High Barnet Chamber Music Festival Trustees’ Annual Report 2023–2024
High Barnet Chamber Music Festival, 7 Byng Road, Barnet, EN5 4NW
07896675129 www.hbcmf.co.uk admin@hbcmf.co.uk Registered Charity No. 1193517
Structure, Governance, and Management
The charity is a CIO governed by a constitution.
Trustees are selected according to the needs of the CIO with regard to particular skills and knowledge they may have. Prospective trustees are interviewed by a sub-group and then appointed by the passing of a resolution by the board of trustees.
Trustees
Danica Bila
Anahita Falaki
Rhian Morgan
Pey Kan Su (Resigned 25[th] June 2023)
The Trustees confirm that they have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit.
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High Barnet Chamber Music Festival, 7 Byng Road, Barnet, EN5 4NW
07896675129 www.hbcmf.co.uk admin@hbcmf.co.uk Registered Charity No. 1193517
Purposes of the Charity
For the public benefit, to promote and advance for the public the appreciation of and education in music, through concerts and other musical activities, particularly in, though not restricted to, the area of High Barnet.
Main Activities
The charity put on a festival comprising five concerts in two venues: St John the Baptist Church, and Queen Elizabeth’s School. These concerts were well-attended by an audience of over 300.
The concerts were designed to be both enjoyable and educational, specifically through adventurous programming and a detailed and accessibly written programme handed out free to all attendees.
Alongside these, we ran our first Call for Scores. A composition competition, this resulted in the commissioning of a new piece from composer Rob Hao and the commissioning of a new version of a work by composer Carol J. Jones, both premiered in our concerts.
Main Achievements
Appreciation of Music
We had a wide range of performers, drawn from amongst the UK’s best early-career musicians, and they performed a diverse set of programmes spanning music from the 18[th] century to the present day. Indeed, adventurous and representative repertoire is a key artistic goal of ours. We have a specific commitment to ensuring each of our programmes is mixed gender, and in fact the overall split approached parity with 7 female composers and 8 male composers.
A post-concert survey, answered by 10% of our audience, gave more details on our audience:
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Almost 75% of respondents are Barnet residents, indicating that we are successfully cultivating a local audience. This was helped by our engagement with local cultural and community institutions (e.g. Barnet Society, Barnet Borough Arts Council).
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Over half of respondents attend classical music infrequently, showing that we are attracting and developing new audiences for this genre.
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High Barnet Chamber Music Festival, 7 Byng Road, Barnet, EN5 4NW
07896675129 www.hbcmf.co.uk admin@hbcmf.co.uk Registered Charity No. 1193517
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100% of respondents rated the festival either 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale (5 being the highest), demonstrating the success of our activities.
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Over half of respondents specifically praised the ‘varied and interesting’ programming. Our programming has been portrayed in some quarters of the press as risk-taking, but clearly it is a risk that pays off.
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We received very positive acclaim in the press, both local (e.g. Barnet Society, Camden New Journal) and specialist (e.g. Planet Hugill).
Education in Music
Our education work this year took two primary strands: a charity concert and our Call for Scores.
The charity concert concluded the festival. Spearheaded by one of our Community Ambassadors, this event drew performers ranging from age 7–70 to come together and celebrate Jean Middlemiss, a much-loved string pedagogue who passed away during the pandemic. Items in the concert ranged from a massed-violin performance by the Barnet Suzuki Group, to Barnet Madrigal Group, as well as various solo items. The concert was followed by a reception with further musical performances, which also gave audience members an opportunity to mingle, helping to develop the sense of community cohesion that we aim for with the whole festival. Indeed, one survey respondent described this event as ‘completely magical’ for its combination of high quality music and community development.
Our Call for Scores was organised in order to commission a new work from an early-career composer. Following the Sound and Music Fair Access Principles this was a streamlined process, free to enter. Many competitions put a high burden on entrants. Sound and Music has identified this as a significant issue for ensuring that entrants from under-represented backgrounds are encouraged to apply. We were keen to follow their proposals, and this led to a very successful competition with over 120 works submitted. Indeed, while the winning composer was unsurprisingly praiseworthy of the process, so were entrants who did not win. One wrote to us, unsolicited, ‘I just wanted to commend the efficiency of this call’, another ‘I did appreciate it being a really simple process’, and a third ‘Thank you for having such a fair procedure.’ The pool of applicants was highly diverse: a majority were female, transgender, or non-binary; likewise less than 50% identified ethnically as White British; the age range spanned cohorts from 18–59; the pool was also mixed in metrics including parental occupation and disability.
The winner was Chinese-Australian composer Rob Hao who wrote a new piece for the ensemble Mad Song. As the project developed, we were able to secure a residency for the ensemble at an artists’ retreat in Oxfordshire which facilitated an ideal space for a workshop for Hao with the ensemble. He watched the ensemble rehearse music other than his own and try out various techniques and passages of his own music.
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High Barnet Chamber Music Festival, 7 Byng Road, Barnet, EN5 4NW 07896675129 www.hbcmf.co.uk admin@hbcmf.co.uk Registered Charity No. 1193517
Following the performance at the festival, Hao wrote that the performers ‘took the piece to new levels beyond the page’. The performance was recorded for publication on our YouTube channel, and the work has since been performed again by the ensemble. In the run-up to the festival the Artistic Director interviewed Hao and that interview was published on YouTube and Instagram, where it has currently received over 1000 views.
We had not planned to programme a second piece from the Call. The panel, however, were so taken with composer Carol J Jones’ work ‘chrysalis’ that we commissioned a new version of ‘chrysalis’ from Jones for string orchestra, premiered at our opening concert. Jones wrote to us ‘I’ve never had so much positive feedback from an audience’.
While obvious impacts of the festival going forward are the creation of these new works, and the accompanying recordings of the performances, more broadly we are confident that we are developing the tastes of our audience towards more adventurous and diverse music.
Volunteers’ Contribution
Volunteers play an integral part in the success of the festival. Beyond the Trustees and Artistic Director, all of whom act on a voluntary basis, volunteers also steward the concerts.
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High Barnet Chamber Music Festival, 7 Byng Road, Barnet, EN5 4NW 07896675129 www.hbcmf.co.uk admin@hbcmf.co.uk Registered Charity No. 1193517
Financial Review
The charity is in a safe financial position and continues as a going concern. The vast majority of costs take place after fundraising has been secured, and as such the annual budget is prepared in line with funds already raised.
The charity has reserves of £2298.
The charity holds reserves primarily in order to cover annual logistical expenses (e.g. insurance, website) and also as contingency in case of any unforeseen expenditures or low ticket sales.
The principal financial risk facing the charity is income from trading activities. Every effort is made to ensure much of the charity’s income is derived from sources which are fixed in advance of charitable activities (grants, donations, sponsorship), however the charity will always rely on ticket sales to fund part of its activities and while the charity makes careful and considered projections, there is inevitable risk involved. On a medium-term basis we are aiming to build up reserves equal to projected ticket sales, so that the financial risk is minimised.
Fundraising Activities
The charity successfully raised sufficient funds to carry out its activities. These come from three principal sources: grants from grant-giving organisations (state and private), individual and corporate donors, and trading activities (principally ticket sales). The first two categories make up the majority of funding, which allows us to keep ticket prices at an accessible level. We are also focussed on ensuring our fundraising does not become dependent on any individual ‘key’ donors but is diversified across a pool of funders.
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High Barnet Chamber Music Festival, 7 Byng Road, Barnet, EN5 4NW 07896675129 www.hbcmf.co.uk admin@hbcmf.co.uk Registered Charity No. 1193517
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Danica Bila, Trustee
Anahita Falaki, Trustee
Rhian Morgan, Trustee Saturday 14[th] September, 2024
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High Barnet Chamber Music Festival
Profit and Loss
March 2023 - February 2024
| TOTAL | |
|---|---|
| Income | |
| 001 Grant income | 7,950.00 |
| 002 Donations | 3,916.45 |
| 003 Concert sales | 3,221.14 |
| 004 Other income | 11.01 |
| Total Income | £15,098.60 |
| GROSS PROFIT | £15,098.60 |
| Expenses | |
| 310 Production cost | 1,312.62 |
| 312 Musicians fee | 9,474.00 |
| 320 Advertising & marketing cost | 192.98 |
| 326 Insurance | 110.73 |
| 335 Lighting cost | 288.00 |
| 338 Venue hire | 2,111.45 |
| 346 Computer cost | 149.26 |
| 383 Charitable contributions | 610.00 |
| Total Expenses | £14,249.04 |
| NET OPERATING INCOME | £849.56 |
| Other Income | |
| 411 Interest earned | 41.62 |
| Total Other Income | £41.62 |
| NET OTHER INCOME | £41.62 |
| NET INCOME | £891.18 |
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