The South London Choir
The South London Choir is a non-auditioning community choir led by musical powerhouse, MJ Paranzino, the multi-talented singer/songwriter and musical director.
MJ believes that singing is a joyous and mutually uplifting experience for both audience and performer - and good for your health too!
The choir is very much a performing choir, appearing in many amazing venues and has been commissioned to put on special curated events, including at: Highclere Castle, Pylewell Park, The Royal Festival Hall, Westminster Hall, the Battersea Arts Centre and the V&A Museum annually. Pop-up vocal explosions, for commercials and television shows are another forte. If you join one choir, you are an automatic member of all four of MJ's Choirs (Brighton City Singers, Hastings Town Singers, South London Choir, West London Choir) which means you could be singing four times a week, as some members do.
At concerts and festivals, all four choirs come together, along with Liberty Choir UK, to see old friends and have the joy of singing in a mass choir.
See our Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok pages for recent activities.
Our charity partner is Liberty Choir UK - which was co-founded by MJ Paranzino and her wife, Ginny Dougary, and launched on 1 April 2014 in HMP Wandsworth. We are proud to have both volunteers and prison graduates across all four choirs, as the charity is now in ten prisons in London and the South-East.
2012 ... 2024
We've had many highlights in the past decade. Here are some outstanding moments in no particular order:
Heroes at Highclere Castle
A commissioned multi-media performance Heroes at Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey), singing alongside Alexandra Burke
The Christians at the Gate Theatre
A nightly appearance in the play The Christians by Lucas Hnath at the Gate Theatre in which all members of MJ's Choirs had a chance of performing as the resident gospel singers.
Curious Arts Festival
Performances at the Curious Arts Festival
"Rehearsing in the shade" in Ashdown Forest, home of Christopher Robin at the Curious Arts and ByLine Festival
Victoria & Albert Museum
Annual Christmas performance under the rotunda at the Victoria and Albert museum
Light Up The Ladies Bridge (Waterloo Bridge)
Performed at Thames Festival Light Up The Ladies Bridge
Battersea Power Station
Performed at Battersea Power Station festival
Lambeth Country Show
Annual fabulous gigs at the Lambeth Country Show
Battersea Arts Centre
Performed at Battersea Arts Centre's Battersea Sings 2023 A Day of Choral Celebration.
Annual Charity Concert
Every year to raise money for charities suggested by our choir members, we rotate around the locales of each of the four choirs. The choir members bake pies and cakes and make sandwiches for sale to go towards the charities. 2023 charity concert was with the children of Ravenstone Primary School, at St Mary and St John the Divine, Balham, South London.
Dulwich Choir Festival - 2024
The honour of being one of three choirs to perform at The Dulwich Choir Festival hosted by and alongside the amazing, aptly-named Tongue and Groove Choir and the virtuoso award-winning Meantime Chorus. Indoor photos property of Caro Swan.
Koestler Arts Awards
The opening and closing of the Koestler Arts Awards exhibition at Queen Elizabeth Hall in the Southbank Centre
Liberty Choir Fundraiser
MJ's Choirs performed at a Liberty Choir fundraiser at Kings Place, alongside Liberty Choir graduates and their families, with supporters Stephen Fry, Kirsty Lang and patron Cherie Blair on stage and ambassador Jenny Agutter among others in the audience
Local Festivals in London and the South East
Every year, we perform at local festivals in London and the South East such as:
Queens Park DayChurch of the Holy Spirit Clapham's Summer Fair
St Leonards's-on-sea, Hampstead, also events such as Pride.
Annual performance at The Big Sing - a day of choirs for St Michael's Hospice in Hastings
Choir Parties
In the New Year each choir has a party extravaganza in a local pub and choir members can entertain each other.
Brighton Fringe Festival
Before Covid we performed annually at the Brighton Fringe and hope to return.
2011
What an exciting year it was, as you will see below – and 2012 will be even better!
Brighton Festival Fringe/Citroen Pop-up Choir
Every year, MJ asks composers from all musical genres to write new choral works to a specific theme. For 2011, the theme was I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside, and on May 28, for the second year running, MJ’s Choirs (including The South London Choir) with 200 adult voices in total, performed five new pieces in the beautiful St Bartholomew’s Church. It was a fantastic evening, followed by a rollicking after-show party. Go to the choir’s Facebook page for photographs of the event.
At the start of the Brighton Festival Fringe, MJ’s Choirs were filmed performing an impromptu pop-up choir event to The Kaiser Chiefs I Predict A Riot for the festival’s sponsors, Citroen - watch the clip on the homepage if you haven’t already.
Songs of Praise
In July, MJ’s Choirs were asked by BBC to appear in a Songs of Praise special filmed at Air Studios, featuring Mavis Staples, part of the marvellous Staples Singers. It was a very exciting and unique experience for all the choirs, performing one of our favourites, Down by the Riverside. Don’t forget to watch us on BBC 1, Sunday March 25!
Anti-Slavery Day
As part of our community outreach programme, on October 19, the choir performed at the anti-slavery concert, Dangerous Songs that Changed the World in Clapham, south London. MJ arranged two anti-slavery songs from the past for the choirs to sing - Harriet Tubman and Amazing Grace. It was an awe-inspiring event and made us all aware that this is still an ongoing and shocking problem which must change in the future. You can watch clips of the choir at the Anti-Slavery event on YouTube, as well as photos of the event on our Facebook page.
Pop-up Choir for Channel 4
On December 6, MJ and her choirs performed another pop-up event as a backdrop to a surprise marriage proposal in Covent Garden, London, filmed by Channel 4 (how about that!) to appear on Valentine’s Day (Feb 14) in the programme Love and Relationships. We’re not giving the name of the song away, so don’t forget to watch the programme and find out!
2010
Pakistan Flood Relief Charity Concerts
Northern Pakistan has been hit with the worst flooding in 80 years – entire villages have been washed away, thousands have perished and millions have been affected in some way.
In October and November 2010, The South London Choir were joined by The West London Choir, The Brighton City Singers, and children from local primary schools, in organising two charity concerts to raise funds and aid for the flood victims of Pakistan. Accompanying the choral pieces (sung by over 200 adult voices), there were electric performances from Pakistani musicians and dancers, delicious authentic Pakistani food along with cakes, pies and cupcakes to eat, with jams, jellies and chutney all made by the community to raise funds. There were guest speakers who enlightened the audience on the arts, culture and history of the country, as well as poetry readings from the school children that they wrote themselves. Check out both the choir and childrens' performances on YouTube. The concerts raised over £5500, which was donated to Pakistan Human Development Fund UK and food and aid have been sent on our behalf to the affected areas.
Celebrate Community
As part of the Wandsworth Arts Festival seven local choirs, including The South London Choir, made Tooting come alive to the sound of song for the Shimmy Sing! Led by MJ, groups of singers delighted residents and shoppers by serenading them from various locations in the high street before all joining together for a lively choral performance. The highlight was ‘Celebrate Community’, a song composed especially by MJ for this event, commissioned by Wandsworth Arts. The choir also performed ‘Celebrate Community’ at The Shimmy! - a day of free and spectacular outdoor arts.
Walls of Sound at Brighton Festival Fringe
On May 1st 2010, as part of the Brighton Fringe, The South London Choir and The Brighton City Singers were joined by MJ’s new group, The West London Choir, in a 200 strong chorale of new music titled ‘Walls of Sound’, arranged and directed by MJ herself. The concert was one of our best performances, held at the beautiful St Bartholomew’s Church in Brighton, to a full house and enthusiastic audience.
2009
For the past four years, the South London Choir has taken part in the Brighton Festival Fringe alongside the Brighton City Singers, MJ’s choir based in Brighton. In May 2009, MJ and the choirs produced 'Sex & Drugs & Rock'n Roll- Oh Yeah' a concert of entirely new choral works, offering the opportunity for composers, singers and musicians to create original choral music and have it performed in public.
The show featured two new songs composed and arranged by MJ - to get an insight into the creative process of songwriting, read The Times article on MJ (16/5/09).
Brighton Festival Fringe May 23rd 2009
The choir was very busy during Autumn 2009 - in September we sang for the homeless at Anchor House and at a member's wedding, plus a fantastic rip-roaring performance at the Southbank on the last sunny Sunday of 2009.
In October, the members organised and performed a fundraising concert for the Brighton and Hove Samaritans, making over £600 for the charity.
In November, the South London Choir participated in a British-American Remembrance Day concert - Hands Across the Sea for Humanity at the stunning Central Hall Westminster in a 300 strong chorale.
Finally, in December, we helped to fundraise over £650 through carol singing for Royal London Society for the Blind.