Balance Sheet Music for tha Many 8t Marcai 2025 00 Debtiys 0.00 0.00 Bank account e,193.00 25,239.00 1￿1X• 24ts9.00 Current Llablllle8 Creditors short t8rm 0.00 0.00 CurYontAssets less Current Llat>lllll88 19& Total A889ts 1088 Current Liatllitie8 19&00 2424QOO Long temi Li*iSitle• Creditors loro temi 2,100.00 2.100.00 Total Ass8ts16ss Totd Lhblllt 2414QOO Profltn¢xs 19.047 tes: Credttots long term is loan from Arti8tic Director. This has m deadline to pay Fixed asgat polw.. our only assats our mu8icd l￿DjMentS Th6s8 have all donatsj by individuals. Thoy are rèplac￿ only by don*wJ 1￿MentS the txganisation ￿ wouTr down, all instruments would bo donat￿ to anot￿, wmilar owisation. Profrt and Loss Muslc for the Many 318t 2r24 31$t March 2 In¢(xn• Lbnatio 17.431.00 24.368.00 FLndraising ccncwts Grdnts 8,015.00 13.733.00 15.101.00 27.300.00 Other 6.648.00 11.895.00 Glft AFd 4.830.00 532.00 77,84&00 ProfessT¢)nal fees 54.39&00 55,199.00 Fundralsing conwts 3.￿.00 1.905.00 Bank and other charyes InstrLment repalr and acces9yleg 282.00 251.00 838.00 786.00 Admlnloffice cc6ts Inc ir6urtKe 810.00 e60.00 Mlsc 0.00 0.00 Totsi 5&801.00 (TA4QOO) 14047 Music for the Many Accounts Review 2024 - 2025 I have reviewed the accounting records of Music for the Many by undertaking a sample of transactions and cross referencing for accuracy of record keeping and SUPPOrting evidence. Observations: The record5 are thorough and accurate and in my opinion, represent a true and fair picture of the financial position of the charity. l am satisfied that the bank balances reflected in the records match the bank statements and evidenced with paperwork as at 31103/25. Notes: Loan from Daniel Bath - repayment was planned for this financial year, however due to low cash funds at the start of the year this was planned to be postponed and will be repaid in this financial year. I have recommended that each paymenvexpense that incurs an invoice/bill is referenced with the bill's individual unique identification number/ref. Thi5 requires a formatting solution when downloadin8 the bank transactions. Lastly I suggested documenting the step and processes of the accounting records to avoid one person holding all the knowledge and if in the event of incapacitation, the charity can continue uninterrupted and meet deadlines. All above notes have been discussed with Jenny. Date: 15/06125 Signed: Veronica Wright AAT Bookkeeper **MUSIC FOR THE MANY** ## **ANNUAL REPORT TO TRUSTEES** ## **16/6/25** ## **1. Structure and Governance** ## **a. Structure** The board of trustees currently consists of: Steph Booth Phil Fowler – Chairman Jasmine Mackay-Palmer - treasurer Tony Simms – secretary Alice Brockman ## **Governance** Music for the Many has been governed via a meeting of the board of trustees which takes place several times throughout the year. Non-trustees who have been appointed to carry out specific functions, especially tutors, have attended Trustees meetings and contributed in areas of particular interest and expertise. Jenny Sheldon (administrative assistant) and Daniel Bath (artistic director) have attended board meetings throughout the year. Board meetings have been run according to an agenda circulated prior to each meeting and have been minuted. Minutes are all available from the secretary. Our policy documents currently are: - Safeguarding Policy - Data Policy - Tutors Policy (including payment and recruitment policy) - Volunteers Policy - Complaints policy - Diversity and Inclusion Policy These were all revised and approved in November 2024. The Safeguarding Policy and Tutors Policy were further amended in March 2025 in consultation with Youth Music in order make them more suitable for the work within our Youth Music funded project. ## **2. Background, Objectives and Activities** ## **a. Background** Since 1996 instrumental tuition in schools has been delivered at a cost to families and schools, which has generally increased over the years, leading to the exclusion of the majority of children from these opportunities because of the resultant social, cultural and financial barriers. Partly as a result of this, high schools have seen a sharp decline in pupils choosing music as an exam subject, leading to many schools dropping music from their curriculum altogether. Todmorden was seen as an ideal place to set up Music for the Many, as it is an area of multiple deprivation and has experienced an especially dramatic decline in the number of children accessing instrumental tuition. Todmorden is also a town with a strong tradition of community action, organising and self-sufficiency. As a positive response to the crisis in music education, Music for the Many started as an experiment to see what would happen if we removed the financial, social and cultural barriers to instrumental tuition. On our pilot project the initial response from the children at St. Joseph’s School was overwhelming, with about half of all the children in Key Stage 2 taking up our offer of instrumental tuition. ## **b. Objectives** ## The Charity’s constitution states: _“The charity’s objects are, for the public benefit, the advancement of education of the arts through the provision of free instrumental and vocal tuition to school children in Todmorden and the surrounding areas.”_ These objectives are met through tuition, public performances, fundraising and campaigning. ## **c. Activities** ## **i. Tuition** Tuition takes the form of weekly lessons during school term time to children either individually, in pairs, in small groups or in an orchestra, and usually in a combination of all these configurations. The Charity currently engages the services on a weekly basis of 10 tutors: Will Lenton (woodwind) (since March 2018) Wendieh Thorne (woodwind) (since September 2021) Daniel Bath (violin, keyboard and brass) (since March 2018) Jack Hogg (guitar) (since May 2018) Helen Thatcher (cello) (since October 2018) Emily Alexander (violin) (intermittently since May 2018) Jen Trott (violin) (since September 2023) Dickon Kyme-Wright (all instruments) (since September 2023) Jenny Sheldon (flute and strings) (since September 2023) David Insua-Cao (percussion, ensemble work and improvisation) (since September 2023) The work of the tutors is supported by volunteer musicians on particular projects and events and in school work. Special thanks to Andy Moorhouse for regular support on cello skills at St. Joseph’s and Diana Doherty for specialist oboe tuition at Ferney Lee, and Tony Simms for supporting the brass at Beech Hill, Halifax Orchestra and Romaband. We currently provide weekly instrumental tuition to children in Ferney Lee School, St. Joseph’s R.C. Primary Academy, Todmorden C. Of E. School, Todmorden High School and Beech Hill School (Halifax). We also run a Youth Orchestra in Halifax, particularly aimed at pupils who have left Beech Hill and have gone to different secondary schools. This rehearses every few weeks on a Saturday afternoon at Halifax Unity. Members of this group are Year 7 pupils, some year 6 pupils from Beech Hill and their siblings. Similarly, we now run a Youth Orchestra in Todmorden for all our more advanced pupils and young musicians who don’t attend any of the schools we currently work with. This rehearses once a month on a Saturday afternoon at Roomfield Baptist Church. Next academic year this group will meet more frequently and will, we hope, improve the transition of pupils from primary to secondary school. In Autumn term 2022 we started a new method of delivering instrumental tuition. This is called Complete Beginners’ Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). For the ideal session there are 20 children (e.g. 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 9 violins, 3 cellos), 3 professional tutors and one or two adult volunteer players. The children learn to play the instruments from scratch by playing simple, well-known orchestral repertoire in the context of the orchestra, supported and trained by the adults. The weekly orchestral rehearsal lasts an hour straight after school. During school time on the afternoon of the rehearsal, the tutors do interventions with individual pupils who need specific input. For a few children, whose particular circucmstances prevent them from being able to attend the afterschool session, we still make provision for them to have tuition in school time. Tuition on non-orchestral instruments (i.e. piano, guitar and tabla) still takes place as before, during school time, separate from the orchestra-based work. Our overall focus for the past 3 years has been on the orchestral instruments and ensembles. The overall success of this project is clear in the improved engagement and progression by our pupils afforded partly by the fact that all these pupils are playing for at least 1 extra hour per week with professional support and that all pupils have opportunities to perform in high quality concerts. In order to replicate this improvement in our guitar provision we are taking a leading part in the Pennine Guitar festival in September 2025. This will involve ensemble, outreach and additional creative work with all guitar pupils in our schools. In order to protect the existing work of other tuition providers, our tuition in the High School has been limited to: - exsiting pupils (i.e. those who started learning with Music for the Many whilst in primary school). - pupils learning an instrument for which no other existing provision is available at the school. There are currently 161 children receiving weekly tuition from our tutors in 5 schools on 15 different instruments. This is an increase of 13 pupils from the number recorded in last year’s annual report. |Schools
Instruments|
**Beech**
**Hill**|**Ferney**
**Lee**|**National**|**St.**
**Joseph’s**|**Tod High**|**Other**
**schools/no**
**school**|**_Total number_**
**_of pupils for_**
**_each_**
**_instrument_**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**Bassoon**||||||**1**|**1**| |**Cello**|**3**|**4**|**2**|**1**|**1**|**2**|**13**| |**Clarinet**|**3**|**2**|**2**|**2**|**1**|**2**|**12**| |**Flute**|**3**|**5**|**2**|**3**|**1**|**1**|**15**| |**French Horn**||**1**|||||**1**| |**Guitar**||**12**||**8**|**9**||**29**| |**Oboe**||**2**|||||**2**| |**Percussion**|||||**5**||**5**| |**Piano**||**2**|||**3**||**5**| |**Recorder**||**6**|||||**6**| |**Saxophone**|||||||| |**Tabla**||**3**||**5**|||**8**| |**Trombone**|**1**|**1**|**1**||**1**|**1**|**5**| |**Trumpet**|**2**|**4**|**3**||**1**|**1**|**11**| |**Violin**|**7**|**16**|**9**|**7**|**6**|**3**|**48**| |**_Total number_**
**_of pupils in_**
**_each school_**|**19**|**58**|**19**|**26**|**28**|**11**|**_Total number_**
**_of pupils_**
**_overall: 161_**| ## **ii. Singing** Throughout the year we have provided weekly singing assemblies at Ferney Lee School. These engage the whole of Key Stage 2 and have focussed on traditional songs from the British Isles, songs in Spanish (to support MFL learning) and 3-part harmony singing (incorporating parts of Jon Boden’s Colourchord.) In November the children at National School all took part in Nasheed singing sessions led by Hussnain Hanif and a performance with orchestra in St. Mary’s Church as part of our South Asian orchestra project. Our 4[th] annual Festival of Nasheeds this year took place within the Todmorden Town Hall 150[th] anniversary celebrations on 5[th] April. Rehearsals for this took place in Ferney Lee School over several weeks. This was the first time that our Nasheed Choir has included children from non-Muslim families. Our Todmorden Nasheed Choir was joined by guest young singers from Burnley and Bradford and our guest artist Hussnain Hanif. The performance of A Todmorden Cantata on 5[th] April featured a children’s choir who rehearsed and performed alongside the adult choir. ## **iii. Performances** The past year has seen more public performances by our pupils than ever before. One of the most important outcomes that we can see at these performances is the large number of people in the audiences who have never been to a concert before. This reminds us that, through providing instrumental tuition for the children, we are also providing new musical opportunities for their families and communities. ## **June 2024** Our second combined schools’ orchestras concert took place on 20[th] June at Tod High with a packed audience and 80 performers. Highlights included our first performance of Rossini’s William Tell Overture, a charmingly wistful new work called Finch by Jason Hayhurst, a M4M pupil at Tod High, arranged for chamber orchestra, and a beautiful guest performance of a new composition by Primitive Percussion Youth Orchestra from Cornholme School. ## **July 2024** We played two events for Halifax Minster’s summer music festival. On 4[th] July was a concert by our Beech Hill School orchestra, featuring performances by choirs from Ling Bob School and Bradshaw School and Halifax Minster Choir. The rousing finale was the hymn “Joyful Joyful” performed by the orchestra and all the combined choirs. On 5[th] July was our 3[rd] annual M4M Festival of Nasheeds taking place for the first time outside Todmorden. Performances included Feversham School Choir from Bradford, Beech Hill School Choir, Todmorden Nasheed Choir, the Khan Sisters, Parkinson Lane Qawwali, Imaan Lone, Hussnain Hanif and some very beautiful Quran recitation by Umar from Halifax. It was a very special experience for all to sing in the glorious acoustic of Halifax Minster and to share nasheed singing with a new audience. Instead of our usual fundraising collection for Music for the Many, on this occasion we collected funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians. On 14[th] July a few of our more advanced Todmorden orchestral pupils gave a brilliant ensemble performance in 3 Valley’s Gospel Choir’s concert at St. Mary’s Church, including Vivaldi’s Spring, Misirlou and the theme from Star Wars. The academic year ended with a special Colourchord singing event on 17[th] July at St Mary’s Church, led by Jon Boden. This included a guest spot by our brilliant Tod High students’ own band, Low Expectations, with Jon Boden harmonising their choruses and inspiring us all. ## **August 2024** In the middle of the summer holidays, in reponse to racist violence in many communities around the country, a call went out for an impromptu performance in the centre of Todmorden. On 6[th] August some of our young people and their families turned out with their instruments and we played in Pollination Street our customarily diverse selection of classical music, pop songs and South Asian music to bring the community together in celebration. ## **September 2024** Our first performance of the new academic year was on the pitch of Walsden Cricket Club, at the launch of Walsden Scarecrow Festival and our mini orchestra also gave a short concert on 5[th] October in the festival at Platfrom 1 Gallery on Todmorden Station to a very appreciative family crowd, spilling outside the room on a lovely sunny afternoon. ## **October 2024** Our orchestra project in conjunction with Todmorden Orchestra continued with a second orchestral concert of South Asian music on 24[th] October at St. Mary’s Church. Our guest soloists were Anaya Khan and Hussnain Hanif. The choir from Todmorden C of E School gave a very spirited performance of two nasheeds under Hussnain’s direction. Our two longest-serving tabla pupils from Tod High played on several piece with the orchestra, enjoying the experience of working with professional musicians. ## **November 2024** Jack Hogg, our guitar specialist, brought his wonderful duo, Two for Now, to give one of our fundraising concerts on 8[th] November. They were joined on stage by some of our guitar pupils, relishing the opportunity and rising to the challenge of playing a proper gig. On 16[th] November at Tod College our combined Todmorden schools’ orchestras gave a creative afternoon performance for Todmorden Book Festival, combining music and poetry led by Peter Sansom. The children of Ferney Lee School recited their own poems about space, whilst our orchestra played excerpts from The Planets Suite and Star Wars. The concert ended with the audience singing the children’s newly written song about Todmorden to the tune of Ode to Joy accompanied by the orchestra. ## **December 2024** The season of Christmas concerts began on 5[th] December with our orchestra’s performance of seasonal favourites at Todmorden Unitarian Church, including the world premiere of Donkey Dave, which went on to engage and enchant audiences at all our school end-of-term concerts. A Christmas highlight was in our concert at Todmorden C of E School when soloists from each section of the orchestra gave a beautiful and very confident rendition of Silent Night. In Halifax our newly formed Halifax Youth Orchestra, made up of current and former M4M pupils of Beech Hill School, gave two concerts of Christmas music: on 10[th] December in the unique surroundings of the Crossley Gallery at Dean Clough in a concert with The Halifax Chamber Choir, whose singing of acapella classical repertoire our families loved, and at Boothtown Methodist Church. In these programmes we included the Palestinian song, Mawtini, to remember the children being born under bombardment in Palestine over Christmas. ## **January 2025** The third of our Family Concert collaborations with Todmorden Orchestra, as part of the Calderdalefunded orchestra project, took place on 25[th] January in Todmorden Town Hall. This year our young participants were from Ferney Lee School, whose school orchestra joined in with Todmorden Orchestra on The Light Cavalry Overture by Franz von Suppe and Soul Bossa Nova by Quincey Jones. It was an exhilarating experience for these young musicians to be part of a full symphony orchestra and it really stretched their abilities. One of our pupils played the part of narrator very well in the concert’s storyline about a Magic Hat, for which our young musicians played the jaunty theme tune. The audience was completely full and all age groups were very well represented. ## **February 2025** 25[th] February saw the first public performance in our _Songs from Home_ project. This was at Beech Hill School and centred around our school orchestra. As an opportunity to share the music he had collected on the project, the orchestra was joined by a couple of parents who are professional singers from Mauritius called Marco Rebet and Msy, who sang their own songs, Hind Mehri from Palestine who sang Mawtini with the orchestra and other Arabic songs, and Goli Jalali, who sang Kurdish and Iranian songs. The orchestra played a popular Romani song called _Nane Coxa_ , with which the Roma families in the audience sang along and were joined by the school’s Nasheed choir for their first combined performance of _Allah Hu_ by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. ## **April 2025** As part of Todmorden Town Hall’s 150[th] anniversary cultural festival, on 5[th] April we gave two performances in the Town Hall. The day began with our recital of nasheeds (described above in the section on “singing”), which brought a much more culturally diverse audience and group of performers to the festival, opening up the event to the wider community. Later on in the day came what many people thought to be the highlight of the festival, which was our performance of A Todmorden Cantata. This featured a double orchestra (children’s and adults’) and a similarly double choir. It told the history of Todmorden and its people and brought many in the audience to tears at the power of music-making to convey our sense of place, history and connection and to bring the community together in common purpose to make something beautiful. It also featured some very impressive solo singing from two of our primary school pupils. The whole thing was a great feat of organisation and collaboration. ## **May 2025** On 10[th] May the Mayor of Todmorden, Ben Jankovich, a great supporter of M4M, hosted his big fundraising ball at Todmorden Unitarian Church. Amongst a great variety of artists, the programme featured a spot from our Tod High students’ band, _Low Expectations_ , who gave a very assured performance of indie rock classics and and some brilliant original songs. ## **iv. Grant-funded projects** We are now coming to the end of the third year of our three-year project in collaboration with Todmorden Orchestra with funding from **Calderdale Cultural Fund** . Work on this project over the past year has included: - Our second combined schools’ orchestras concert at Tod High and the rehearsals in schools leading up to it. - South Asian concert and the workshops leading up to it, working on nasheed singing with the children of Todmorden C of E school led by Hussnain Hanif, involving our tabla pupils and collaborating with visiting singers from South Asian traditions. - Family concert in January 2024 and the workshops and rehearsals leading up to it involving our orchestra from Ferney Lee School. Huge thanks to all the wonderful volunteer musicians from Todmorden Orchestra who have helped us on this project to give the young people a supportive context of high-quality, inspirational music making. Having successfully applied for another 3 years’ grant from **Calderdale Cultural Fund** especially for the purpose of establishing and growing a Todmorden Youth Orchestra outside school, we have already begun rehearsals of this and the group is about to give our first 2 performances. The purpose of this is to meet the needs of our more advanced pupils with more challenging repertoire and longer, more intensive rehearsal and orchestral coaching and better performance opportunities. This is also an opportunity to engage young people who don’t attend the schools in which we regularly work. Our grant from Calderdale’s year of culture, called _**Culturedale** ,_ has supported the _Songs from Home_ project from September 2024 to April 2025. In this project we have collected, shared and performed music from the diverse home cultures of our children’s families. Through this project we have made lots of new friends, particularly in Halifax and have formed ties with other community and arts organisations. Halifax Unity, which is a community resource on Queens Road in Halifax has provided us with a rehearsal space in the heart of the community we’re working with free of charge. We now this space for our Halifax Youth Orchestra rehearsals and for Romaband, which is a music project for local Roma/Gypsy young people. (For more information about this project: https://music4themany.com/songs-from-home/ ) Funding from various different sources, including **The Heritage Lottery Fund** and **Culturedale** funded the Town Hall 150[th] anniversary festival, some of which funding supported our involvement in the festival with the Nasheeds recital and A Todmorden Cantata and the rehearsals and preparation for these performances. **Todmorden Book Festival** , with help from Arts Council England, funded our music and poetry rehearsals, workshops and performance with Peter Sansom at Tod College. A grant from **The Postcode Lottery** has subsidised the ongoing cost of our core work from September 2024 to March 2025. A grant from **the Scurrah Wainwright Trust** has enabled us to engage the professional services of Jenny Sheldon as an administrative assistant for the year, which has made it possible for us to grow and develop whilst keeping in touch with the needs of all our families and to collaborate more fully and effectively with other organisations, growing and strengthening our M4M community. We receive some funding from the **Pupil Premium** funds of Todmorden High School to subsidise our work there, as a disproportionately high number of our students are eligible for the Pupil Premium. We have received a grant of £28,000 from **Youth Music** for a project called _Youth Voice_ , running from April 2025 to April 2026. The purpose of this project is to develop our organisation and our work to become more youth led and to make sure that we are more effectively recognising and meeting the needs of the young people in our communities. So far the work on this project has been: - staff training delivered Youth Voice expert, Branwen Dale. - band mentoring at Tod High School, led by Jack Hogg and Dickon Kyme Wright, supporting young people in forming bands, writing, rehearsing and performing. - Romaband, set up at the request of young people from the Roma community in Halifax, as a space and supported facility for them to play, sing, dance, learn and teach music from their home culture. - Music sessions with excluded young people, who are unable to access conventional school lessons. We have very recently received a grant of £3,000 from **Todmorden Town Council** to subsidise the Pennine Guitar Festival. This will help to fund guitar ensemble sessions in all our schools in preparation for the pupils’ performances and participation in the festival in September 2025. Other grants to support our core work over the coming year are from The Foyle Foundation and The Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners. **v. Fundraising** Fundraising has taken place in various forms throughout the year: - Appeals for private donations - Online appeal through Justgiving.com and through localgiving.com - Standing orders paid monthly - Sponsored events, such as marathon running - Fundraising concerts: - June – Peadar Long and Daniel Bath - July – Jon Boden - July – Three Valleys Gospel Choir - October – Platform 1 Festival - October – Ceilidh with Scintilla and Jiggerie Folkerie - November – Two For Now - February – Stasia Chalova - May – The Mayor’s Charity Ball Very kind and supportive performers have also raised money from performances elsewhere, such as Hepton Singers, Alyssium, Honey Andrews, Fantasy Orchestra and Choir, Sally’s Army, Vocal Highs and Choirfest. Huge thanks to all! ## **vi. Instruments Amnesty** We have had a steady supply of donated instruments of all sorts over the past year from many members of the local community and from further afield. ## **vii. Over the past year we have worked directly with about 800 children and young people.** ## **viii. Future Plans** September will see the first Pennine Guitar Festival, in Todmorden, partly organised by Music for the Many, supported with funding from Todmorden Town Council. This will give a boost to the work we do with our guitar pupils and give a supportive platform for youth-led events. The _Youth Voice_ project will change the way that Music for the Many works and will ensure youth involvement in planning events and steering our organisation. Todmorden Youth Orchestra will raise the standard of our orchestral instrument pupils and open up even more opportunities for them and their families.