WALTHAM SINGERS – Charity number 1153650 ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
Administrative details
Waltham Singers is registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with charity registration number 1153650. The principal address of the charity is currently 69 Maltese Rd. Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 2PB.
During the year to 31 March 2024, and up to the date that this report was approved, the trustees of Waltham Singers were Christine Eason, Geoff Jenkinson, Jane Jenkinson, Kate Hanson, Sarah Moran, Sabine Nussey, Jill Readings, Stephen Readings, Emma Russell and Mike Wall.
We pay for the professional services of our Musical Director, Andrew Fardell, and our Deputy Director and Rehearsal Accompanist, Jonathan Lilley.
Waltham Singers is affiliated to Making Music.
Governance
Waltham Singers is governed by a constitution last amended on 24 October 2013.
Trustees are elected from the membership at each Annual General Meeting. Trustees serve until the following Annual General Meeting when they retire and are eligible for re-election. The current trustees were elected at the Annual General Meeting held on 29th June 2023.
The trustees have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission when exercising their powers or duties.
Objectives
To promote, improve, develop and maintain high standards of music, particularly singing, through the presentation of public concerts and recitals and by such other means as the trustees determine from time to time.
Activities
We maintained our normal cycle of three full concerts per year but with an extra Carol Concert in December 2024 in support of Chelmsford City MENCAP. We have recruited a number of new singers during the year, but inevitably we have lost some others, so overall numbers are still down compared to the pre Covid period.
In June 2023 we presented our 50[th] Anniversary Concert in Great Waltham Church, Chelmsford. This presented a programme of works that Waltham Singers have been involved with commissioning over the fifty years that it has been operating. The main feature was a World Premiere of ‘Endless Song’ by local composer Alan Bullard. We also reprised ‘So Strong is His Love’ by Roxanna Panufnik and ‘The Pandora Sketches’ by Jeffery Wilson.
The accompaniment was by the renowned Maggini String Quartet, with double bass player John Tattersdill, and it featured Kayleigh McEvoy as soprano soloist. This was a very lively concert which was appreciated by a large audience and several dignitaries including the composers, Alan Bullard and Jeffery Wilson, and the Lord Lieutenant of Essex. Roxanna Panufnik presented her apologies as she was prevented from travelling by ill health.
Former members of the choir and past accompanists were specially invited, with a special welcome for the founding Musical Director, Peter Cross, who is still very much part of the Chelmsford music scene.
Another anniversary was that our current musical director, Andrew Fardell, had at that concert completed forty years with the choir. The choir marked this milestone with a small presentation to Andrew after the event.
In November 2023 we performed Haydn’s ‘Creation’ in Chelmsford Cathedral with The Salomon Orchestra, a thirty-eight-piece orchestra who specialise in Haydn, and professional singers were Soprano, Jessica Edom-Carey, Tenor, Henry Ross and Bass, Daniel Vening. Jonathan Lilley played the organ.
In December 2023 we provided the choir for the Chelmsford MENCAP carol concert at Chelmsford Cathedral and performed a number of choir carols as well as supporting the congregational carols. It was a pleasure for us to support this local charity again, at its first carol concert after COVID, and help it raise money for its ongoing work.
In March 2024 we presented ‘Harmonie Française’ in Great Waltham Church, Chelmsford, which was a programme of work by French Twentieth century composers including Poulenc’s ‘Stabat Mater’ and Langlais’s ‘Petit Messe Solonelle’, with accompaniment on the organ by Jonathan Lilley and Soprano soloist, Sian Sulke. This concert continued Waltham Singers’ long established tradition of presenting more challenging and maybe less well-known works. The concert was a success, and audience feedback was very favourable, but the audience and choir were of a reduced size compared to previous concerts.
A significant number of choir members were unable to take part because of health issues or family commitments, which was a shame, but it is hoped they will be back for the Summer 2024 concert.
Financial summary
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This has been another difficult year financially as the number of members remains around 70 compared with 90 before Covid.
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We also commissioned and paid for a major new work from composer Alan Bullard for our 50[th] anniversary concert in June 2023. The commission fee was £10,000.
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We stepped up our fund-raising activities to meet this challenge with a direct appeal to our members and our Friends of Waltham Singers for funds, a Quiz Night, which was well supported and a Raffle, licensed so that members can sell tickets to friends outside the choir. This latter raised £2,364.
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Total choir funds at 1[st] April 2023 £8,370
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Total choir funds at 31[st] March 2024 £9,136
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We have received Gift Aid repayments from HMRC for 2022/2023 of £2,466.
Future activities
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We will be performing ‘Palgrave’s Poets’ in June 2024. This concert will feature works related to poets whose work can be found in Palgrave’s ‘Golden Treasury of Verse’, to mark the 200[th] anniversary of Palgrave’s birth. We are delighted that we will be joined by the well-known actor, Robert Bathurst, to read some of the poems to accompany the music.
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We will be performing Beethoven’s C Minor Mass in Chelmsford Cathedral in November 2024
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We are continuing a recruitment campaign, largely by social media and word of mouth, to encourage new members to join us in September.
Steve Readings (Chair, Waltham Singers) 19 April 2024
| WALTHAM SINGERS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charitable Incorporated Organisation Registered in England and Wales | ||||
| RECEIPTS & PAYMENTS ACCOUNT | ||||
| FOR THE PERIOD 1ST APRIL 2023 TO 31ST MARCH 2024 | ||||
| Lastyear | ||||
| Receipts | ||||
| 9,229 | Concerts | 11,252.68 | note 1 | |
| 1,604 | Other Events & Fundraising | 3,959.90 | note 2 | |
| 10,505 | Subscriptions | 11,150.00 | ||
| 455 | Member Donations | 700.00 | ||
| 2,082 | Gift Aid | 2,465.57 | ||
| 144 | 50:50 Club | 240.00 | ||
| 1,355 | Friends | 1,275.00 | ||
| 74 | Music Lending | 110.05 | ||
| 0 | Programme advertising | 75.00 | ||
| 2,299 | Other Receipts | 430.00 | note 3 | |
| 5 | Interest Received | 0.00 | ||
| 27,752 | Total - General account | 31,658.20 | ||
| Payments | ||||
| 14,126 | Concerts | 13,845.33 | note 1 | |
| 319 | Other Events | 652.80 | note 2 | |
| 7,490 | Musical Director | 7,760.00 | ||
| 2,074 | Accompanists | 2,392.00 | ||
| 500 | Rehearsal Facility | 880.00 | ||
| 7,500 | Music Library | 2,599.23 | ||
| 646 | MakingMusic(NFMS) | 583.60 | ||
| 0 | Publicity | 0.00 | ||
| 0 | Administration | 0.00 | ||
| 179 | Other Payments | 544.56 | note 4 | |
| 635 | Payments for lastyear | 1,634.00 | note 5 | |
| 411 | Payments for nextyear | 0.00 | ||
| 33,880 | Total - General account | 30,891.52 | ||
| -6,128 | Surplus/ deficit for thisperiod | 766.68 | ||
| 14,497 | Opening bank balances | 8,369.10 | ||
| 8,369 | Closing bank balances | 9,135.78 | ||
| CASH FUNDS BREAKDOWN | ||||
| Deposit Accounts | 75.00 | |||
| Current Account | 9,060.78 | |||
| Total | 9,135.78 | |||
| Accountsprepared by M J Wall | ||||
| Treasurer |
1
| WALTHAM SINGERS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOTES TO THE RECEIPTS & PAYMENTS ACCOUNT | |||||||||
| FOR THE PERIOD 1ST APRIL 2023 TO 31ST MARCH 2024 | |||||||||
| Note 1- Concerts | June | December | March | ||||||
| Gt Waltham | Cathedral | Gt Waltham | |||||||
| Total | endless song | creation | tba | ||||||
| Ticket Sales | 10,338.00 | 2,819.00 | 5,110.00 | 2,409.00 | |||||
| Programme Sales | 682.75 | 260.05 | 260.00 | 162.70 | |||||
| Music Sold to Members | 231.93 | 231.93 | |||||||
| Sponsorship | 0.00 | ||||||||
| Total Receipts | 11,252.68 | 3,079.05 | 5,370.00 | 2,803.63 | |||||
| Orchestra / Accompanist | 7900.00 | 2600.00 | 5300.00 | ||||||
| Workshopfees | 0.00 | ||||||||
| Soloists | 2250.00 | 500.00 | 1200.00 | 550.00 | |||||
| Venue Fees/staging/chair hire | 1620.25 | 420.00 | 1038.25 | 162.00 | |||||
| Ticket/Prog/Posters Printing | 108.00 | 65.00 | 43.00 | ||||||
| Instrument Hire | 1015.00 | 400.00 | 615.00 | ||||||
| Music Bought | 303.12 | 303.12 | |||||||
| Music Hire | 529.96 | 250.46 | 279.50 | ||||||
| Flowers/Food/Sundries/PRS | 119.00 | 45.00 | 74.00 | ||||||
| 0.00 | |||||||||
| Total Payments | 13,845.33 | 3,630.00 | 8,305.71 | 1,909.62 | |||||
| Surplus / Deficit | -2592.65 | -550.95 | -2935.71 | 894.01 | |||||
| Note 2- Other events& fund raising | |||||||||
| Receipts | Payments | Surplus | |||||||
| Quiz night | 996.00 | 269.23 | 726.77 | ||||||
| Raffle | 2,415.00 | 51.00 | 2,364.00 | ||||||
| Rehearsl coffees | 293.90 | 293.90 | |||||||
| Summer Concert Social | 255.00 | 332.57 | -77.57 | ||||||
| Total | 3,959.90 | 652.80 | 3,307.10 | ||||||
2
| WALTHAM SINGERS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOTES TO THE RECEIPTS & PAYMENTS ACCOUNT | ||||||
| FOR THE PERIOD 1ST APRIL 2023 TO 31ST MARCH 2024 | ||||||
| Note 3- Other Receipts | ||||||
| Folder duncan | 5.00 | |||||
| late Endless SongFund | 352 | 20.00 | ||||
| late Endless SongFund | 353 | 100.00 | ||||
| late Endless SongFund | 354 | 100.00 | ||||
| scarves | 355 &359 | 15.00 | ||||
| folders | 35.00 | |||||
| KFprints | 60.00 | |||||
| KFprint Nussey | 25.00 | |||||
| KFprint Hanson | 20.00 | |||||
| scarf+ 2 more + 1 more | 366+ direcr | 40.00 | ||||
| 2 folders | 367 | 10.00 | ||||
| 430.00 | ||||||
| Note 4- Other Payments | ||||||
| Extra Stagingfor GW Church | 749 | 166.34 | ||||
| AGM costs | 766 | 72.37 | ||||
| AF 40yearspresentation | 770 | 263.00 | ||||
| open rehearsall costs | 770 | 34.86 | ||||
| material for archive | 799 | 7.99 | ||||
| Total | 544.56 | |||||
| Note 5- Payments for last year | ||||||
| New Hall School -printingmusic/posters/tickets | 741 | 42.00 | ||||
| St Cedd's hall hire | 742 | 300.00 | ||||
| Chair hire(March concert) | 743 | 180.00 | ||||
| gt Waltham church | 762 | 590.00 | ||||
| Empirepianos | 771 | 522.00 | ||||
| Total | 1634.00 | |||||
| Note 6 - Payments for nextyear | ||||||
| music hire for summer concert | ||||||
| ACCOUNTING POLICIES | ||||||
| Income is dealt with on a cash received basis and noprovision has been made for income | ||||||
| due but not received at the accounting year end. | ||||||
| Receipts have been showngross with related expenses from fundraising | ||||||
| events shown separately. Costs are recognised as theyarepaid and noprovision has been made for any | ||||||
| expenses incurred duringtheyear but not settled until after 31st March 2024 | ||||||
| Fixed assets acquired duringtheyear have been written off in the receipts andpayments | ||||||
| account. | ||||||
3
WALTHAM SINGERS Independent examinerfs report to the trustees of 'Waltham Singers" Trust I report on the accounts of the Trust for the year ended 31 st March 2024 which are set out on pages 1, 2 and 3. Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner The CIO'S trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The CIO'S trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year (under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility to: examine the accounts (under section 145 of the 2011 Act); to follow the prOdureS laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners (under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act; and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention. Basis of independent examiner's report My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the CIO and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as trustees conceming any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair view, and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below. Independent examinerfs statement In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention: (1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements" to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act; and to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act have not been met, or (2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed Name: Roger Bearman Address: CA40 L¥¥E_LO QtJ CI4 3 i La¥. OZLF Date: