2020-12-31-accounts

Board of Trustees Annual Summary Report: 2020

Content and Purpose

This report summarises the work of the Board of Trustees of the German Choir of London (“the Choir”), including changes to the Board, and key achievements. It serves to inform all associate members of the Choir of the work going on ‘behind the scenes’ to create transparency and a sense of ownership. The summary is based on the minutes kept at all Trustee meetings. Any associate member can request to view the meeting minutes (written in English) by emailing any Trustee at any time. Associate members are also permitted to attend the Board Meetings upon request. This is the 6[th] summary report since the registration of the Choir as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2015.

Period covered

Author

January – December 2020

Melanie Allmendinger

Content

1. List of events in the reporting period

2. Changes to the Board of Trustees in the reporting period

3. Summary of Trustee work in the reporting period

4. Summary of the Annual General Meeting of Associate Members

5. Financial Summary

6. Acknowledgements

7. Upcoming concerts and events currently planned for 2021

1. Events in the reporting period

Main choral events:

February-Mid March: Training sessions for Choir Members:

In addition to the regular Tuesday rehearsals, the Musical Director offered training sessions in between, on topics such as singing techniques, sight reading and rhythm. This training was offered to members free of charge and was well received.

March-May: Virtual Pub Meetings

From April:

Audio Recordings. The choir members recorded individually at home the following pieces, which were then cut and edited to a recording of the full choir.

Mendelssohn - Herr nun lässest du

Bach - Komm Jesu Komm

Stanford – Beati Quorum

Strauss – Die Nacht

Video Recording. The choir members recorded individually at home the audio track of Rheinberger’s Abendlied, which were then cut and edited to a recording of the full choir. In addition the choir members recorded videos of themselves of activities during lockdown, which was then mixed with the audio track. The video was part of the Making Music Virtual Concert Series and was shortlisted for best virtual concert video by Making Music!

= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v 2mgRtTw8msU

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June-August:

Virtual Zoom Rehearsals

This included vocal warm-ups, vocal exercises, sight reading exercises and learning of new pieces followed by recording them individually at home.

The choir also invited several guest teachers for the vocal exercises

Corona Commissions:

The choir started a just giving page and crowdfunding campaign to support composers in this difficult period for freelancer musicians. A total of £5500 was raised and the choir commissioned ten composers to write a piece for the choir. The following pieces were commissioned and written for the DCL:

Unruhige Träume - Ian Stephens = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v Dq6aqwHorp8

Fear – Donna McKevitt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir1uWl1kunM

Concepts of Distress – Sarah Rimkus = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v tCpf7M50wnk

Fear no more – Michael Cryne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T678dHXINY&t=3s

So many Uses for Solitude – Ben See = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v H5IDp3zY3Rc

One more breath - Carol J. Jones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLXh7vAqdnI&t=1s

There is - Jenni Watson = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v m91g9C2KYuI

Es fürchte die Götter das Menschengeschlecht - Luke Styles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkLvqBX6ceM&t=13s

Maria durch ein Dornwald ging - Peter Leech

Es kommt ein Schiff geladen - Ben Rowarth

Most of these pieces were recorded virtually and some have been performed in a virtual concert by the choir in April 2021.

Voices against Violence

A project commissioned by Goethe Institut London and the German Embassy in London to highlight the strong increase of domestic violence during lockdown.

The choir virtually recorded especially composed music by Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, which was then turned into a short film by director Aaron Trinder. = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v YVi7vG3NyGI

September/October:

Live rehearsals in person in different venue (Artwork Classrooms near London Bridge) to accommodate social distancing. At first only in smaller groups, later on for the whole choir.

November:

Return to Virtual Zoom Rehearsals due to another lockdown

Voices.Europe

A project coordinated by the Goethe-Institut about the past, present, and future of Europe with music by composer Michael Langemann. Together with other international choirs the DCL recorded the music individually and some members also recorded some video material which was all edited together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w56tGSmlWFs&t=111s

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Early December:

Live rehearsals in person in different venue (Artwork Classrooms near London Bridge) to accommodate social distancing

Christmas:

The choir published a virtual Christmas card with lots of festive pictures and photos of the choir with a recorded version of The Angel Gabriel

Events which were planned but had to be cancelled/postponed to a later date due to Covid:

• 2 May 2020 – concert Komm Jesu Komm at St Pancras New Church, London together with choir from Hannover

• 4 May 2020 - Evensong in St Pauls Cathedral London together with choir from Hannover

• 31 May – Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis at Tate Modern together with ORA Singers

• 18 and 19 July 2020 – Choir tour to Rome/Vatican , singing mass in St. Peter and a concert in the German church

• End of October 2020 – Halloween concert

Trustee Meetings:

• 10 February 2020 (in person)

• 28 April 2020 (on zoom)

• 26 May 2020 (on zoom)

• 16 August 2020 (on zoom)

• 5 October 2020 (on zoom)

Annual choir member meeting

14 January 2020, Christuskirche, London

full meeting (AGM) of the choir members to conclude the year 2019, during which the Trustees and the Musical Director gave an update, section leaders were elected being followed by questions and discussions from/with choir members

17 December 2020, on zoom

full meeting (AGM) of the choir members to conclude the year 2020, during which the Trustees and the Musical Director gave an update, section leaders were elected being followed by questions and discussions from/with choir members

2. Changes to the Board of Trustees in the reporting period

Current Board of Trustees and areas of responsibilities:

• Melanie Allmendinger :

Chair of the Board of Trustees, integrating new members, assisting the treasurer

• Thomas Hegel: Treasurer - finance and legal

• Christian Anders : events coordinator including trips abroad

• Richard Loeser: Marketing (website, posters etc), finding new members

• Susanne Thiele: Marketing (Instagram, posters etc), minutes, creating concert programmes

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3. Summary of Trustee work in the reporting period

Marketing:

• The marketing team was very active on social media with many posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, advertising our online rehearsals and recordings and videos which the choir produced.

• Our Rheinberger Abendlied video reached 2,3k views on Facebook

• We also started a series on all social media channels to introduce the individual Chorus members with a profile and photos, which was a big success online.

• We added several new videos to our Youtube platform which received many views and likes.

• We published a fun quiz/questionnaire online “Which choral piece are you?”

• CE – Composers Edition published a big article about the Choir’s Corona Commission project and interview with our Musical Director Barbara: https://whatsnew.composersedition.com/german-choir-londons-barbara-hofling-on-coronacommissions-feat-ian-stephens-and-michael-cryne/

• The new website with a new design and fresh layout is still work in progress, but getting closer to being finished and going live.

Covid measures:

• The trustees made sure that the everchanging Covid rules and guidelines and what those meant for the choir were communicated to the choir. The trustees and the music director had to be very flexible and creative to react to the unusual circumstances.

• Several planned concerts and projects during the period had to be cancelled, changed and reorganised.

• Once the choir was able to rehearse again in person, the trustees had to find new and bigger venues where the choir could rehearse socially distanced

• Strict Health & Safety measures were introduced by the trustees such as:

• Risk assessments were produced for each venue

• Covid questionnaire to be filled out by all choristers before every rehearsal

• Opening windows and doors of the rehearsal venue

• providing hand sanitizer for choristers to use when entering the rehearsal venue

• Staggered entry and leaving the venue

• Keeping chairs socially distanced and keeping a seating chart who sat where

• Mask wearing in all rehearsals

• Shorter rehearsals & more breaks

• The trustees worked hard to keep the moral high during the difficult period of lockdown. The choir reacted well to the online rehearsals and really came together socially in the virtual pub every week. Everyone was very appreciative when the choir could finally rehearse again in person.

4. Summary of the Annual General Meeting

The AGM (General Meeting of Associate Members) on 17 December 2020 had to take place on zoom, as no meetings of a bigger group in person were allowed at this time.

The choir approved the work of the Trustees, elected section leaders for 2021, and discussed a number of ideas relating to rehearsals and the running of the choir. Minutes of this meeting are available (in English). All points were discussed by the Board and the Musical Director and have been implemented as far as possible.

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• thanked choir members who volunteer their time for the choir

• Trustees presented a review of all choral, marketing and other activities of 2020

• gave a report about the financial health of the choir

• (re)elected section leaders

  • Sopranos - Nathalie Nötzold (Cover: Amadea Heitmann)

  • Altos - Marianne Rencken (Cover: Magdalena Lippingwell)

  • Tenors - Eckart Marchand (Cover: Felix Richter)

  • Basses - David Schröder (cover: Ben Krueger )

• Barbara updated the choir on plans for 2021

• Approval of trustees board by members and updates: All trustees (Melanie Allmendinger, Thomas Hegel, Christian Anders, Susanne Thiele and Richard Loeser) were approved and reelected

• discussion points and feedback from members

• praise for past year (Barbara, Trustees, virtual rehearsals)

• the wish to continue virtual rehearsals if real ones are not possible

• the choir loved the virtual pub sessions, it raised the team spirit during lockdown

• comment on the recordings from home: nice tool to work on own voice, good motivation

• positive that alumni and singers in other countries were able to join the choir

• question about the possibility of virtual rehearsals with piano, concern about delay raised

• virtual rehearsals not useful for everybody, but the vocal coaching very helpful

• suggestion to meet in small groups (6 ppl, outside?)

• request for new pieces during virtual rehearsals

• enquiry: live broadcast of rehearsals at London Bridge or recording of rehearsals

5. Financial summary

Please see separate document for details.

• Income this year was approx. £19.675, of which £11,899 associate membership fees (at the end of 2020 we had 47 paying, registered choir members) and £1000 Grant donations from a sponsor (Bayerische Landesbank)

• Expenses this year was approx. £19.513, of which £6.590 for Musical Director remuneration.

• In 2020 there was no increase to the associate membership fees , which therefore are still £20 per month (£10 discount for students and singers without regular income)

• We expect to have £21.000 savings roughly at the end of the year. We expect that some of these savings will be used to finance concerts next year. In addition £15.000 which were donated by the Schröder Bank in the past, will be used for the St. Matthew Passion/Sophie Scholl project. The Trustees also like to keep a sound level of savings as we never know how membership numbers develop over the year – especially with the current pandemic and Brexit.

• Solo ensemble rehearsals, section rehearsals and technical rehearsals will continue to be financed by the whole choir as these contribute to the quality of the choir as a whole. During the AGM meeting, members welcomed this/did not object to this.

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6. Acknowledgements

Aside from the Trustees, several associate members have provided key inputs into the development of the choir during 2020 as volunteers which we wish to acknowledge:

• Stephanie Kirschke : prepares the attendance register and keeps oversight of attendance

• Uta Bergner-Sington : responsible for ordering the music for the choir and providing midi files which help the members rehearsing at home

• Rebecca Dittrich: writes the weekly choir internal newsletter

• Sarah Marzi: supporting with social media posts

• Julia Jennings: supporting with social media posts

• Nathalie Nötzold : section leader soprano

• Marianne Rencken : section leader alto

• Eckart Marchand: section leader tenor

• David Schröder: section leader bass

7. Concerts and events currently programmed for the future

• 9 April 2021 - virtual concert

• 2/3 October 2021 - Choir tour to Rome/Vatican , singing mass in St. Peter and a concert in the German church Santa Maria dell‘ Anima

• 17 March 2022 - St Matthew Passion in Southwark Cathedral, London to honour the 100. Birthday of Sophie Scholl. Together with the children choir of MDR and Coventry Cathedral Choir. Sponsored by BayernLB and Schroeder Bank.

• 19 March 2022 - St Matthew Passion in Coventry Cathedral

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for the year ended	31 December 2O2O
		2020	201 I
		t	E
Receipts
Member subscriptions		1 1 , 9 9 9	1 0 , 0 1 9
General donations		5,398
Grant income		1,000	18,500
Concert ticket sales		1 6 0	13,806
CD/Music sales		1 , 1 9 1	62
Interest income		37	54
Other income			836
		19,675	43,276
Payments
Conductor fees & rehearsals		6,590	13,478
Venue Hire		1 , 4 1 5	4,043
Travel, subsistence and accommodation		1,359	13,749
Solo singers		4,040	1,450
Marketing, events & other expenses		5,149	2,750
Donations			359
Accountancy fees		960	900
		1 9 , 5 1 3	36,729 ,
Expenses
Total expenses		1 9 , 5 1 3	36,729
Surplus of receipts over expenditure		162	6,547
Unrestricted Fund:
At 1 Janu ary 2020		35,950	29,303
Surplus of receipts over expenditure		162	6,547
At 31 December 2020		36,012	35,850

GERMAN CHOIR OF LO Balance Sheet as at 31 December 2020	NDON
	Notes		2020		2019
			e		t
Current assets
Cash at bank and in hand		36,012		35,850
Net current assets			36,012		35,950
Net assets			36,012		35,850
UNRESTRICTED FUND:
Fund Balance			36,012		35,850
Total funds			36,012		35,850

Signed by two trustees on behalf of all the trustees	Signed by two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
Signature:
Print Name:	Richard Loeser
Date	3O October, 2O2L
Signature:
Print Name:	Yl<J.r.nie L<lenie AAr^LnoüV^
Date	3/.odp* ZIZA

2	Unrestricted Fund:	2020
		f
	At 1 January 2020	35,850
	Excess of receipts over
	expenditure for the year	162
	At 31 December 2020	36,012