Cockermouth Harmonic Society (Registered Charity Number 1003918)
Cedar Lodge, Papcastle, Cockermouh, CA13 0JN
Officers and Committee Members of the Society
Chairman – Diana Tillman
Secretary – Sarah Marshall-Ellison
Treasurer – Carl Thomson
Committee Members of the Society: Mary Blood, Sarah Campion, Joan Moore and Hilary Tattershall
Trustees are elected from choir members annually at the society’s Annual General Meeting. We are currently without a President who is invited to the position by the elected committee at the time of his appointment.
1. Trustees’ Reports
a) Chair’s Report 2021-22 season: Diana Tillman, Chair
Our 155th season was the season in which we began to recover from the lockdowns and started to actually perform the works we had been working on both prior to the beginning of ‘lockdown’ and during our zoom rehearsals.
As always, the society continues to provide a space for those who wish to sing together. We remain open to all with no requirement to audition. We continue our relationship with other similar groups as we begin to restart our in-person activities. Working with Wigton Choral Society and West Lakes Orchestra.
A detailed review of our musical performances and our financial situation provided below but the group remains healthy financially especially with an unexpected and very generous bequest at the end of the year.
It is credit to the group that despite the difficulties of last year we still have a functioning choir. There were challenges: reduction in membership, sporadic attendance as people began to go on holiday and celebrate all those life events that was put on hold. Currently our numbers and the lack of steady attendances at rehearsal mean we are not ready to take on the larger works, but we will be working towards those again. We also need to work on recruitment and understand the challenges of bringing in younger less experienced voices.
Looking ahead we must look how to reach wider audiences with more support and help for those just starting on their musical journey and more diverse programme choices. The past years have taught us the importance of connecting and the joy that making music together even if over zoom is a very important in supporting mental well-being.
We look forward to forging new paths and structures while keeping true to the roots of the society within the classical repertoire.
Diana Tillman, November 2022
b) Treasurer’s Report 2021-22 season: Carl Thompson, Treasurer
The year from August 2021 to July 2022 has been close to our usual level of activity after the very restricted Covid year previously, and this accounts for the marked difference in figures compared with last year. A more realistic guide would be comparison with the figures for 2019-2020 and this
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shows that the significant difference is in members’ subscriptions, £3421 currently, compared to £4185 in 2019-2020. From this we can infer a fall in membership of about 20%.
Donations and grants in 2019-2020 were above average at £3915 as a result of a single grant of £2000 but the figure for 2021-2022 was raised to £20161 by a considerable, generous, bequest of £20,000 from Mike Suckling.
The overall costs of rehearsals in 2021-2022 was only slightly higher than 2019-2020 being £5528 compared to £5414. Other expenses were broadly similar to two years ago so that the total expenses paid was £8912 in 2021-2022 and £8907 in 2019-2020.
Given the current degree of inflation I believe that we should expect a comparable rise in our expenses over the next year or two.
Currently the choir’s bank balances are healthy with these balances:
| Barclays Community Account, | £22,760.76 |
|---|---|
| Santander Current Account, | £453.00 |
| Santander Savings Account, | £11,687.04 |
I have found it difficult to communicate with HMR&C – impossible by telephone and 2-3 months delay in replies to emails, but I have the information now to begin applying for gift aid on
Carl Thomson, Treasurer 16 November 2022
c) Musical Director’s Report 2021-22 season: Ian Wright, Music Director
This year could be described as our first ‘Recovery’ year, following the worst of the disruption brought about by the COVID pandemic. September 2021 saw us starting indoor rehearsals again, albeit with rather depleted numbers, spacing between singers, maximum ventilation, masks when moving around and shorter rehearsals (2x 45m). We began by rehearsing the programme again for the concert entitled ‘Towards Hope’ which had to be postponed in the Summer term. This was a joint concert with Wigton Choral Society, and the postponement meant that other members who had not been part of the project in the summer term were able to catch up with the music we had learnt and take part in the concert when it finally took place in Christ Church on November 6[th] . The concert featured my own new four-part arrangement of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater , with Vivaldi’s Credo (RV.591), and also included Gibbons’ ‘ Drop, drop slow tears ’ and ‘ Jesu, Joy of man’s desiring ’ that we had sung on Zoom during lockdown, and extracts from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus . The combined choir was accompanied by a small string ensemble and chamber organ, and featured soloists Anne-Marie Kerr and Fiona Weakley. This first return to live concerts was supported by a smaller and socially distanced audience, but nevertheless a very appreciative one. The choir sang magnificently in the circumstances, benefitting from the extra rehearsal time following the postponement, and it all made for a musically satisfying and a moving evening. An informal evening of carols at the URC finished off our first term back together.
The Spring term saw us rehearsing for another postponed concert: the Nelson Mass with the West Lakes Orchestra. Again, the extra rehearsal time was a bonus for those in the choir who were not so familiar with the work and led to an excellent performance from the choir. The choir were confident enough, in the end, to cope well with a change of conductor for the final rehearsals and
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performance with Peter Wood (orchestra conductor) taking over the baton, while I stepped into the role of tenor soloist.
In the Summer term we turned to the programme of Baltic music that we had hoped to perform two years earlier. Under the title ‘Be still my soul’ the programme included Gorecki’s Totus Tuus , Vasks’ Dona nobis pacem , Arvo Pärt’s Da pacem Domine and Littlemore Tractus , and other works by Sibelius, Rachmaninov, Sixten, Vasiliauskaite, Dubra, Alfven, Gjeilo and my new arrangement of Grieg’s V å ren. This concert took the choir out of its comfort zone, with some challenging repertoire made even more challenging by the smaller number of members compared to when I had planned the programme. But with some sensitive support from Amanda Wright on piano and David T. Shingler on organ the concert was successful, exploiting the acoustics of All Saints Church.
This term’s programme of ‘A Fancy of Folksongs’ has been designed to give the choir a little time to ‘regroup’, with some familiar songs in English, while also offering some challenges in the arrangements by some of our best contemporary British composers. And then next spring and summer we will return to full-scale contemporary choral music with Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass and works by Hawes, Whitacre and Elgar.
So in summary, the past year has seen the choir performing major Baroque and Classical works with small ensemble and full orchestra, and Romantic and contemporary works by some of the greatest choral composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As we look for ways to rebuild the choir following the disruption of the last couple of years, I am counting on members to commit to supporting the choir, even if a particular programme is not to their own liking, so that we can build a stronger choir, be welcoming and supportive for new members who may not have the background and experience we have enjoyed, and once again be in a position of being able to tackle larger scale works from right across the spectrum of choral music. I want Cockermouth Harmonic Society to be a beacon of excellence in choral singing in West Cumbria – flying the flag for SATB choral music in all its glory. But we’re not there yet… We need members, old and new, male and female, experienced and inexperienced. And that is the challenge before us!
Ian Wright, November 2022.
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COCKERMOUTH HARMONIC SOCIETY 1003918
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
For the period 01/08/2021 To 31/07/2022
from
Section A Receipts and payments
General Fund 100 Club
(Restricted) Total funds Last year
(Unrestricted) (Restricted)
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Members Subscriptions 3,852 3,852 630
Patron Subscriptions - - 30
Gift Aid - -
Music Hire/Purchase 427 427
Refreshments - -
Donations/Sponsorship/Grants 20,052 20,052 1,248
100 Club 256 500 756 792
Fundraising 240 240 321
Zoom Rehearsals - - 440
Ticket & Programme Sales 1,249 1,249
Misc - - 340
Bank Interest - 4 4 2
AR) 26,075 500 4 26,579 3,803
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 26,075 500 4 26,579 3,803
A3 Payments
Rehearsals
Venue Hire 1,028 - 1,028
Piano Hire 225 - 225
Contractual Fees 4,023 - 4,023 2,530
Music Hire/Purchase 432 - 432 22
Fundraising
100 Club - Licence 20 - 20 20
100 Club - Prizes 440 - 440 480
Misc - -
Concerts & Events
Contractual Fees 1,936 - 1,936 298
Venue Hire 340 - 340
Printing 209 - 209
Refreshments - - -
Misc 86 - 86
Administration
NFMS Subscription 141 - 141 162
Printing/Postage - - - 17
Misc 34 - 34 340
Sub total 8,454 460 - 8,914 3,869
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total payments 8,454 460 - -
Net of receipts/(payments) 17,622 40 4 17,666
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 5,141 365 11,683 17,189
Cash funds this year end 22,358 405 11,687 34,855
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
General Fund 100 Club
Categories Details (Unrestricted) (Restricted)
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds -
-
-
Total cash funds -
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s)) Agreement Error Agreement Error Agreement Error
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CCXX R1 accounts (SS)127/09/2015
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General Fund 100 Club
(Unrestricted) (Restricted)
Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets - - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
Fund to which Current value
Details asset belongs Cost (optional) (optional)
B3 Investment assets - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Fund to which Current value
Details asset belongs Cost (optional) (optional)
B4 Assets retained for the - -
charity’s own use - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Fund to which Amount due When due
Details liability relates (optional) (optional)
B5 Liabilities -
-
-
-
-
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees Signature Print Name approvalDate of
D.TILLMAN
11/12/2023
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CCXX R2 accounts (SS)227/09/2015
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on tha accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trustees On accounts for the year ended Charity no (if any) 100 Set out on pages I report to the truslees on my examination of the accounls of the above charity ('the Trust") for the year ended 41 0 ? zLii.Z Responslbilities and basis of report As the charily's trustees, you are responsible for the preparatlon of the accounts in accordance with the requirements ofthe Charities Act 2011 {Ihe Act.). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5){bl of the Act. Independent IThe charity's gross income exceeded £250,000 and l am qualified to examlner's statement undertake the examination by being a qualified member of [insert name of applicable lisl¥d lJvtJy]l. Delete l ] if not appllcable. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no materral matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination {other than that disclosed below ') which gives me cause to believe that in. any material resp9Ct: the accounting records were nol kepl in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act. or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records., or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair, view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of Ihe acwunts to be reached. Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Signed: Date: Name: Relevant professional qualificatlon{s) or body IER Oct 2018
{If any): Address: S IT>iJ Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concerrb (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners}. Give here brief detalls of any items that the examinerwlshes to disclose. IER Oct 2018