2021-12-31-accounts

The Serse Trust(Registered Charity 1153972) 6 Beechwood Avenue Weybridge Surrey KT13 9TE Chairman : Christopher Silvester Treasurer : James Alexander

The Serse Trust Annual Activity Report for 2021

The Serse Trust was formed on 18th December 2012. It obtained HMRC approval on 1st June 2013 [Ref. no. EW00385] and full registered charitable status on 26 September 2013 [No. 1153972].

The trustees are Christopher Silvester (chairman), whose professional background is in journalism and PR; James Alexander (treasurer), whose professional background is in investment management; Edward Houghton, whose professional background is in the law; Dr Alan King, a retired consultant anaesthetist and doyen of the London Handel scene; and Miranda Houghton a former classical musical agent and critic, currently a therapist working with musicians.

The Trust was formed to support companies that seek to revive 18th-century opera seria and other unjustifiably neglected works of the baroque.. It also has a mission to promote young and emerging talent, both vocal and instrumental. The principal vehicle is Opera Settecento, of which Leo Duarte is the Director. He is currently transitioning from one of Europe’s top baroque oboists to also embrace a career in conducting period performance groups like Opera Settecento and others. Joanne Miller is our General Manager who works closely with Leo, organises our mini-tours and, marketing and recording projects, as well as being an in-demand period performance viola player.

2021 was looking to be nearly as bad as 2020 but a gradual easing of Covid allowed a modest recovery in our activity. Both our planned Spring performances of Handel’s pasticcio, Lucio Papirio dittarore (HWV A6) were cancelled, yet again. However, with the very generous support of the Halle Festival we were able to turn one of the Lucio Papirio concerts into a very high quality video recording that was then broadcast “live” for the first time at their virtual festival in May 2021. The performance was rehearsed and recorded at the excellent Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford upon Avon. The team there provided highly professional technical and admin support and we hope to return soon to perform with a real live audience. It was also broadcast over the radio and internet and is still available (somewhat mysteriously) on YouTube and has received over 1000 views to date. At least two of the young team of singers, Helen Charlston and Jess Dandy, are moving on now to forge international careers – in line with the missions of the Serse Trust.

The exceptional performance of the Lucio Papirio production and those in the past means we have been rebooked for both the LHF and the Halle Handel Festival to perform Fernando in 2022.

Whilst the London Handel Festival was wiped out in its entirety for Spring 2021 the team heroically regrouped and managed to produce a mini-festival in September. We stepped in to help too and performed a concert consisting of “Arias for Ballino”, one of Handel’s leading tenors, starring the upcoming Jorge Navarro. The concert received a 5-star review from Robert Hughill who described Jorge’s performance as one of “thrilling virtuosity and engaging personality”. He is just the sort of young singer that our charity was set up to support. A sign of his growing recognition is that he was signed up to sing under Diego Fasolis at La Fenice in Spring 2022 in Vivaldi’s La Griselda. We decided to use the arias in this concert as the basis for our initial commercial recording. The concert thus became a platform for us to launch an appeal for funds than will pay the upfront costs of the recording – planned for November 2022.

The Trust had a total turnover of just over £30000 (£17000 in 2020). Donations (plus associated Gift Aid) and grants again made up just under half of our income, the rest was in performance fees. Around 1/3 of the donations were specifically tagged as for our recording, becoming restricted reserves until the costs arise in late 2022.

The major personal donors (Alan King, Edward Houghton and James Alexander) were again very supportive in giving their normal annual contributions. We also received a number of other individual donations and support

from Alan Sainer and Angela Cain, amongst others. We were also grateful for another significant donation from the Behrens foundation via Stephen Cockburn. The Independent Examination of our accounts in 2021 has once again been carried out by Mr Paul Fage, for which many thanks.

Our expenses almost matched our revenues and most went on singers and musicians. Very modest, but very well deserved fees went to Joanne Miller.

For 2022 we look forward with great excitement to our first performance at Theater am der Wien in presenting Aminta e Filide with Fair Oriana in the title roles. We shall also be finally performing Handel’s Fernando at both the LFH and Halle.

James Alexander (Treasurer)

The Serse Trust

No (if any)

Receipts and payments accounts

01/01/21

31/12/21

For the period from

To

Section A Receipts and payments

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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Receipts
Donations (restricted for recording project) 9,128 3,183 - 12,311
Gift Aid (restricted for recording project) 1,168 796 - 1,964
Sales 15,958 - - 15,958
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
26,254 3,979 - 30,233
Sub total (Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 26,254 3,979 - 30,233
A3 Payments
Production 1 (Lucio Papirio recording 16,665 - - 16,665
Production 2 (LHF Arias for Ballino) 7,677 - - 7,677
Production 3 (Aminta in Vienna 2022 1,004 - - 1,004
Other costs 2,500 - - 2,500
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ 27,846 ] - - 27,846
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - -
Total payments 27,846 - - 27,846
Net of receipts/(payments) - 1,592 3,979 - 2,387
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 17,414 - - 17,414
Cash funds this year end 15,822 3,979 - 19,801
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

			Unrestricted		Restricted
Categories	Details		funds		funds
B1 Cash funds	Current account Total cash funds		to nearest £ 15,821 - - 15,821		to nearest £ 3,979 - - 3,979
	(agree	balances with receipts and payments account(s))	Agreement Error	OK
			Unrestricted		Restricted
			funds		funds
B2 Other monetary assets	Details		to nearest £ - - - - - -		to nearest £ - - - - - -
B3 Investment assets	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional) - - - - -
B4 Assets retained for the	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional) -
charity’s own use					- - - - - - - -
			Fund to which		Amount due
B5 Liabilities	Details		liability relates		- - - - - (optional)
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees		Signature	Print	Name

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CC16a
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Last year

to the nearest £

3,375 1,952 7,550 - - - - - 12,877

12,877

10,579 1,935 3,194 2,000 - - - - - 17,708

17,708 - 4,831 - - - 4,831

Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - -

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OK
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Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - -

Current value (optional)

-

Current value (optional)

When due (optional)

Date of approval

ul Fage 19Ashlry Drive waI￿n￿.Th•M¢S Surrey Kr12 IJL Ernail.'psfa$e3054@•0l.￿ffl Phone.. [phone] The Trustet5 of The Serse Trust 6 Beechwood Avenue Weybrid¢e 5urrry rr13 9TE 18 August 2022 Ind•p•nd•nt èx•rnln&s report W the trust•w ofTh• Serse Tiust I report to the tyustets on my ex•ffliNtion olthe accounts olthe charity. The Swse Trust I'the Tru5VI for the ye•r ended 31 Detember 2021. Rwslblllii•s•nd b￿S01r¢p￿t As the charity tll151ees of the Trust yov are fesponsible for the prewraiion of the accounts In accordance wth the requi¥ements of the Charities A¢1 20111.the A¢trl. I report In resped of mv examination of the Trusvs a¢¢ounu c4rned out under sertion 145 of the 2011 Act and In carryin out rny exafflination I have lollowed Ill th• •pplkable Oire¢tsons ¢iven by the Charity Commlssion under section 14515llbl of the Act. Independent ex•mlnerfs stst¢ment I have cornpleted rny eXarn1nat￿n. I Confi￿ th•t matenal matters ha¥ewme to my attention in conneth'on with the exarninatk>n me ¢aus* ￿ believe that in any material fespKt'. accountr"n¢ records weie not kept in respert ofthe Trust as required by stttson 130 of the Act or the accounts do not aCCOTd ¥¥rth those fecords. I have no concerns and havt tomt across no other matters In connecty'on wrth the examlnztion to which attention should be drawn in this report rn order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reach•d. Your5 fai Paul Fage