East Sussex Bach Choir Trustee Report 2024/2025
ESBC has had a busy year. Despite the main focus of our attention being the performances of Bach St Matthew Passion in Lewes and in Germany, our concerts in November (Purcell and Handel to celebrate St Cecilia’s Day) and June (Purcell again for Dido and Aeneas) were both successful sell out concerts with memorable moments, of which Rebecca Leggett’s Dido was probably the highlight.
The year was dominated, musically and financially by the challenges of the St Matthew Passion, and we were delighted to share the experience here, and in Waldshut, with our friends in the Kantorei Hochrhein in Lewes’s Twin Town.
In Lewes, we sold out a month before the performance, emphasising yet again the lack of a decent performance space in the town. However, by opening part of our rehearsal to people who had been unable to buy tickets, we did manage to meet at least some of the demand. This also enabled attendance for those for whom evening concerts are less easy to attend.
Both performances were exceptional, and we must thank the excellent trans-national cooperation between our two music directors, John Hancorn in Lewes and Matthias Flierl in Waldshut, for managing to blend the two choirs so successfully at a distance.
The financial challenge of performing the work inspired considerable efforts from a number of members, with lasting consequences. Two groups were formed with linked though separate objectives; the fundraising group and the education group. The fundraising group, through activities such as talks and recitals and with very generous support from members and external supporters, and support from the Twinning Association, was so successful that our financial worries all but disappeared. The Education Group seized the opportunity to work with local schools with talks and even some impromptu performances to try to inspire our future members and audiences. We hope that this work will continue in future years in collaboration with other music groups in the area.
Largely as a result of the efforts to prevent a disastrous loss on the St Matthew Passion, we, as our treasurer’s report shows, ended the year in a relatively strong position. This enables us to plan future repertoire that we all want to sing and perform, with exceptional professional musicians, to give the special concerts our audiences have come to expect.
The Committee continues to show total commitment to maintaining our high standards and to develop a programme of events for our audiences. We continue to work to try to expand audience engagement, particularly with a view to addressing a younger and
more diverse audience and to sustain the contribution of the Choir to the musical life of the community in the future.
With this in mind, over the summer the committee shared some ideas on how we can sustain ESBC over the next 5 years or so. We will introduce some of these as time permits, with a strategy of widening our repertoire. We also aim to introduce workshops and other activities to help engage with other singing groups as well as the wider community.
Membership of the choir remains strong, and we are delighted to continue to receive a number of new applications. We remain concerned, however, that the decline, nationally and locally, in school and community music education continues to erode a significant part of the country’s music life.
However, thanks to the dedication of its membership, we are pleased to report that the position of the East Sussex Bach Choir, moving forward, is robust, musically and financially, and despite the wider financial context, we are confident that we will sustain our charitable activities and continue to contribute to the musical and cultural life of our community.
| Income | Income | Income | Income | Expenditure | Expenditure | Expenditure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subs | £11,535.80 | Rehearsal Venue Hire | (£1,576.75) | ||||
| Gif Aid | £2,616.38 | Rehearsal Fees | (£7,346.00) | ||||
| Donatons | £2,705.00 | MakingMusic | (£602.00) | ||||
| Concert | St Cecilia | £2970.07 | Concert | St Cecilia | (£4041.81) | ||
| Carols | £2459.05 | Carols | (£2,768.60) | ||||
| St Mathew | £18,462.09 | St Mathew | (£22,832.51) | ||||
| Dido | £6,045.00 | Dido | (£5,587.11) | ||||
| General * | (£599.43) | ||||||
| * Bank charges, score hire, course fees, running costs |
|||||||
| Total Income | £46,793.39 |
Total Expenditure | (£45,354.21) |
||||
| Year End Total | £1,439.18 |
E A S T SUSSEX 8 A C H CHOIR Balance as at August 31 2024 Ba18nce CurrentAccount Balance Reserve Account £12.346.24 £11,326.40 Balance as atAugust 312025 CurrentAccount Reserve Account Current Account Surplus Reserve Account Surplus Choir Funds Total as at August 31 2025 £15,946.42 £11.530.61 £3.600.18 1 £204.21 £27,477.03 I have examined, without carrying out an audit. the attached accounts with the books and accounting record supplied by the Hon. Treasurer and confirm that they reflect the true financial position for the year ended August 31 2023. Signed Date John Gower Signed Date ÈJ ?], Jannine Jones Treasurer East Sussex Bach Choir