2022-08-31-accounts - Londinium

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

londinium

TRUSTEES’ REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31st AUGUST 2022

Trustees

Sophia Anderton (elected April 2022) Michael Bolton (elected April 2022) Sonia Johnson (re-elected April 2022) Christopher Lemar (re-elected April 2022) Chau-Yee Lo (re-elected April 2022) Hazel Mehta (re-elected April 2022) Helen Statham (re-elected April 2022) Maurice Wren (re-elected April 2022)

Charity’s principal address: Tully's Head House, Farnham Lane, Haslemere, Surrey GU27 1HD Registered Charity Number: 1135786 Bankers: CAF Bank Ltd

Structure, governance and management

Londinium is a registered charity governed by a constitution adopted on 29th September 2009, as amended 23 April 2016 and 4 April 2022.

The Charity is managed by its Trustees, who are elected or re-elected annually at the Annual General Meeting, or appointed by the Trustee body during the course of the year. During the year ended 31st August 2022 Andrew Griffiths was the Musical Director of Londinium.

The Trustees give their time voluntarily, and do not receive remuneration or other benefits. The Musical Director is appointed by the Trustees and receives fees from Londinium in his/her professional capacity from Londinium, as do any other professional musicians engaged in the course of the Charity’s activities.

Singers wishing to join Londinium are auditioned, and are usually asked to sing with the choir on a trial basis before membership is confirmed. As at 31st August 2022 Londinium had 81 members, including members who no longer sing with the choir. During the year around 48 members sang regularly in concerts and other projects.

Members do not pay an annual subscription, but are asked to pay a subscription for each concert or other project in which they participate. This covers the cost of music and contributes towards general rehearsal costs.

Objectives and Activities

Londinium’s objectives are:

to promote, improve, develop and maintain education in the appreciation and knowledge of the art and science of music by the presentation of public concerts and by such other activities as the Trustees shall think fit;
to encourage and support for the public benefit all art forms, particularly but not exclusively those involving music, including other cultural and educational activities in order to make these more accessible to the public at large.

The choir primarily achieves these objectives by promoting, organising and/or giving choral performances. In planning activities the Trustees have regard to The Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

After the severe reduction in activities caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, in this year Londinium was able to resume giving full-scale concerts, although audience numbers were restricted due to social distancing. The choir also appeared as the chorus in the UK premiere of an 18th-century oratorio, went on tour in The Netherlands and finally, after two postponements due to the pandemic, made its recording of choral music by Kenneth Leighton.

The first concert of the season was ‘Silence & Music’ at St Gabriel’s Pimlico on 15 October 2021. Inspired by the words “and music wakes from silence, where it slept” from Vaughan Williams’ Silence and Music it celebrated the power of music and our full return to singing in public. We were delighted to include the UK premiere of Karensa Briggs’ Hear my Prayer in the programme, and the composer attended the performance.

‘A New Dawn’, our Christmas concert at St James’s, Sussex Gardens (11 December), mixed seasonal favourites with lesser-known gems, particular highlights being Philip Moore's Salutatio Angelica for double choir and Kenneth Leighton's Nativitie .

Our 11 February 2022 concert at St Peter’s Eaton Square, ‘Heartsong’, was an atmospheric sequence of sacred music from Byrd's Miserere mei Deus to John Rutter's Hymn to the Creator of Light , also including John Sheppard's twin settings of Libera nos , and works by Schütz and Tomkins in their anniversary years. The programme was punctuated by the movements of Rheinberger's Eb major Mass for Double Choir.

Londinium was the chorus in HGO’s production of Ester , the UK premiere of the earliest oratorio with a Hebrew text, on 13 March at the Free Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb,

conducted by Andrew Griffiths. Composed in 1774 for the Jewish community in Amsterdam by the Italian composer Cristiano Lidarti, the score was lost, and only re-discovered in the 1990s.

‘Valiant-for-Truth’ (8 April at St Gabriel’s Pimlico) marked Vaughan Williams’ 150th anniversary with a programme of works by him, together with music by his teachers, Parry, Stanford and Ravel, his students Ina Boyle, Imogen Holst and Elizabeth Maconchy, and his friends Gustav Holst and Finzi. We were delighted that members of the Ina Boyle Society were able to join us.

Our major summer project was the long-awaited recording of an album of choral music by Kenneth Leighton, entitled Every Living Creature , for release by the SOMM Recordings in 2023. It includes five premiere recordings, and most of the other works have only been recorded once before. The most significant discovery was the magnificent, unpublished, cantata Laudes Animantium for double choir, soloists and children's chorus. The recording took place from 17 – 19 June at All Hallows, Gospel Oak, produced and engineered by the renowned team of Adrian Peacock and David Hinitt. We were thrilled to have Rebecca Lea, Nick Pritchard, Ciara Hendrick and Nina Bennet as soloists, and to be joined by the choir of Finchley Children's Music Group in the finale of Laudes Animantium .

The recording would not have been possible without the support of all those who responded to our crowdfunding appeal – beyond expectation – and a generous grant from the RVW Trust.

The season was rounded off with a tour to the Netherlands, where the choir presented a programme of music entitled ‘Sing Joyfully’ to capacity audiences in Amsterdam and Leiden on 13 and 14 August. A local review of the Leiden concert described Londinium as singing with ‘fire and vitality’. Andrew Griffiths was indisposed with Covid, and we are very grateful to a Dutch conductor, Hebe de Champeaux, for stepping in at short notice.

Accounts for the year ended 31st August 2022 and Financial Commentary

Londinium’s financial results are set out on the attached sheets. They comprise three pages of financial information: a schedule of general income and expenditure, an income and expenditure sheet showing the surplus or loss for each separate musical event and a balance sheet. Bearing in mind this season was still affected by some Covid restrictions, particularly social distancing, the fact that the reduction in our reserves was entirely due to our investment in the Leighton recording, is a very good achievement.

The general income and expenditure account shows a deficit of £4,868 in the year to 31 August 2022 (2021 - a deficit of £699).

But for the deficit on the Leighton Recording of £7,762, there would have been a surplus on Musical Events of £1,074. The London concerts were individually close to break-even. The bulk of the surplus related to the Holland Tour (£901).

Our Gift Aid reclaim amounted to £2,797 (2021 £959). The higher 2022 figure included Gift Aid reclaimed on the Leighton recording project donations. Thank you to all those who have signed Gift Aid forms. The recovery of Gift Aid makes a major contribution to our overheads.

We require a reasonable overall surplus on our Musical Events and Sundry Income to cover the choir’s general running costs. These include insurance, the Musical Director’s annual retainer, auditioning costs and website costs. In total, our general expenditure amounted to £1,163 (2021 - £2,097). The higher 2021 figure was mainly due to the cost of setting in print the handwritten scores of Leighton music in readiness for the recording.

As at 31 August 2022, Londinium had reserves of £12,257 (2021 - £17,125). The reduction of reserves was entirely expected as we had previously built them up to fund the Leighton Recording.

The Trustees consider that we need to maintain reserves of between £2,000 and £3,000 as working capital to fund ongoing concert and running costs. This means that as at 31 August 2022 we had about £9,500 of reserves available towards the balance of the Leighton CD recording production and engineering costs and for future ventures. Since the year end, we have received a grant of £1,000 from the RVW Trust towards the project costs.

The Leighton project has been on the go for three years, and the transactions relating to it are included in the particular year’s accounts in which they occurred. In order therefore to see the overall income and expenditure on the project we have prepared a financial summary which is also attached. It shows the final outcome alongside our budget for the project. We managed to raise about £3,500 more than we budgeted from donations and grants. Expenditure was largely as anticipated in the budget, and we only needed to use a small part of our £750 contingency. The net effect of all this was that we only used about £5,000 of our reserves instead of the £9,000 which we had budgeted for.

The current season is progressing reasonably well financially. Three of the four concerts given have achieved surpluses. Our costs however are rising, particularly those relating to venue hire. One cost which is due to go down is PRS. As an amateur group, from 1 September 2023 the PRS percentage will fall from 4.8% to 3.25%.

On behalf of the Trustees

………………………………………...

Helen Statham

Trustee and Chair 20 May 2023

	Charity Name Londinium	Charity Name Londinium	Charity Name Londinium	No (if any) 1135786	CC16a
	For the period from	Period start date 01-Sep-21	To	Period end date 31-Aug-22

Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £	Restricted funds to the nearest £	Endowmen t funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £	Last year to the nearest £
Income from musical events	5,441	-	-	5,441	312
Fees and donations	695	3,498	-	4,193	818
Subscriptions	12,799	-	-	12,799	4,185
Other income	2,983	-	-	2,983	1,571
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	21,918	3,498	-	25,416	6,886

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-				-
*Sub total*	-				-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
					6,886

Musical events	14,999	13,755	-	28,754	5,805
Other expenditure	1,117	-	-	1,117	2,072
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
**Sub total **	16,116	13,755	-	29,871	7,877

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-
	-
**Sub total **	-				-
*Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end*
					7,877

	5,802				- 991
	- 6,313				-
	12,709				17,644
	12,198				16,653

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

14/06/2023

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

CCXX R2 accounts (SS) Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds	~~2~~ Details Details *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) CAF Bank Current Account CAF Bank Deposit Account Details Details Details Signature	Unrestricte d funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 3,242 - 8,956 - - - 12,198 - OK OK Unrestricte d funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name Christopher Lemar	Endowment funds to nearest £
			-
			-
			-
			-
			OK
			Endowment funds to nearest £
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			When due (optional)






			Date of approval
			06-Jun-23

			~~14/06/2023~~

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of Londinium On aOnts for the year ended 31 August 2022 Charity no (If any) 1135786 Set out on pages Form CC16a I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charityllhe Trust") for the year ended 31108 12022. Responsibilltles and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Acl"). 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 the applicable Direclions given by the Charity Commission under section 14515llbl of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records Independent examinerfs statement I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Si9nod: Date: Name: i AO[L QThNJMC IL Relevant professional qualification{s> or body (if any): GOA Addross: LONJ{JO SuJifl IER October 2018