Redland Green Choir - Annual Report 2024/25
I am pleased to report that the Redland Green Choir has completed a further successful year under the direction of Huw Morgan. Huw is a very engaged director and we all appreciate the trouble he takes to feedback weekly on our rehearsals and to attend our committee meetings.
The choir continues to be well supported, numbers have increased slightly to approximately 72. All sections of the choir are well represented.
Concerts
We changed the format of our concerts this year, as the number of choirs in Bristol makes it tricky to get space around Christmas time. We decided to have an informal Christmas concert in December in the RGS Hall, inviting friends and relatives for the second half of the rehearsal. This went off well and will be repeated this year.
Our winter concert was held on February 8th at All Saints Church, Clifton. The first half consisted of Insanae et Vanae Curae by Haydn, Ave Verum Corpus and Laudate Dominum by Mozart and Schubert’s The Lord is My Shepherd . Schubert’s Mass no.3 in B flat filled the second half. The soloists were Freya Holliman, Jenna Brown, Rob Felstead and Harrison Robb. The Chamber Choir also sang, and Huw performed on the organ. All was very well received, despite the fact that it was exceedingly cold.
Our main concert took place on Saturday June 28th, once again in All Saint’s Church, but this time not so cold. Entitled A Musical Feast, the first half consisted of short pieces – Canon by Thomas Tallis, Sing Gently by Eric Whitacre, The Maid of Culmore , Small Town Boy, Crossing the Bar, and Canon Coronato by Isabella Leonarda. Extracts from Handel’s Alexander’s Feast and Purcell’s King Arthur, enhanced by Joe Hamlen on trumpet, Richard Johnson on the organ and the tenor voice of Mike Gormley delighted the audience in the second half.
Chamber Choir
The Chamber Choir, now numbering 17, has had a good year and all those participating enjoy the opportunity to sing a great selection of music which keeps everyone on their toes. In October, it performed Mozart, Bruckner and songs by Philip Glass at Frenchay Parish Church, a beautiful venue with lovely acoustics, in aid of Brace, a dementia charity. Huw also played the organ. Delicious refreshments were provided by the Frenchay Church congregation. There is another concert on October 11[th] 2025, again in Frenchay Parish Church.
Rehearsals take place approximately three times per term on different evenings in rooms belonging to Westbury Park Methodist Church.
The Chamber Choir is very grateful to Lesley Benson who has taken on the role of organiser.
Funerals
Members of the full choir were privileged to sing Crossing the Bar at the funerals of two past members, in March for David Yorath at the Gloucestershire Cricket Club and in June for Brian Bailey at Redland Green Halls.
Finances
The choir continues to be in good financial health. The accounts show that there was a surplus of £134 for the year (£603 in the previous year). When this is added to the balance brought forward, the choirs reserves stand at £11,217.
We had planned to make a small deficit to reduce the level of the reserve, but the cancellation of the summer workshop resulted in the small surplus. The subscription for 25/26 is unchanged and together with the impact of inflation on costs and the commissioning of a piece of music for our February concert, we anticipate a deficit in the level of reserves by the end of 25/26 year.
One item of note is that income from the sale of concert tickets was 10% lower than in the previous year.
Workshops
Once again. we had a choir workshop during the year. We planned for two but the timings of concerts meant that we cancelled our summer workshop. These workshops are really valuable and enjoyable, enabling us more time than our usual rehearsals, and generally improve the quality of our singing.
Party
We were very grateful to Kathy Feest for the venue of her lovely garden, where we enjoyed an excellent ‘end of season’ party. She even provided perfect weather.
General
The choir continues to go from strength to strength and we have had a number of new recruits this September. We are lucky to have an excellent committee; we are very grateful to Carew for continuing to carry out this essential task of Treasurer. He is keen to relinquish his role after a number of years of good service and is very grateful for Katy Trueman for offering to work alongside him as Assistant Treasurer for 25/26. Special thanks should also go to Kate Hughes for her secretarial and organisational labours. We have a new committee member, Viv Flynn, who is taking on the role of Minutes Secretary, which relieves some of the load from Kate. We are also grateful to Sue Fox who has risen to all the challenges of organising the music. She has now stepped down as librarian, and her place has been taken by Kate Gibson and Anneliese Blair, working in tandem. Thanks also to John Atkinson for managing the website. But all members provide great support and enable the choir to run efficiently.
An important mention must go to Jonny Saunders for providing excellent accompanying during rehearsals and concerts.
And finally, we continue to enjoy the wit and wisdom of our Musical Director Huw Morgan. We particularly appreciate that he endeavours to attend our committee meetings, which helps a great deal in furthering good communications. His regular email updates to the choir after rehearsals, steering us in the right direction, are very much appreciated.
We look forward to a further successful year, and to further expanding our repertoire.
Also, please note that it is my intention to stand down as chair this October, so we need someone to replace me. Time for some fresh energy, I feel!
Pat Turton (Chairperson) October 2025.
| Revenue account | 24/25 | 23/24 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Choir | Rehearsals | 7735 | 7638 |
| Music | -356 | -334 | |
| Subscriptions/Gift Aid | -9967 | -10987 | |
| Workshops | 1178 | 1720 | |
| Concerts | Winter | 598 | -697 |
| Summer | 278 | 1137 | |
| Chamber Choir | 45 | -56 | |
| Overheads | 355 | 976 | |
| Surplus for the year | 134 | 603 |
| Balance sheet | 24/25 | 23/24 |
|---|---|---|
| Opening balance | 11083 | 10480 |
| Surplus for the year | 134 | 603 |
| Closing balance | 11217 | 11083 |
| Represented by: | ||
| Cash - current account | 1784 | 3155 |
| Cash - deposit | 8191 | 8120 |
| Cash - Sumup | 760 | |
| Debtors/creditors | -482 | -192 |
The following page gives more detail of income and expenditure.
| Rehearsals/ subscriptions |
24/25 | 23/24 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Music Director | 3590 | 3500 | |
| Accompanist | 2500 | 2448 | |
| School hall | 1645 | 1690 | |
| Music | 682 | 821 | |
| Subscriptions | -8352 | -9247 | |
| Gift Aid | -1615 | -1740 | |
| Music subs | -1038 | -1155 | |
| -2588 | -3683 |
| Concerts | February | July |
|---|---|---|
| Music Director | 325 | 325 |
| Accompanist | 250 | 250 |
| Singers | 1025 | 550 |
| Hall | 300 | 300 |
| Publicity/programme | 132 | 97 |
| PRS/license | 81 | 75 |
| Other | 117 | 53 |
| Ticket sales | -1683 | -1357 |
| Refreshments (net) | 51 | -15 |
| 598 | 278 |
| Overheads | 24/25 | 23/24 |
|---|---|---|
| Making Music/insurance/website | 429 | 354 |
| New keyboard | - | 694 |
| Other | 30 | 67 |
| Prior year adjustments | -31 | -49 |
| Interest | -72 | -90 |
| 356 | 976 |