2021-11-30-accounts - The Musique-Cordiale Trust

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2022

Annual Report & Accounts

The Musique-Cordiale Trust Charity registered in England, No 1167732

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

For grant applications, details of application procedures for bursaries and project grants and to see the Constitution of the Trust and its statement of grantawarding priorities, please go to: www.musique-cordiale.org

If you are interested in supporting the charitable work of the Trust by one-off or regular donations or by becoming a Friend of Musique-Cordiale, please see the SUPPORT US pages on the site.

String Academy students (and teacher Levon Chillingirian) in concert. The Musique-Cordiale Trust provided grants to support the students' participation and fees for teachers and accompanist

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

The Musique-Cordiale Trust

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, a charity registered in England, was launched in June 2016. It raises funds to promote education and the arts, including the Musique Cordiale Festival & Academy and other forms of high-quality musical performance and education, through project-funding, small grants & bursaries.

The objects of the Trust are to promote education and the arts. To further these objects, the Trust’s goals include the promotion of European understanding of arts and music, the performance of high-quality music, the promotion of musical and artistic talent and the education of musicians from all over Europe.

2020-2021 has been a very difficult and different time for music and musicians and for charities which support and encourage them. The Trust’s income & activities have been curtailed but not prevented. Musique Cordiale has been resourceful and responsible and did not give in. From its inception, The Musique-Cordiale Trust has had a particular focus on:

• helping musicians and singers to participate in opportunities available from conservatoires, academies, schools or tuition, including, in particular, those offered via (or in association with) the Musique Cordiale International Festival and Academy or directly organised by the charity itself. Here, assistance has been given to enable musicians and singers to attend, to provide teaching or to participate in high-quality public performances.

supporting young musicians or singers who do not have access to funds for tuition, instruments or related costs of musical education
raising and managing funds, so far on a modest scale, to help to support particular activities of music academies and conservatoires, mainly through courses, contributions to music festivals and concerts and by providing grants to enable the contributions of capable music teachers and professional musicians. The organisers of concerts, festivals and learning opportunities provided via public and educational media have attracted the interest of the trustees but their particular emphasis (and that of our donors) has been on supporting and sustaining the organisation and administration of the Musique-Cordiale Festival & Academy and its associated

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

musical and educational activities in Britain and Europe. These have mainly focussed on its autumn weekends of choral, orchestral and ensemble music in Kent, GB ( Musique Cordiale in Kent ) and the annual international Festival in France each summer. 2019 was the 15th year in which the festival has offered the chance for young talented musicians to play, learn, practise and perform together with older professionals in lovely acoustic medieval settings or to receive coaching from well-known players. It also runs a programme, directed by Graham Ross, director of music at Clare College, Cambridge, promoting high quality choral performance, included major oratorios and ‘ a cappella’ singing. Unfortunately, the Covid -19 pandemic meant that 2019 was the last year in which Musique Cordiale could operate fully. In 2020 and even 2021, activities have had to be sevcerely curtailed or, in some cases, cancelled. The 2020 was the main victim of this, along with most musicians, singers, students and audiences across Europe as live rehearsal and performance became impossible except alone or via vitual and zoom sessions. People have been resourceful and imaginative. But, for a while, 2020 was the year the music stopped.

in normal years…. The Trust and the organisations and individuals that it supports has actively promoted opportunities and vehicles for musical education and promotion and, in particular but not exclusively, the Musique-Cordiale International Festival and Academy and rehearsals, concerts under the banner of Musique Cordiale in Kent. These has tended to attract highcalibre players (aged 15 + to the Academy, aged 18+ to the Festival and Kent ensembles, with a few more experienced professional players who have life-long experience in major international orchestras of the world or as soloists and teachers). The choir attracts singers from renowned university and cathedral choirs as well as a larger number of older members of noted choirs, especially in Britain, Holland, Switzerland, Germany and France.

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

Activities & Public Benefit

Annual Report 2022

This annual report covers the financial year from 1 December 2020 to 30 November 2021.

The major items to report therefore mirror, for the second time, the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic , notably, once again, including the much-reduced throughput of funds in Trust accounts for its first year but also, unfortunately, in the following as well as the current one on which we will report, hopefully with more promising results on 2023. This crimp on so much cultural activity and cross-cultural engagement, including ours, obviously derived from the virtual close-down of most forms of live music from March 2020. Initially this included the cancellation, well after it had been carefully programmed and organised, of the 2020 Musique-Cordiale International Festival & Academy , whose activities, musicians and students the Trust has supported over previous years. It then emerged that the 2021 and 2021 international Festivals would also have to fall victim to the same curtailment (and loss of optimism and opportunities for shared musicmaking across Europe, for which the Trust and its associated French non-profit Association Musique-Cordiale were founded and have always been dedicated).

----- Start of picture text -----
The second
UK lock-
down in the
autumn
2020 also
meant that
none of the
Autumn
concerts ,
----- End of picture text -----

which the Trust itself previously managed in Kent, could be organised in the usual OctoberDecember 2020 time-spot. So it was rewarding that this report can again highlight both the successful 3-day concert series in and around

Faversham which took place in November 2019 – before the pandemic hit - (the attached accounts include elements of the aftermath of the financing of this even though the events themselves took place in the previous financial year) and the memorable one-off outdoor concert staged in Doddington Place Gardens, which briefly allowed people to meet (entirely out-of-doors) to make music together (at a suitable enforced pre-vaccine distance) after a long gap. Sadly, this had to happen without box office (and, therefore income) or the substantial ticketed audience that it deserved. But it was achieved in improbably beautiful English warmth and September sunshine. This could feature no role for members of the Festival orchestra and there could be no Academy. Instead, just four hands on a keyboard (the accomplished Rebecca Taylor and Richard Leach) accompanied our choir, soloists (Frederick Long and Emily Vine) and conductor, Graham Ross, performing the Brahms Requiem. This was the major work that had been intended for the final 2 concerts of the international festival that summer. But at least some of our soloists and deprived choir-members (albeit only those based in the UK) to sing together again.

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

So, with the support of Richard & Amicia Oldfield who generously threw their magnificent Doddington Place Gardens open to us for the event, it was at least gratifying that Musique-Cordiale could, even in 2020, enable choir-members to sing together (in a new idyllic setting) after the first lockdown (and it allowed the choir to meet in more modest gardens to eat and drink and share convivial experiences after such activity had been barred for months. No paid-for caterers this year: just repeated home-cooking over 3 days in September! This, with only days to spare, was fortunately legally permissible at the time according to tight social-distancing requirements and risk assessments with only 30 performers and preceded by 2 days of similarly controlled outdoor rehearsals and meals. However, it had to exclude both a significant paying audience as well as the young musicians that the Trust usually supports and benefits from. Also excluded were ALL of the pan-European participants, whose shared involvement is a key theme of Musique-Cordiale gatherings and the raison d'être for the Trust and the association organisations which actually manage events.

Consequently, our accounts for this period illustrate diminished throughput of funds in the Trust’s coffers during the year in question and this had to continue through 2021 (and indeed 2022). However, in summer 2021, we did manage to help sponsor a mini-festival still limited to Kent and again without any performers or spectators from outside the UK, but this time with a Box Office. This did attract a new enthusiastic local audience in the beautiful Kentish Downs; they arrived with brollies, tables, chairs and picnics and proved remarkably resilient and enthusiastic, ready to adapt to local conditions, including some wet and windy demands of an English summer. But it was impossible to make it profitable even with all the voluntary contributions offered by musicians, organisers and chef/washers-up alike!

Among a few indoor performances in 2021 (this in Faversham’s Assembly Rooms) was a Brahms Trio for Cello, piano & Clarinet and MOZART Piano quartet no 1 in G minor, BEETHOVEN: Septet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello & double bass & HOFMANN: Serenade for flute & strings (in Newnham church) and ALBINONI Oboe Concerto, James Hulme oboe (in Doddington church)

Donors are unsurprisingly reticent about supporting music and musicians whose artistry then mostly cannot witness. And this applied particularly to our established supporters whose main enthusiasm was for the Academies for young musical talent and for the whole idea and experience of pan-European music-making in the

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

summer ambience of Provence that has been the big pull for audiences and players alike for the previous 15 years. Inevitably, with diminished paying audiences and having to operate with constraints in Kent, our highquality concerts lacked the well-deserved acclaim and, by definition, the visibility that remained their due. So the 2021 summer concert series also incurred a deficit to which the Trust could not contribute to the extent that the trusties would normally have wished.... and which unavoidably but significantly landed on the shoulders of its individual organisers and singers, whose generosity and patience must be recognised here.

However, the outdoor concert experience from 2020 and the special venues for concerts, including both the outdoor ones in Doddington but also the lovely acoustic (recently restored) Faversham Assembly Rooms have given the organisers the confidence to stage another week-long series of concerts, Musique-Cordiale in Kent , in July-August 2022 after it again became clear (and too late after another New Year no-travel lockdown) in the timeslot usually occupied by the International festival. But before that (and just after the end of the period covered by t6his setoff accounts), it did also prove possible to stage a delightful pair of December 2021 concerts in Faversham , including a rousing performance of Handel’s Dix it Dominus. This and the associated 2 days of rehearsal finally achieved a full-house (within Covid limits) and our first set of events in 2 years that did not lose money! However, the proceeds were inevitably not enough to offset the accumulated deficits for the organisers (who contributed considerable funds of their own, enabling Musique-Cordiale to survive into 2022 to live another day- with support from long-standing choir-singers and association members and what limited funds the Trust did scrabble together. The extraordinary high quality, especially of instrumental performance, including by numerous new and young players as well as by established but, still, mainly only UK-based orchestra members, was our reward. So, in 2022, we will be able to report, once again, on another one-week Kent-based summer festival of excellent music-making for choir, small orchestral ensemble and soloists, again directed by Graham Ross and the team led by music director, Pippa Pawlik, ably and enthusiastically supported by a new generation of players who worked very hard and inventively to make it happen). A larger Musique-Cordiale Ensemble also performed what was intended to be a self-financing “Last Night of the Proms” concert for the

Queen’s Jubilee on 4 June 2022 . We will

report on this in next year’s annual report when we also now expect to be able to tell our supporters about the renaissance of the International Festival & Academy in the Pays de Fayence in France, 2-13 August 2022 in what we can proudly proclaim as our 19[th] series of concerts and festivals each year since 2005 , but this time, we hope, this will feature a “New Generation” team of musicians and organisers significantly in charge!

It has been especially rewarding to have a live audience enjoying the concerts, especially again in Doddington Place Gardens in Kent, where the weather did eventually al-

low 3 popular concerts to take place in magnificent surrounding as the evening sun faded dramatically, and more in Newnham, Doddington and Faversham where we have earned new loyal audiences during the pandemic years. In doing so, Musique-Cordiale was able, in 2021, to celebrate having put on festivals and concerts for 17 uninterrupted years , a feat that made us relatively rare in these pandemic times, albeit that the past 2 years have not been the same and notable lacked too many of our loyal supporters. These performances in our 17[th] year, though only possible this time in Faversham and the Kentish Downs , including the Mozart Requiem and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

The text of this report is accompanied by images of these events and our websites include (or provide links to) video recordings of some of the exciting highlights.

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

The Future

Musique Cordiale choir & orchestra (including Academy students sitting beside established professional musicians) in rehearsal under the baton of Graham Ross

Given the financial situation and the need to conserve funds and appetites for 2023, the organisers have decided not to stage concerts in Autumn 2022. In any case, it is intended that a full range of musical and educational activities will resume in the next year and that 2023 will see a revival both of the Musique Cordiale International Festival & Academy and of further musical events under the banner of Musique-Cordiale in Kent . If these prove viable, we may be able, once again to address, within in limited resources, the full range of the ambitious goals of the Trust, supporting the French association and the aspirations of young players and singers from all over Europe, to the extent that proves affordable. Our goals remain to help to access to education and to encourage cultural exchange between talented young musicians and among a wider public in Britain and Europe .

The Mozart Requiem, Vivaldi Gloria & Vivaldi Four Seasons (Emma Parslow, solo violin, Graham Ross conductor) were among the outdoor 2021 highlights of Musique Cordiale in Kent.

Leaping ahead to 2021, when the Festival and Academy was again something that the pandemic prevented, the outdoor concert experience from 2020 has given us the confidence to stage a week-long series of concerts, Musique-Cordiale in Kent , this time with a box office, albeit again largely out of doors (or with restricted numbers for a few smaller events indoors), where it has been possible to invite musicians to play

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

together, many for the first time in 18 months. This took place in the July-August timeslot usually occupied by the festival. It has been especially rewarding to have a live audience enjoying the concerts, especially again in Doddington Place Gardens in Kent, where the weather did eventually allow 3 popular concerts to take place in magnificent surrounding as the evening sun faded dramatically. In doing so, MusiqueCordiale was able to celebrate having put on festivals and concerts for 17 uninterrupted years , a feat that made us relatively rare in these pandemic times, albeit that the past 2 years have not been the same and notable lacked too many of our loyal supporters. These performances in our 17[th] year, though only possible this time in Faversham and the Kentish Downs , included ...

The text of this report is accompanied by images of these events and our websites include (or provide links to) video recordings of some of the exciting highlights. If the pandemic situation allows, it may be possible to hold the further concerts and rehearsals that are provisionally-scheduled in Kent in early December 2021. In any case, it is intended that a full range of musical and educational activities will resume in the next year and that 2022 will see a revival both of the Musique Cordiale International Festival & Academy in its 18[th] year, probably at least in July-August 2022, and of further musical events under the banner of MusiqueCordiale in Kent , probably in June and November. If these prove viable, we may be able, once again to address, within in limited resources, the full range of our ambitious goals, providing access to education and encouraging cultural exchange between talented young musicians and among a wider public in Britain and Europe . (For videos of 2020 and 2021 performances, please go to the (separate) Musique Cordiale Festival website: www.musique-cordiale.com )

Annual Report & Accounts

As in previous years, we emphasise, for clarity, that the accounts attached to this annual report relate only to the financial activities of the independent English charity, The Musique-Cordiale Trust. Although the charity has been a key supporter and facilitator of the Festival and Academy and itself manages musical events in Britain, it is not the organiser or promoter of the festival, which is managed by the non-profit Musique-Cordiale Association, which has a separate management Committee/trustees. Its annual accounts are published separately and usually feature a markedly more significant flow-through of funds. The Covid19 pandemic means that this has not been the case in 2020 or 2021 although the association did succeed in attracting some limited donations and grant-funding in 2021 and also saw an in-and-out flow of prefestival funds that were largely reimbursed later in the year after the cancellation in May last year of the summer 2020 International Festival and Academy that had been planned for August 2020.

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

oi Summer 2022 Concert en pleine aire in Kent The Mu5ique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

WE URGENTLY NEED TO SUPPLEMENT OUR INCOME SO AS TO MAXIMISE OUR CAPACITY TO ADDRESS THE CURRENT COVID-19 HEALTH EMERGENCY STILL AFFLICTING MUSICIANS, MUSICAL EDUCATION AND ORGANISERS OF MUSICAL EVENTS AND VENUES.

Grant applications for this essential (charitable) activity have unfortunately far exceeded the capacity of the trustees to provide money, though they remain willing in principle if sufficient donations materialise or if specific fund-raising for this is successful in future. For further information, including details of the Trust's Grant-giving Criteria and procedures and for how to apply for funds OR how to support or donate to the Trust, please visit the Trust’s web-site:

www.musique-cordiale.org

(Please note that this site is separate from the site of the Musique-Cordiale Festival & Academy which is run by a separate French charitable association and which is among the applicants and beneficiaries of grants awarded by the Trust: its website is www.musique-cordiale.co)

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

THANKS! For their valued re-

cent contributions we would especially like to thank:

Friends of Musique Cordiale

Eileen Allen Paul Allatt Cristina Ziener von Bauer Peter Bareau Drs Les Bernhardt & Gill Bernhardt Chris & Barbara Bone Nicholas Brewer Dr Alan Brittain & Clare Addenbrook Brittain Sarah Bryant Douglas Connell Graham Cooper Alain Deissard Dr Stella Dixon Alison Donaldson Lavinia Ferguson Kerstin Gralher

Tim & Heidi Herbert Aart & Carolien Hooymeyer Dr Jill Ladbrooke Evalena Lidman Stewart Jones Danny & Gry Katz Charles Kessler Gavin & Sue King-Smith Nicholas Leader Derek Logan Franz & Teresina Marcus Dr Ambroise Martin Irene McGregor the Late Sir Roger Moate Lady Caroline Mustill Regula Obrecht Richard & Amicia Oldfield Annie Oakes Andrew Pearson Cecile Panart Marc & Claudine Puel Peter Phillips Sir Michael & Lady Rake Susannah Ross Rosemary Royle George & Marie Rushton Amanda Salmon Jill Saudek & Alva Ramsden Julian Schild Graham Simons Dr Andrew Smith Joy Stodart

Basil Strong Michael Struck Schloen Ariane Todes Rick & Joyce Turner Michael & Christine TurnerSamuels Konstantin Wagner Tim & Barbara Wilson

Gold Donors

Celia Bangham & David Lowe Jonathan Barker Alan & Clare Brittain Dr Owen Hanmer & Maggie Donnelly Nigel Cox & Tessa Peskett Drs Wolf & Bäbel von Kalckreuth Eric & Ornella Lecat Pippa Pawlik James & Suzanne Swainson Catherine de Tscharner Richard Street & Dame Sue Street Eugenie White Richard & Annie Wynn-Jones

& other much-valued anonymous donors & supporters

Our Charitable Sponsors The Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation The W A Cadbury Charitable Trust The Henry Oldfield Trust

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

A performance of Haydn's Seasons, played by a pan-European orchestra and sung, this time, in German, conducted by Graham Ross, director of music at Clare College, Cambridge, after a week of rehearsal of this and other a Capella works. The engagement of the course director and rehearsal accompanist as well as travel for British players and teachers was paid for by a grant from The Musique-Cordiale Trust

NOTES ON THE ACCOUNTS

This annual report and accounts covers 12 months to the end of November 2021, a period which, in this second pandemic year, included neither a full international summer festival & academy (2020 was to be the 16[th] ) nor an autumn weekend but did include an exciting min-festival n Kent (+ days of rehearsal) oin July-August 20212020 – out-of-doors in Doddington Place Gardens in Kent, GB under the banner of Musique-Cordiale in Kent. Funds sought to support this and the costs of running the Musique-Cordiale organisations in a year of ongoing costs set against zero ticket income - plus reimbursement of enrolments—again dominate these muchdiminished annual accounts.

The trustees hope to rebuild the sums available to support these and related activities. This will be essential as funds are urgently needed (both for the Musique Cordiale Festival & Academy/ Musique Cordiale in Kent and for other wider educational goals of the Trust, which the trustees have been barely able to address in the current year). We do need to be imaginative in seeking to raise such vital support. We hope that those of you who value our activities will find ways to give in whatever ways your resources allow! The Coronavirus crisis in 202022 (so far) has hit music-makers of all kinds especially hard. The careers of many talented young musicians remain at risk, their education has been threatened, the organisers of events and the managers of music venues are still threatened with overwhelming costs and a catastrophic absence of adequate income or opportunities. Charities like the Musique-Cordiale Trust are consuming all their insufficient resources to minimise the impact. But these accounts illustrate how much they (we) need support from lovers of music who want to see classical music and those who perform it survive, recover and thrive.

The charity operates on very limited admin costs of its own. Publicity, the web-site and the grants awarded represent its main expenditure. Banking with the CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) Bank has resulted in a lowcost, appropriate and good-value service. The charity continues, both now and at 30 November 2019, to hold more assets than liabilities though, with a margin, the trustees are likely to spend most of what it receives.

All of the income of The Musique-Cordiale Trust is non-profit, including donations and Gift Aid reimbursements of income tax paid by qualifying donors. Most income is either the result of individual generosity or the result of approaches made by the Trust and its trustees to other charities. There is a small additional income from the Give as You Live scheme operated by many online shops who donate a proportion of the value of relevant sales to the Trust. We are enormously grateful to our donors and especially both to a few big contributors as well as the loyal group of regular subscribers and Friends, especially those who reduce our costs and work and pay by direct debit and/or who contribute through the tax-efficient Gift Aid scheme. Without all of them none of our goals could be met.

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

Expenditure by the Trust is listed by category in the accounts. No trustee receives any payment for their services and, including the independent examiner of the accounts, no other individual has received payment for accounting services. All expenditure including items listed separately (accountancy, Bank charges, Legal, website & email) was individually approved by properly constituted and minuted meetings of the trustees. This applies no less precisely in the category of Grants & Bursaries paid. The individuals who have received funds from the charity are all musicians, students, teachers or conductors or those providing essential services (including venues, travel, accommodation, food, light, recording equipment etc. that enable them to perform). These constitute the main thrust of the Trust’s approved expenditure, Grants and Bursaries. Other beneficiaries are the French (charitable) association which runs the Festival & Academy, various churches, school and providers of venues, enterprises which rent or sell sheet music and airlines or trains which transported students and musicians. Support for admin expenses (mainly part-time, short-term salaries for the young team which manages some events) has been another vital element – and one that it has proved especially hard to finance from other sources. Policies: The Trust has no investment income apart from bank interest and does not hold any custodian funds. It is developing new fund-raising, trustee appointment, risk management and safeguarding policies, which will be published on its website in 2020. Its published constitution and its grant-making criteria are unchanged since they were submitted to the Charity Commission in the process of applying for registration as a charity (CIO). After the initial 18-month report (published in 2018), this and future annual reports and accounts cover the 12 months to 30 November each year. There have been no changes to the Trustees nor the goals, focus or intended public benefit of The Trust since incorporation and none are envisaged.

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

The Musique Cordiale Trust Financial Activities DeMber2020- November 2021 Cordial TQTAL Income Expondituro Inc Nan-Prolrt In¢omè Donations& Grant5 Gift Givè SS you Livè Myrt.Pfft IrthM• 100.00 8,7.40 3,4136.19 21.98 12Z2IJ2 420.00 £12,741JZ se5 Ti•l ItKom• Cosi ol Salès Cost ol S3108 Materfa T£411 Co81 (rfSo198 433.50 £43350 YOTAL £12BO8.02 Expènthtu Attountanty AdvgtysiryFromotional ank chafgÈs Grants & Butsafiespaid MCTruSI Music events & courses in UK Musiquo.Cor¢ialg Fosoval & Acomy Total Qr4nty & 288.00 154.19 95.40 10,343.09 125.00 10.46ts.09 280.73 Pnnting. Postagg and srath)nery & 8mail Tthtino costs 108.46 153.50 261.gB NET OPEFIATING IIKOME £759.63 NET IWM£(IEXPENOITUREI £759.63 The Mu5ique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

Essential & urgent fund-raising campaign 2021-23

PLEASE SUPPORT US! If you value Musique Cordiale for its unique international festival and its orchestral academy for young musical talent - or its choral & singing courses, concerts and events in France and Britain, including Musique-Cordiale in Kent - we need your help to continue.

Sadly, no festival was possible in the Pays de Fayence in 2020 for the first time in 16 years. We did manage to sustain a little 2-musician recital in Seillans in the Var, France in August and, on 13 September 2020, we proudly staged an out-of-door, socially-distanced concert with only UKbased singers (both soloists and Festival choir members) plus 4 familiar hands on a keyboard and our redoubtable conductor, Graham Ross, performing one major work of those originally intended for the final festival concert a month earlier. Do visit the (separate) festival website (www.musique-cordiale.co) for a little taste of the Brahms Requiem, sung (without our orchestra) on a sunny but windy Sunday afternoon in lovely Doddington Place Gardens in Kent, GB . It featured Frederick Long, bass, Emily Vine, soprano, Graham Ross, conductor, Rebecca Taylor & Richard Leach, pianists in the original version of Brahms Requiem with the Musique-Cordiale Festival choir (minus its French & German singers). Sad only that Covid precautions meant we couldn’t invite a larger audience to this memorable performance in a perfect (almost Provencal) setting especially after the cancellation of the 2020 Festival in Seillans or the Pays de Fayence, France. We are so glad that, though no French festival or academy was possible or permitted in 2021, we DID manage to stage a week of mostly-outdoor concerts in and around Faversham and the Downs of Kent, GB, in July-August 2021, thereby maintaining continuity in the 17[th] year of Musique Cordiale, albeit restricted to UK-based participants. In 2022 we hope to return to performances in both Britain and France to include again our pan-European musicians, singers and audiences.

PLEASE SUPPORT our 2021-23 recovery & musical revival fund-raising campaign!

Admirable Aspirations – a 17-year record of valuable achievement in Pan-European musical and cultural exchange & education – a labour of Love – Modest Means

Even after 17 years, Musique Cordiale cannot continue without your support. And in 2020, Covid-19 left us with neither income from choir subscriptions or ticket sales nor the capacity to stage our planned Musical Soirées (as fund-raising events). The French association which runs the International Festival & Academy & The Musique-Cordiale Trust, the British charity which supports it, need you for this campaign. Between us, we must hit a £50,000 annual target for NEW FUNDS – to give us the resources to plan ahead, reshape, to make savings and to re-emerge. Thank you to those who have already helped by donating, pledging or raising money or by arranging events and inviting your friends to help. WHY NOT BECOME A FRIEND or DONOR? Or SPONSOR an event, student or musician?

A huge amount of year-round, voluntary work is involved to organise the Festival & Academy and other music-making people and events that we help to sustain. Most of this is done by a team of dedicated volunteers. Although normally supported and valued by its participants and audiences, both locally and from all over Europe, Musique Cordiale NEEDS TO REPLACE ITS LOST 2020-21 INCOME from ticket sales, subscriptions, some hard-won local funding in the face of shrinking public budgets for culture – and the generosity of a few private donors and trusts. We still incurred considerable costs in the process of organising and then cancelling and reimbursing participants and because some regular costs arise regardless. Even in other years, it can be an enormous struggle to cover the costs of bringing over 100 musicians and singers from across the continent to the Pays de Fayence and accommodating and sustaining them – as well as working them hard to achieve great music together. Our new set of summer events proved extremely popular in Kent in 2021 too; but we have no established funding base for this as it develops largely from scratch with new supporters and audiences.

Please SUPPORT US : details HERE And look out for our musical fund-raising events in Britain and France whenever we can again manage them, probably not before 2021! The French association has a € donor box and The Musique-Cordiale Trust needs you for this campaign in GB pounds. Between us, we must hit a £50,000 annual target before next July. ENLIST FRIENDS TO HELP. Why not arrange an actual (or suitably socially-distanced or Zoom) fund-raising event or party to celebrate your birthday ?!

Please go to the SUPPORT US page on our website to make whatever contribution you may feel able to afford: www.musique-cordiale.org Thank you!

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

The Musique-Cordiale Trust

Charity Gift Aid Declaration – multiple donations

Boost your donation by 25p of Gift Aid for every £1 you donate

Gift Aid is reclaimed by the charity from the tax you pay for the current tax year. Your address is needed to identify you as a current UK taxpayer. (We do not share your details with anyone else beyond The Musique Cordiale Trust and its associated Musique Cordiale organisations)

In order to Gift Aid your donation you must tick the box below:

I want to Gift Aid my donation of £__ and any donations I make in the future or have made in the past 4 years to:

The Musique-Cordiale Trust , charity registered in England No: 1167732

____________ I am a UK taxpayer and understand that if I pay less Income Tax and/ or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all my donations in that tax year (6 April to 5 April) it is my responsibility to pay any difference. I understand that other taxes such as VAT and Council tax do not apply.

Donor's Details

Title ____ First name or initial(s) _________

Surname _______________

Full Home address _____________

Postcode_____

Phone ___Email_______

Signed ____Date __________

Please notify the charity if you:

want to cancel this declaration
change your name or home address
no longer pay sufficient tax on your income and/or capital gains

If you pay Income Tax at the higher or additional rate and want to receive the additional tax relief due to you, you must include all your Gift Aid donations on your Self-Assessment tax return or ask HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to adjust your tax code.

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

The Musique- Cordiale Trust

TRUSTEES ▪ Jonathan Barker (chairman) social researcher, educator & music festival manager contact: jonathan@musique-cordiale.com

Celia Bangham general medical practitioner & choir singer
David Christie bank director, viola player
Christopher Hoyle cellist & educator
David Lowe IT consultant & choir singer

▪ Peter Phillips FCA (treasurer) accountant, company director, arts administrator & choir singer

James Swainson viola player

Please contact us if you have any questions about the Trust accounts or policies :

finance@M-C-Trust.org

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

An orchestral concert in Seillans in the Pays de Fayence, France, conducted by James Lowe in 2019. Along with other teachers, conductors and accompanists, his participation in this event, which included professional musicians as well as Academy students sitting beside them, an established feature of the Musique Cordiale programme of education and cultural exchange to which we hope to return after the pandemic years, during which events (without Academy but including Academy alumni as players) was only (just) possible in the UK and largely devoid of its normal pan-European dimension.

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org

The Musique Cordiale Trust

www.musique-cordiale.org

The Musique-Cordiale Trust, Annual Report 2022 www.musique-cordiale.org