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 2022** 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. In Summer 2022 he made his successful major conducting debut with English Touring Opera and Handel’s Agrippina. One of a number of very favourable reviews remarked: “ _In the pit, Leo Duarte (conducting rather than playing the oboe) drew vivid playing from the Old Street Band. This was a performance where the vivacious action on stage was really balanced by strongly characterised and stylish playing in the pit. Duarte's highly dramatic conducting style seemed to almost draw the sound physically from the players._ ” 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. 2022 finally saw the easing of the Covid lockdowns. We performed a three times matching our best ever year. In January we gave our debut performance at Theater am der Wien , presenting Aminta e Filide with the Fair Oriana duo , Penelope Appleyard and Angela Hicks and in the title roles. The production was broadcast live on the internet and was clearly received with great acclaim, loud cheers even. After some frustrating covid-related delays we finally performed Handel’s Fernando at both the London Handel Festival and Halle Handel Festival. Both concerts were very well received. It was a premiere of this neglected, because unfinished, piece. As well as rediscovering opera seria our charitable mission was also well served by the performers chosen for the performance. As leading critic Alexandra Coughlan noted: _“And what a cast. Name a young British singer headed for big things, and you’ll find them here. There is Susanna Fairbairn’s sumptuous Princess Elvida, all dramatic ice and vocal fire, turning an ingenue into a queen, finding her match in the unshowy, emotionally-grounding warmth of Ciara Hendrick’s matriarch Isabella. And there is Nick Scott’s poised King Dionisio and Meili Li’s sweet-toned lover Fernando.”_ Our recording of Arias for Ballino was held at All Hallows Gospel Oak in London. It involved several days of playing in a very cold church but our very well-regarded producer …. was very positive. The editing is well underway and we are still on target for a release late in 2023. Our young tenor Jorge Navarro Colorado is increasingly being recognised as rising star with some excellent roles and reviews going his way. Our backing for him is very much in line with one of core missions to support emerging talent. He also has a second CD in the works due for release in later 2023 involving same sex love duets. The Trust had a total turnover of over £75000 (£30000 in 2021). Donations (plus associated Gift Aid) and grants made up around one-third of our income, the majority was in performance fees from our three concerts. The bulk of the donations were specifically tagged for our recording, temporarily restricting their use during the year, but then paid out after the recording. We are immensely grateful to all our supporters for their incredibly generous response to our funding campaign. Everyone will get mentioned with the final product but special thanks should go to Chris Carter, Erhard Meier, Hugh Meares, Peter Wardle, Charles Lutyens, Angela Cain and Robert Hughill – plus two very generous donors who particularly wanted to support Jorge, but wished to remain anonymous. The major personal donors (Alan King, Edward Houghton and James Alexander) were again very supportive in giving their normal annual contributions. We were also grateful for another significant donation from the Behrens Foundation via Stephen Cockburn. The Independent Examination of our accounts in 2022 has once again been carried out by Mr Paul Fage, for which many thanks. Our expenses were again slightly less than our revenues but we still have a number of outstanding payments to make from 2022 activities as well as various firm commitments for 2023. Almost all of income was spent on singers and musicians, as well as the technicians for the recording. Very modest, but very well deserved, fees went to Joanne Miller for her General Manager work. For 2023 we look forward to coming out with our premier recording and to a fascinating lunchtime concert in the London Handel Festival Spring season of Arias for Cuzzoni with our good friend soprano Angie Hicks. We are also engaged in longer term planning for a major and innovative engagement in 2024 at both the Halle Festival and the LHF. ## **James Alexander (Treasurer)** |**The Serse Trust**|||**No (if any)**|| |---|---|---|---|---| |**Receipts andpayments accounts**||||**CC16a**| |**For the period**
**from**|01/01/22|**To**|31/12/22|| ## **Section A Receipts and payments** |**A1 Receipts**
Donations
**25,497**
Gift Aid
**3,009**
Sales
**48,783**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**77,289**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ 77,289**
**A3 Payments**
Production 1 (Amita in Vienna)
**10,508**
Production 2 (Fernando)
**40,214**
Production 3 (Ballino recording)
**17,403**
Production 4 (last costs for 2021 LH **1,000**
Other costs
**3,511**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ 72,636**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total payments_ 72,636**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ 4,653**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**19,801**
**_Cash funds this year end_ 24,454**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**25,497**
**3,009**
**48,783**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**77,289**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**77,289**
**10,508**
**40,214**
**17,403**
**1,000**
**3,511**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**72,636**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**72,636**
**4,653**
**-**
**19,801**
**24,454**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |---|---|---|---|---| |||**-**|**25,497**|**12,311**| |||**-**|**3,009**|**1,964**| |||**-**|**48,783**|**15,958**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**77,289**|**30,233**| |||||| |||**-**|**-**|| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||||| |||**-**||**30,233**| |||||| |||**-**|**10,508**|**16,665**| |||**-**|**40,214**|**7,677**| |||**-**|**17,403**|**1,004**| |||**-**|**1,000**|**-**| |||**-**|**3,511**|**2,500**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**72,636**|**27,846**| |||||| |||**-**|**-**|| |||**-**|**-**|| |||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||||| |||**-**|**72,636**|**27,846**| |||||| ||**-**|**-**|**4,653**|**2,387**| ||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**-**|**-**|**19,801**|**-**| ||**-**|**-**|**24,454**|**2,387**| ## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** |**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
Current account
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**24,454**
**-**
**-**
**24,454**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**|**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||OK| |||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**When due**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees Signature Date of Print Name approval CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examlner's Report RO￿rt tn th• Ini%t••8 G SIRS On accounts for th• y•*r •ndgd Ch•TIty no {If any) 115397L Set out on p•g l rnport to the InJsiee8 on my ex8min8tion of the aD))unts of the abo chaiity llhe Trusfi lor the year end•J 3 L I L *OzL Rgspon$lbllltl•s and basls of r•port As the than￿$ Iruslees, ytyj are ￿spOnSI￿e for the prepafalion of tho ac¢¥￿nts in K£fjrdar￿e with the wuirerr*nts ofthe Ch8ritses Act 2011 Ilhe A(￿). I report in respect of my exaNnation of the TNSt's accounts carried out under Sects"C￿ 145 01 the 2011 Acl and in carrying otrt my examination. I have folluwed dl tht applicatle Oiredions given by the Charrty ComtThssion under Secti(￿ 14515llbl ol th• Acl. Independent oxaminèrfs stst•mènt appl￿￿. Delet81 l rfnol applicable. I have o)mplelod my exanrrinalion. I confirm that no matertal matters hava orr* to my attention in connect￿￿ with the examin8kn.on t8Èhep lI￿￿￿1ch givwd me cause to that In, ony malerial the ac£ounts'n9 records were nol kept in xc4)rdanc• vAth section 130 of the Chanlies Act.. Of Ihe ￿lunt$ did not with the acctyjnlng records; or the actounls did not comF4y vnth the applic8ble requirements c0￿ming Ihe form and content ol a￿Ount$ set out in Ihe Charities IAcc4wnts arKI ReFQrtsl Regulations 2008 oiher than any requirement Ihat the ac£ounts give a Irue and fairf wew which is not a matter con*de(ed as part of on independent examination. I have no t>)ncems and have conw ￿[0$5 no other motters in connection with Ine exanNnotion to which attention should (Je drawn in this reporl in onler lo en8￿e a proper underslanding of the accounts to be reached. . Pleas8 tthte the woth in Ihe brnckets rfthey do not 8pply. Signed: Name: AL)L S (AFFDKb Relevant professlon¥l quallficationlsl 0¢ body IER Oct 2018 Ilf any): Addrnss: A SHLEY r)Riy SOR If f il i.fL Sectlon Disclosure Only complele il the examinef needs lo highlight material matters ol concern I.4￿• r.r.3? lnrtftppnrtp.nl ftYamin8t￿1n nf rharity a(YniintA' dirprtinng Antj guidance for exaThMners). Glve here brief detalls of any ltsms thatthg examlner wlshu to dlscloso. IER Oct 2018