Biography

Paul Honey’s musical career began as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, where he sang daily in the choir. He is a graduate of at Southampton University where he studied music history, composition and orchestration. Since graduating, he has enjoyed a highly varied musical life, working as a composer and arranger, performer, musical director and producer.

Early on in his career he worked primarily as a pianist and keyboard player. For some years he toured with the acclaimed Asian vocalist Najma Akhtar. The group performed worldwide, including at many WOMAD festivals as far afield as Australia, Japan, North America and Europe. However, in the last few years he has concentrated on working as a composer, initially for Film and TV, but he has now shifted his focus to composing solely for live performance.

Paul has composed music for a wide variety of productions, including the quirky comedy of BBC1’s Blandings, the BAFTA winning Old Jack’s Boat (recorded with the BBC Philharmonic and BBC National Orchestra of Wales), the BBC Natural History Unit’s series Earth’s Wildest Waters and the documentary feature The Atom: A Love Affair.  He was nominated in 2023 for a Royal Television Society Award and a Music and Sound Award for his score for the documentary feature The People’s Piazza: A History of Covent Garden.

Most recently, Paul has been collaborating with the award-winning poet and visual artist Gregory Warren Wilson. An album of settings of Gregory’s evocative poetry is due for release on the Quartz label in June. The album features the Locrian Singers with the cellist Justin Pearson, soprano Grace Davidson alongside harpist Jean Kelly and Justin Pearson, tenor James Gilchrist with pianist Anna Tilbrook, baritone Johnny Herford accompanied by Matthew Fletcher and mezzo soprano Frances Gregory. The music has received broadcasts both on BBC Radio 3 in the UK and NPO Klassiek in the Netherlands. Live performances of Paul and Gregory’s work include A Wing of Light at the Dartington Festival and Songs of Ice and Snow at Late Music, York.

Paul and Gregory continue their creative partnership in 2025 with a collection of comic cabaret songs for tenor voice and piano, Trysts, Tristesse and a Tepid Tango, and in complete contrast, a short opera for solo voices, choir and orchestra titled Pierrepoint: The Hanging Man.

Other works include a collection of orchestral arrangements of traditional Irish music, curated with the violinist Dermot Crehan, titled Toss The Feathers Suite and Three Irish Songs. Premiered at St Martin in the Fields in London, an album of the music was recorded by the RTE Concert Orchestra and has been re-released on major streaming platforms.