Lewisham Choral Society is a large, lively community-based choir, with over a hundred singers. Founded in 1950 as St Mary’s Singers at Lewisham’s parish church, St Mary the Virgin, the choir has grown in size and ambition over the past 70 years and is now one of the largest choirs in South London.

We stage four concerts a year and take part in other singing events and collaborations when opportunities arise. Under the professional direction of Dan Ludford-Thomas and our Principal Accompanist Clíodna Shanahan, the choir’s repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to the 21st century.

As well as contemporary pieces by Pärt and Whitacre, we have also performed the Requiems of Mozart, Verdi, Brahms and Fauré, along with Bach’s St John Passion. In 2012, we sang Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, before returning again in 2015 for Mozart’s Requiem, in 2017 for Bach’s B minor Mass, and in 2019 for Mozart’s Great C minor Mass.

Other key concert venues include Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Cadogan Hall, Fairfield Halls, and closer to home, Goldsmiths University, New Cross and St Mary the Virgin, Lewisham.

SInce our inception we’ve been delighted to accept invitations from professional arts organisations, notably at the Young Vic for Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel. A hundred LCS members were also part of a four-hundred strong choir at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games - an unforgettable occasion. In 2015 we took part in a charity performance of Will Todd’s Mass in Blue at St John’s Smith Square in support of the Rainbow Trust.

Learn more by reading our Repertoire page.

Photos by Ivana Cesarec, Matthew Johnson, Daniel Sambraus and Shaun Waller.