## **Lea Singers** Annual Report and Financial Statements Year Ended **31st July 2024** Registered Charity: 1099155 Page: 1 ## **Lea Singers** Financial Statement for year ending 31st July 2024 |**Contents**|**Page**| |---|---| |**Legal and Administrative Details**|**2**| |**Trustees Report**|**3**| |**Review of Activities**|**3**| |**Independent Examiner's Report**|**6**| |**Income and Expenditure for the Year Ended 31st July 2023**|**7**| |**Balance Sheet as at 31st July 2023**|**9**| ## **Legal and Administrative Details:** 1. Registered Address: 50 Stewart Road, Harpenden, AL5 4QB 2. Charity Registration Number: 1099155 3. Key personnel and advisors: - a. Chair: Miriam McKay - b. Treasurer: Emily Lawrence - c. Marketing: Maddy Hardman - d. Secretary: Rupert Ainley - e. Librarian: Penelope Ward - f. Committee Members: Barry Flutter, Chris Wardle 4. Independent Examiner: Michael Timmins 5. Musical Director: Benjamin T. Kirk ## 6. Bankers: HSBC Bank Page: 2 ## **Trustees Annual Report and Accounts Financial Year 1st August 2023 to 31st July 2024** The Trustees are pleased to present their report together with the financial statements for the year ended 31st July 2024. ## **Principal activity and objectives** The charity is governed by the rules laid down in a formal constitution. The trustees are selected from members of the Choir and conferred by the members at the Annual General Meeting. The main objectives of the charity are to provide: - Entertainment to the public by way of a varied programme of concerts and other performances - Education, by hosting events with guest educators - Enjoyment to the membership through rehearsals and other social activities The charity maintains Banking facilities with HSBC Bank. The Bank Accounts have been maintained in credit throughout the year. ## **Financial Results** The financial statements for the year to 31 July 2024 are set out on pages 7 to 8. The net result for the year was a surplus of £735.12 The Trustees are satisfied with the results for the year and that adequate resources exist to meet the charity’s day to day financial needs. The choir is very grateful to the Williams Church Music Trust for its continuing financial support, particularly at this difficult time for the arts. Page: 3 ## **Review of Activities** We held our annual subscription this year at £330, with three interns paid for by fundraising by the choir, and three members paying at a student/unemployed rate of 50%. We also had one member who we waived the fee for due to compassionate circumstances. We continued with the concert format this year which we called **Choral Discoveries.** The idea is to bring music that is not often performed to audiences in a short, accessible format. Each concert is around one hour, and we perform without an interval. Our first concert of the 2023/2024 season in November was called _Found in Translation_ and celebrated 60 years of town-twinning with Harpenden’s Friends of Alzey and Friends of Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire. The concert explored settings of texts in languages other than the composer’s mother tongue. These include Händel’s _Zadok the Priest_ and Mäntyjärvi’s _Four Shakespeare Songs_ , as well as an intriguing selection of music from composers born as far apart as Estonia and Brazil. The highlight of the concert was the premiere of a new piece we commissioned by Kim Porter, _Der Fluss_ , which sets text from Hermann Hesse’s _Siddharta_ . We are grateful to the Friends of Alzey and Cosne for help sponsoring this commission. We made a loss of £2,000 on this concert, which was essentially the cost of the commission. Our Christmas concert, FestiveLea, was in the Eric Morecambe Center again this year. We made a profit of £1,443, slightly less than last year as we had a smaller audience. For our Spring concert we returned to the Lady Chapel at St Albans Abbey. This always has a good audience and is a lovely venue to sing in. We performed Händel’s _Dixit Dominus_ and Arvo Pärt’s _Salve Regina_ , with a professional orchestra. This is an expensive venue to hire, and we used professional musicians, supporting locally where we could, making this an expensive concert. We plan to do a concert like this every few years so we knew we would make a loss here and had budgeted for this. We are grateful to The Williams Trust for supporting this concert through a grant of £2,000. We made a loss of £5,530. We tried another new venue for our summer concert, St. Leonard’s Church, Flamstead. We were joined by pianist Greg May for an hour of French and German romantic music, including works by Brahms, Fauré and Debussy, and showcasing songs by two female French composers – Lili Boulanger and Melanie Bonis. Page: 4 There was a retiring collection in support of the local Care4Calais group – The Markyate and Flamstead Asylum Support Group for which we raised £575. We also donated laptops and suitcases to this group. ## **Charity Donations** We donated £1,575 to charities. £575 for Care4Calais and £1,000 was raised for the Harpenden Trust at the Christmas concert. These were collected directly by the charity and didn’t go through the Lea’s bank account. ## **Reserves Policy** The choir retains sufficient reserves to cover major concert risks such as cancellations and to provide working capital to cover the costs of concerts incurred in advance of concert income. We have an M&G Charifund investment of £5,603, £5,421 is in a savings account and the remainder is held as cash on deposit with HSBC. ## **Approval** The Annual Report and Accounts were approved by the Trustees on 9th September 2024. Signed on behalf of all the Trustees. Emily Lawrence **Treasurer** Page: 5 ## **Report of the Independent Examiner to the trustees and members of The Lea singers, registered Charity number 1099155** I have examined the Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet of The Lea Singers on pages 7 and 8 relating to the year ended 31st July 2024. ## **Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner and basis of report** The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Act and that an independent examination is needed. I report in respect of my examination of the Lea Singers’ accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable 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 the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: 1. Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or 2. The accounts do not accord with those records; or 3. The accounts do 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. ## **Independent Examiner** Name: Signature: Date: Page: 6 Income & Expenditure: Income & Expenditure 2Q22D02J S￿￿*clIptIon Account Subscri ions MD Rehearsal fees Accom ani5t fEe5 Rehearsal ¥enue hire Total tosts Totsl £8 554.35 .£6 1181YJ -£6 539.0 -£560.91 -£1939.20 .£150. .£8 618.11 -£8 771.20 463.76 Autumn Fe5tivLea -£2,037.34 £1443.96 -f 5,530.19 -£939.68 -£359.42 -£331.86 £1913.03 -£2.326.99 E66.91 £250.QA) .£690 67 Summer Cathedral - 5tAlbans Cathedral Totsl 47 .67 Incorn• Ticket Income Subscri tions Grants Cathedral Subs Adwertisin ramme Collection Online fundraisln Tax Rebaie Friends Music libra loans to other choirs Music sales to choir member5 Dmdends Unreali5ed investment Other Char £8 554.35 £4 720.￿1 £255.00 £3 955.C¥J £I9￿.1M] £0.00 revenue £40.C £273.69 £708.80 £173.23 £2 959.51 £240.00 £254.56 EO.00 £316.18 £339.93 £360.00 £30.00 £102.23 £25 649.59 E230.CQ £102.50 £80.44 £307.04 loss £133.41 Collection s account interest El 321.62 Totsl Page.. 7 Expendlture Concert C05t5 Rehearsal costs Pro ramrne Printin Music libra £12 230.53 £8 618.11 £724.26 £74.87 £8 036.75 £8 771.20 £112S.75 £91. stora Music scores £980.92 £144,99 £186, £670,QX) £62.58 £125.70 £1321.40 £334.28 Music Purchases for sale to Choir Makin Music subscri n and insura Gift5 Bank Char Sund Ststiona Chari donation MD committee anendance costs Mèrkwin & Publicl other £o_oo £482.65 £0.00 £60.80 £12S.17 £130.00 £269.50 £733.76 £136.IXI £3 164.95 E141.16 Totsl endlture £24 914A7 25327.72 SURPWS FOR THE YEAR £735.12 Page.. 8 Balance Sheet: Th• L•a Slnyrs Balance Sheet for th• pwiodlyur •ndpd 202>2024 2022.2023 FUNOS Funds at beeinning of the ￿ar Sur￿uSIDe1lCIt lor the year £15,994.75 n3S.12 £14,951.67 £1,043.08 Total Funds I REPRESENTED £16 729A7 £15 991.75 i B¥nlL wnd c¥sh CurrEnt account De￿)51t account Cash £5.EQg.31 £5,421.10 £1.92 £5.947.35 £5,318.87 Totsl bink & ciih £11032J3 £11 66 Charilund Icort £4(ml Charrfund change 63.ss 4499.30 £339.93 Debtor5 and prepayment5 Totsl debtors £o.(x) £1 Stocks Music boc*5 £94. £94. £1.92 £95.98 Cash Tot*1 £14n9A7 £IBA94.75 Ll•bl*los 0dwrt151ni rw•nu•- un••rn•d Subs for (Iv oth•r .500A TOTAL LiABILmES £0. TOTAL FUNDS £16 7Z9A7 £15 991.75 Page.. 9