ANNUAL REPORT
by
the Trustees of Rutland Sinfonia for the year ended 31st August 2024 (2023-2024)
Presented to the Members of the Rutland Sinfonia at the AGM on
2nd May 2025
Rutland Sinfonia is a Registered Charity in England and Wales no. 11970959, and is a member of Making Music, itself a Registered Charity, which supports and champions voluntary and amateur music groups.
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ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR FROM 1[st ] SEPTEMBER 2023 TO 31[st ] AUGUST 2024
1. This is the Report of the Trustees of Rutland Sinfonia (the “Managing Committee”) for the Financial year ended 31[st ] August 2024.
More information about the Rutland Sinfonia, (the “Sinfonia”), and details of the Programme for our 2025/2026 Season, how to become a member of the Sinfonia, and/or become a “Friend” or sponsor can be found on our website www.rutlandsinfonia.org.uk
Our orchestra email address for correspondence is rutlandsinfonia@gmail.com
2. Constitutional Matters and how Rutland Sinfonia is run.
The trustees who were elected at the last Annual General Meeting on 3rd May 2024 were as follows
| Rachel Rayner | Chair | Kristi Newton | PR |
| Sarah Ayre | Secretary | Nick Brown | Librarian |
| Katherine Hammond | Treasurer | Vacant | Orchestral Manager |
| Vacant | Budget/Oundle Concert Manager |
Vacant | Oakham Concert Manager |
These trustees were appointed as the Trustees of the Sinfonia and are required to retire / stand down by rotation - although are permitted to put themselves forward for re-election. The Sinfonia operates in accordance with its Constitution, as approved by the Charity Commission. The Trustees are elected at each Annual General Meeting as described above.
The Sinfonia has continued to use a production company, Rutland Sinfonia Productions (RSP) Limited, to produce its concerts, and the Directors of that company are Sarah Ayre and Katherine Hammond. This is to enable Rutland Sinfonia to claim Orchestral Tax Relief. For our financial year ended August 2024, we received £2592.12 in tax relief (less accountancy fees).
The committee continued throughout the 2023-2024 season with only 5 representatives and, as we head towards our 50th Anniversary season (2025-2026) we really need more committee members. We need help with the following responsibilities:
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Someone to help with general ‘orchestral management’ … keeping players informed with information & making sure we have the right people in the right seats at the right time!
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Someone to help organise and run front of house on concert days, and to help coordinate with our venues and other related duties (a non player is best!)
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Someone to help keep our friends up to date, and to grow our friends numbers
Please get in touch with us at rutlandsinfonia@gmail.com if you or someone you know can help - there is plenty of flexibility in terms of what we call the positions.
Paul Hilliam, Music Director and Principal Conductor, and David Calow Associate Conductor, attend the Committee meetings by invitation and as always we wish to record our sincerest thanks to them both for the work that they do.
In early 2025, we have co-opted Colin Pulley onto the committee, who can often be seen helping with front of house on concert days. Colin has been brought in primarily to help us manage advertising and promotion, and has some experience in events management, as well as a wide network of contacts.
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3. Objects, activities, achievements and the public benefit
The Sinfonia’s objects are:-
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To advance, improve, develop and maintain public education in appreciation of the art and science of orchestral music by any means the Committee sees fit, including the presentation of public orchestral concerts, and recitals
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To encourage, educate and involve young people, wherever possible, in these activities
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To further such charitable purpose or purposes as the Committee may from time to time decide, including through the making of grants and donations
The Sinfonia’s charitable objects and the way they are carried out are for the public benefit. Public benefit is achieved through the 4 public concerts given by the Sinfonia in the year covered by this Report.
Audience numbers in the 2023-2024 season have continued to be variable, and we continue to be some way off capacity at our venues, which in turn has an impact on our finances.
I cannot reiterate how important it is that every one of us takes some responsibility for promoting what we do - not just the small committee.
4. Finances and Accounts.
Our finances remain stable, supported by donations from our small group of Friends, and from the recovery of Gift Aid. This, along with clever planning of programmes and resource, in order to minimise outlay where we can, helps us to maintain a positive position. We will be using some of our reserves over the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 seasons to promote ourselves in an effort to grow our audience base, and, we are looking to introduce a flat rate for ticket prices by removing the concession rate (whilst retaining the student / U18 rate).
The financial statement from the Treasurer circulated separately shows the position at the end of the financial year (31[st ] August 2024, and shows a surplus of £3,544.03. As expected, costs continued to rise during the season, but we have been able to maintain both our ticket prices and our current subscription rate for this, and the 2024-2025 season. Our member subscription rate continues to be one of the lowest in the region.
We are very grateful to Sarah Ayre our Secretary and Katherine Hammond our Treasurer for all their work for the Sinfonia. As is good practice, the Charity accounts have been independently audited, and the Treasurer reports to the AGM.
The accounts for RSP Limited are also attached, and, as reported earlier, we received £2592.12 in tax relief this year.
In Conclusion.
The 2023-2024 season has again been a challenge from an audience point of view, but collectively with the hard work of our players and our conductors, we continue to perform at a high level. At the end of the season, we had once more, attracted interest from new players, but, with this, we are now facing challenges with both rehearsal and performance space (Oakham in particular).
These challenges are not only in the physical space, but also in the supplementary issues that arise, the most prominent of which is in terms of sound and noise levels. When it comes to managing this, there are only a limited number of things that we can physically do: changing programming (to reduce orchestra size or provide more ‘quiet’ sections); borrowing / using staging to raise the brass; using acoustic screens etc.
I need to ask you all to understand that we are doing the absolute best that we can in planning, and in providing what are classed as ‘collective protection measures’, however, as musicians, every individual needs to also understand their own abilities to help. It is not just the brass and percussion who need to ‘play down’ and appreciate the balance required (that is often where the blame is placed), but also, our large sections also need to think the same way. 12 players in a section don’t all need to play ff to achieve the overall sound required. Some of you will also have seen the appearance of personal ear plugs becoming more common, even in professional orchestras where space is plentiful,
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so please, if you feel you need (and can), take some time to make that personal investment.
In the season we are now in (2024-2025) we have again spent time looking for alternative rehearsal spaces, and, whilst this can be frustrating in terms of change, we must continue to be on the lookout. From a performance perspective, within Rutland there are no larger / cost effective performance spaces.
Thank you once again to everyone involved in making the Sinfonia a success and my personal thanks go once more to the Committee, and also to Paul Hilliam, David Calow and Katherine Collison for their continued dedication and enthusiasm.
Signed: Rachel Rayner Chair on behalf of the Managing Committee Dated: April 2025
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Rutland Sinfonia Recei ts&Pa ments Accounts for the Year Ended 31st Au 2024 ust 2024 2023 Concert Receipts Oakham Oct Oundle Nov Oakham Mar Oundle Mav 1,957.92 2,079.95 2,891.26 2,659.31 902.67 1,574.46 2,138.95 2,038.29 9,588.44 9,882.90 6,654.37 9,988.95 Less Concert Commissioning Fees Deficit on Concerts -(294.46) -(3334.58) Subscriptions Received Friends Donations Refreshments income Sundry Receipts Easy Fundraising HMRC Gift Aid 2,365.00 1,455.00 110.00 2,110.00 1,205.00 106.80 0.00 23.09 0.00 571.25 Donations 92.63 0.00 Oundle Town Grant 500.00 130.00 592.63 724.34 Total Income 4,228.17 811.56 Less Expenditure Bank Charges Audition fee Donation machine charges 72.00 72.00 50.00 0.00 562.14 0.00 684.14 72.00 Surplus (Deficit) for the Year 3,544.03 739.56 Opening Balance 18,792.47 18,052.91 Closing Balance £ 22,336.50 £ 18,792.47 Represented by: Unity Trust Current Account Unity Trust Savings Account Rutland Sinfonia Productions Ltd Loan Cash in Hand to be banked Received in Advance for next Year 17,709.09 0.04 14,272.16 0.04 4,957.37 0.00 4,840.27 0.00 -(330.00) -{320.00) £ 22,336.50 £ 18,792.47 I have checked these accounts, without carrying out an audit, to the books, records andi provided to me, and have found them to be in agreement thereto. Davi Chartered Accountant (Retired) We Date