Guest Post: The South London Choir

Grab your passports Tottenhamites, we're heading to South London for the first in a series of guest posts... 

 The South London Choir is a community choir - it's a non-auditioning, groovy choir that sings anything from Mozart to Abba, as well as original compositions.

 Our choir is run by the fabulous MJ Paranzino, an inspired and innovative performer and musical director of 3 commmunity choirs - she is also a professional vocal coach, session musician and successful singer/songwriter. http://www.mjparanzino.co.uk/  MJ also holds vocal workshops, private vocal coaching and corporate team building workshops along with her community choirs.

Choir members meet every Tuesday evening in Ravenstone School in Balham between 7.30pm - 9.30pm, and there's always a visit to the pub after the last rehearsal in the month.

At present we're working on our concert, 'Vocal Gymnastics", part of the Brighton Festival Fringe - every year MJ gives new composers a chance to write a new choral piece for over 200 adult voices, and to hear their music performed for the first time.

The choir also sang at HMP Wandsworth recently, as part of our community outreach programme, which went really well. We have a Songs of Praise Special coming up on 25th March with Mavis Staples - we're part of the congregation, along with our sister choirs, The West London Choir and The Brighton City Singers Choir, also directed by MJ.

The choir is an amazing place to meet new people, and to have fun while singing. Anyone is welcome to come along whatever their singing ability and everyone is always so friendly. We average at 100+ members a week. Our concerts are unique as MJ is always keen on audience participation - new members are always confused when we're stopped halfway through a song because the audience aren't joining in enough. The older members soon put their minds at rest that nothing is wrong - it's all part of the charm of the performance.

One of our favourites is Chatanooga Choo Choo from a charity concert we did last year to raise money for the Pakistan flood victims - it emphasises the fun we have while we sing. Recently we performed a flash mob event in Covent Garden for a Channel 4 programme "The Wedding Proposal" - it was so much fun - you can watch it on our website, along with another flash mob event we did for Citroen, sponsors of the Brighton Festival Fringe 2011. The choir also sings at weddings and other traditional celebrations. Tuesday nights are always the highlight of the week and it's all about the singing!

You can find out more about the choir on our website: http://www.southlondonchoir.co.uk/ or find us on Facebook or Twitter (@slondonchoir).

Thanks Tottenham Community Choir for giving us a guest spot on your blog!