Bach Children’s Chorus, the Toronto Children’s Chorus, the Amabile Youth Singers (London), St. Marys Children’s Choir (York), the Cantabile Singers of Kingston, the Savridi Singers (Calgary), the Vancouver Men’s Chorus, the Victoria Scholars, and other community and church choirs. USA commissions include the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay (Florida), Texas Women’s University Choir, the Alliance World Festival of Women’s Singing in Salt Lake City, the Texas Choral Directors Association, and many others. In Europe, commissions came from the Norbusang Festival in Bodø, Norway, the Touch the Future Festival in Germany, and the Oxford University Press in England.

Daley’s work is performed worldwide. Some of her compositions have been part of the syllabus of the Hong Kong Choral Festival. Notable vocal ensembles, such as Voces8 and The Gesualdo Six, include her works in international tours and recordings.

Career Highlights

Eleanor Daley’s work has received multiple awards from the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors (ACCC). Her compositions Requiem (1994) and Rose Trilogy (2004) each won the National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Composition of the Year. The recording of Requiem by the Amadeus Choir in 2002 won the National Choral Award for Outstanding Recording of the Year.

In 2005, Daley was invited to be the Composer-in-Residence for FESTIVAL 500 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. In 2008, she was the first Canadian composer to receive a commission from the American Choral Directors Association. In 2022, Daley was appointed Officer to the Order of Canada for “her contributions to Canadian music and choral culture as a renowned composer and accompanist.”

Genre and Style

A large portion of Eleanor Daley’s work is sacred, with much of it composed for the choirs at her church. Apart from a few pieces for organ or piano, her work is exclusively choral. Describing her creative approach, she stresses that “the text is the beginning point, and [...] the music must serve the text.” Accordingly, her work is recognized for its rich word-painting and acclaimed for its “sensitive interweaving of text and music.”

Daley’s compositional style is influenced by Herbert Howells, Healey Willan, Morten Lauridsen and Felix Mendelssohn. Her music is tonal, harmonically rich and accessible to both audiences and singers. Daley herself states that she composes with the singers in mind.

Important Works

Eleanor Daley best-known works include (in alphabetical order):

• grandmother moon (SATB), setting of a mystical text by Mi'kmaq poet Mary Louise Martin
• I Sing of a Maiden (SSAA), performed in 2014 by a 400-voice all-female choir in New York to celebrate International Women's Day
• Requiem (SATB), ACCC award winner; the fourth movement, In Remembrance, is often performed and recorded alone
• Rose Trilogy (SSA), ACCC award winner
• The Huron Carol (SATB and SSAA versions)
• The Lake Isle of Innisfree (SSA), which Daley describes as representative of her style

Honours and Awards

• Outstanding Choral Composition of the Year (Requiem), Association of Canadian Choral Communities (1994)
• Outstanding Choral Composition of the Year (Rose Trilogy), Association of Canadian Choral Communities (2004)
• Louis Applebaum Composers Award, Ontario Arts Foundation (2020)
• Officer, Order of Canada (2022)
• Doctorate of Laws (LLD), Queen's University (2023)