## **Trustees Report of Yorchestra Trust for the year ended 31[st] October 2024**
Registered Charity No: 1074042 Registered Address 52 Westminster Road York YO30 6LY Trustees Martin Dreyer (Chair) James Behrens Kate Andrews Cherry Fricker Professor Stephen King Dr Sophie MacKinder Bank CAF Bank
## **Aims and purposes**
volunteers has been running non-residential music courses during the school holidays, staffed by professional tutors and supported by voluntary help from players’ parents. In accordance with our declaration of trust (November 1998) Yorchestra exists to advance the education of young people under the age of twenty-five, in the theory and practice of music, by the provision of such education in the City of York.
## **Objectives and Activities**
York’s Youth Holiday Orchestra, Yorchestra runs inspirational non-residential music courses during the school holidays, for beginners and experienced players alike: all young instrumentalists are invited to apply. We give them an unrivalled opportunity to enjoy music-making in a rewarding way, while also making new friends through the shared pleasure of playing, balanced with high standards of musicianship and intensive rehearsal.
Our four levels of orchestras allow players of all abilities to achieve this, whether they have been learning their instrument for just six months (YoYo) or for many years. Each orchestra gives a concert at the end of its course, where family and friends are invited to hear some of the music it has been rehearsing.
Yorchestra has an excellent team of professional musicians, assisted by student tutors, who conduct and coach members to a very high standard. A number of our tutors are past Yorchestra players who return to teach on courses, so they know exactly how our young musicians are feeling throughout the course.
The Christmas and Summer courses take place at the University of York’s music department. We are extremely grateful for their vital support in offering their rehearsal and performance spaces available to us at minimal cost. Without this support we would be unable to welcome so many children to our courses in such an inspirational environment. Our smaller Easter course (which excludes our senior orchestra, Maestro, since many at this age are preparing for exams) is given at Archbishop Holgate’s School.
## **Achievements and Performance**
In 2023/24 we maintained the high number of players taking part in our 3 courses that we achieved in 2022/23. Of the 369 players across the year, 62 players were new to Yorchestra, introduced mainly through referral by friends, family, or instrumental tutors.
||Christmas
2023|Easter
2024|Summer
2024|
|---|---|---|---|
|Maestro(Grades 6-8+ & at secondaryschool)|43|-|63|
|Mezzo(Grades 3-5)|62|52|50|
|Primo(Grades 1-2)|23|15|34|
|YoYo(forplayers aged 6+pre Grade 1)|6|11|10|
|**Total**|**134**|**78**|**157**|
During the year Yorchestra was fortunate to receive a one-off donation to commission a new piece of orchestral music for the Maestro orchestra from the renowned composer Nicola LeFanu. Nicola met our young players at the 2023 Christmas course, with the new piece, _Airs and Fanfares,_ published in time for the Summer 2024 course. We were delighted for Nicola to attend rehearsals, meeting the players and introducing the piece, and honoured that she attended the premiere at the end of the Summer Course. Many of the players expressed their pleasure at meeting a real composer and the thrill of bringing a new piece into existence.
Yorchestra continues to attract professional musicians who enjoy working with young musicians to be our course tutors and conductors. Maestro orchestra was conducted by Dan Shilladay (Christmas) and Daniel Hogan (Summer), with Mezzo and Primo led by the highly experienced Tim Bayley and Kieran Lynch. Nina Kumin expertly guides our enthusiastic YoYo players in their two half days of playing.
Trustees place great emphasis on ensuring that Yorchestra continues to have a majority of state-school educated children on its courses and is proud that the young people at Yorchestra come together regardless of their educational background. Our course data is encouraging, with 64% of participants in 23/24 either state or home educated, an increase on 60% in 22/23. We appreciate the support of York Music Hub, North Yorkshire Music Service, York Music Centre, East Riding Music Service, Artforms Leeds and Richard Shepherd Music Foundation in signposting young people to Yorchestra.
## **Bursaries**
We recognise the increasing challenges for parents and carers to support the musical education of their young people, and recognise that the cost of attending Yorchestra can be a barrier. As such, Yorchestra has always ensured that access to our bursary funds is straightforward – ours is called the Family Fund, and offers support from 25% up to 75% of course fees. We started the year with bursary funds of £3,537, and with additional funds received of £1,625 from York Music Hub and the Ed de Nunzio Charitable Trust, our fund awarded financial support to 36 players in the year to a total value of £1,983 (22/23 49 players, value of £2,333) leaving £3,179 to head into 24/25.
## **Financial Review**
A combination of strong player numbers and careful cost control enabled us to make a small surplus of £5,000, strengthening our unrestricted reserves to £26,768. Along with the designated reserves of £3,000 and bursary reserves of £3,179, we have total funds at 31[st] October 2024 of £32,947.
Tutor and conductor fees represent our greatest cost at approximately 70% of income – a ratio that we have maintained for many years. Our strong financial situation means that we are again able to maintain course fees at the same level as they have been for years.
## **Reserves Policy**
The trustees aim to hold unrestricted reserves of £25,000 which equates to the cost of running our summer course, which would enable us to meet our obligations to tutors and conductors in the event of cancellation.
## **Structure, governance and management**
Yorchestra is governed by a small group of trustees who meet several times during the year. The trustees delegate the administrative operation of the courses to a voluntary team consisting of Yorchestra Manager, Course Administrator, Artistic Advisor, Librarian and Treasurer, and supported by other committee members. The team is enhanced by a Production Manager and Production Assistant, both of whom receive a small honorarium in recognition of the professional expertise that they bring to the role.
Signed by
## **Martin Dreyer, Chair of Trustees**
## **28[th] August 2025**
## **Yorchestra Trust**
|||**Year ended 31st**|**October 2024**|**October 2024**||||**Year ended 31st**|**October 2023**|**October 2023**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**General**|**Designated**|**Bursary**||**Total**||**General**|**Designated**|**Bursary**||**Total**|
||**Funds**|**Funds**|**Funds**||**Funds**||**Funds**|**Funds**|**Funds**||**Funds**|
||**£**|**£**|**£**||**£**||**£**|**£**|**£**||**£**|
|**Income**||||||||||||
|Fee Income (inc discounts)|35,626||-||**35,626**||35,560||-||**35,560**|
|Concert Ticket Income|1,895||-||**1,895**||2,200||-||**2,200**|
|Bank Interest|963||-||**963**||410||-||**410**|
|Other Income|-||-||**-**||490||||**490**|
|Donations - Commission|4,500||||**4,500**|||||||
|Donations - Other|776||1,625||**2,401**||1,210||4,314||**5,524**|
|**Total Income**|43,760||1,625||**45,385**||39,870||4,314||**44,184**|
|**Expenditure**||||||||||||
|Tutor Fees|28,979||1,983||**30,961**||27,207||2,333||**29,540**|
|New Commission|5,017||||**5,017**|||||||
|Venue Hire|1,585||-||**1,585**||1,008||||**1,008**|
|Other Direct Course Costs|1,337||-||**1,337**||593||||**593**|
|Library Costs|223||||**223**|||||||
|Printing, Advertising & Postage|83||-||**83**||152||||**152**|
|Insurance & Making Music subscription|675||-||**675**||544||||**544**|
|Bank Charges|60||-||**60**||60||||**60**|
|Website maintenance|90||-||**90**||90||||**90**|
|Depreciation|-||-||**-**||-||||**-**|
|**Total Expenditure**|38,049||1,983||**40,031**||29,654||2,333||**31,987**|
|||||||||||||
|**Surplus/(Deficit) on Activities**|5,712||(358)||**5,354**||10,216||1,981||**12,197**|
|||||||||||||
|**Funds Brought Forward**|21,056|3,000|3,537||**27,593**||13,840||1,556||**15,396**|
|Transfer Between Funds|-||-||**-**||(3,000)|3,000|-||**-**|
|Movement on Funds in Year|5,712||(358)||**5,354**||10,216||1,981||**12,197**|
|**Funds Carried Forward**|26,768|3,000|3,179||**32,947**||21,056|3,000|3,537||**27,593**|
## **Yorchestra Trust**
## **Balance Sheet as at 31st October 2024**
|Assets - music
Assets - cash
Debtors & Prepayments
**Total Assets**
Creditors - Deferred Income
Creditors - Trade
Creditors - Fees received in advance
**Total Liabilities**
**Net Assets**
**Represented by:**
General Reserves
Designated Reserves
Bursary Reserves
**Total Reserves**
**Bursary Reserves Note**
Reserves Brought Forward
Bursary Funds received in year
Bursaries Awarded in year
**Reserves Carried Forward**|**As at**
**31.10.24**
-
40,770
625
**41,395**
0
0
(8,449)
**(8,449)**
**32,946**
26,766
3,000
3,179
**32,946**
3,537
1,625
(1,983)
**3,179**|**As at**
**31.10.23**
**£**
-
35,907
-|
|---|---|---|
|||**35,907**
0
(8,315)|
|||**(8,315)**|
|||**27,592**|
|||21,055
3,000
3,537|
|||**27,592**|
|||1,556
4,314
(2,333)|
|||**3,537**|
## **Yorchestra Course Reports**
|**Yorchestra Course Reports**|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Course Income**
Maestro
Mezzo
Primo
Young Strings & Winds
Bring a Friend Discount
Other Funding
Concert Tickets
Concert Adverts
Course Donations
Use of BursaryFunds|||**2023/24 Financial Year**|||||||||**2022/23 Financial Year**|||||||||**2021/22 Financial Year**||||||
||**Total**||**Sum 24**||**Easter 24**||**Xmas 23**|||**Total**||**Sum 23**||**Easter 23**||**Xmas 22**|||**Total**||**Sum 22**||**Easter 22**||**Xmas 21**||
||**£**
15,895
15,860
3,002
-
869
-
1,895
-
716
1,983||**£**
10,468
6,348
1,420
273
1,045
308
937||**£**
-
4,533
726
404
102
270||**£**
5,427
4,979
856
193
850
307
776|||**£**
12,438
19,580
2,652
-
890
2,200
-
666
2,334||**£**
8,669
10,235
1,123
355
1,310
-
305
1,146||**£**
-
4,855
885
308
-
-
70
405||**£**
3,769
4,490
644
227
890
-
291
783|||**£**
8,126
11,219
2,260
-
441
0
1,040
-
3,014
1,092||**£**
8,126
7,604
1,355
253
1,040
-
2,746
1,061||**£**
-
3,615
905
188
-
-
29
31||**£**
-
-
239||
|**Course Income**|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|Maestro
Mezzo
Primo
Young Strings & Winds
Bring a Friend Discount
Other Funding
Concert Tickets
Concert Adverts
Course Donations
Use of BursaryFunds|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|**Total Income**|**40,220**
29,461
1,585
1,337||**20,798**
15,438
488
857||**6,034**
4,375
861
190||**13,389**
9,649
236
290|||**40,760**
28,292
1,008
587||**23,143**
13,842
609
405||**6,523**
5,679
399
8||**11,094**
8,771
-
174|||**27,192**
19,345
3,994
539||**22,185**
15,017
3,000
501||**4,768**
4,328
994||**239**
38||
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
||**32,384**||**16,783**||**5,426**||**10,175**|||**29,887**||**14,856**||**6,086**||**8,945**|||**23,878**||**18,518**||**5,322**||**38**||
||**7,836**||**4,015**||**608**||**3,213**|||**10,873**||**8,287**||**437**||**2,149**|||**3,314**||**3,667**||**(554)**||**201**||
||**963**
**4,560**
**-**
(90)
(83)
(675)
(5,017)
(1,500)
(223)
(60)|||||||||**410**
**544**
**490**
(90)
(152)
(544)
(1,250)
(5)
(60)|||||||||**43**
(189)
(77)
(532)
(1,000)
(87)||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
||**5,712**|||||||||**10,216**|||||||||**1,472**||||||||
|Without bursaries|**3,729**|||||||||**7,882**|||||||||**380**||||||||
## **INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF YORCHESTRA TRUST (REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1074042) For the year ended 31 October 2024**
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Yorchestra Trust (the “Trust”) for the year ended 31 October 2024.
As the trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the Charities Act 2011.
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. In carrying out my examination, I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner’s statement**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with my examination which give me cause to believe that, in any material respect:
- the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act 2011; 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 the accounts to be reached.
**Signed:** ........ LR Bosrd ..............................................
**Name:** ...Philippa Bull Diamond...................................................
## **Relevant professional qualification or membership of professional bodies (if any):**
**Address:** Stone Lea, Welburn, York, YO60 7DZ
**Date:** 23 August 2025