The Chorus....
Who are we? People just like you from around the Merton area. Some can read music, many can't. Many have not sung in choirs before and a few have. We come together once a week and under Soo's guidance and with Giles' support we sing a very wide range of material and without fail leave, a couple of hours later, smiling.
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We organise two or three events each year, usually with other choirs and musicians where friends, family and anyone else can come and hear us sing. If you sing in the bath, the shower or the car you'll find it's it's even better when you sing with others.
Soo Bishop
Soo trained as a trumpeter at The Royal Academy of Music and pursued a successful career as a freelance trumpeter with numerous orchestras and ensembles in the London area. She also taught as a peripatetic brass teacher for the ILEA and ran Saturday music-making workshops for children and adults at Morley College. Soo subsequently qualified as a music therapist and classroom music teacher, working in Merton and Lambeth within the primary, secondary and special school sectors.
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In 1991, Soo founded ‘Play-a-Round’, teaching music and drama to large numbers of young children in the Wimbledon area. She also ran regular sessions at The Polka Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre. From 1997 – 2005, Soo worked as a full-time Music Coordinator at The Priory C of E Primary School in Wimbledon and was subsequently appointed as Merton’s first Advanced Skills Teacher for Primary Music. In April 2005, Soo was appointed as Associate Director of Merton’s schools music service, Merton Music Foundation and is currently MMF’s Creative Director.
​As part of this role, Soo devises, project-manages and delivers large-scale choral performance projects to KS2 pupils, which include preparing a choir of 1,200 young singers for MMF’s bi-annual ‘Music is for Life’ massed concert at The Royal Albert Hall. She currently directs a junior and youth choir for MMF and a small independent chamber choir.
Over the years, Soo’s teaching and performing commitments have been combined with extensive work as an adjudicator, choral director and music consultant. Her role as a music festival adjudicator, representing organisations including Music for Youth, has taken her around the country to work with musicians of every age and level. Much of her original material for the Primary age group has been published.
Soo has recently returned to playing her trumpet and is a proud member of the Central Band of the Royal British Legion. She has already bought her new grandson a cornet…
Giles Kennedy
Giles escaped the tawdry worlds of Consultancy and Information Technology well over a decade ago to become a more useful member of society!
He teaches Cello and Piano in and around the Wimbledon area and performs in concerts across London as soloist and accompanist. Anyone who has been lucky enough to hear him knows that the Chorus are extremely lucky to have him.
Giles accompanies the Community Choir on the piano at rehearsals and concerts.
