## **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period**
**From 6 April 2024 To 5 April 2025**
**Charity name: Horizon Voices**
## **Charity registration number: 1203409**
## **Objectives and Activities**
||The reference||
|---|---|---|
|Summary of the purposes
of the charity as set out in
its governing document|Para 1.17|**TO ADVANCE, IMPROVE, DEVELOP AND**
**MAINTAIN PUBLIC EDUCATION IN, AND**
**APPRECIATION OF, THE ART OF MUSIC**
**BY THE ORGANISATION AND/OR**
**PRESENTATION OF EDUCATION**
**WORKSHOPS, COMMUNITY PROJECTS,**
**CONCERTS AND RECORDINGS OF HIGH**
**ARTISTIC AND EDUCATIONAL MERIT,**
**AND BY OTHER SUCH MEANS AS THE**
**TRUSTEES SHALL FROM TIME TO TIME**
**DETERMINE.**|
|Summary of the main
activities in relation to those
purposes for the public
benefit, in particular, the
activities, projects or
services identified in the
accounts.|Para 1.17 and
1.19|**● Byrd Reasons to Sing Project**
**o**
**Completed Arts Council**
**funded music education**
**project across the UK**
**o**
**Evaluation completed on**
**project outcomes**
**● Website and Media**
**○**
**Overhaul of website for**
**professional and educational**
**remit**
**○**
**Professional recordings for**
**future schemes and funding**
**applications**
**● Performance**
**○**
**Completed Making Music**
**Artist Scheme with**
**performances with choral and**
**music societies**
**● Elemental**
**○**
**New education project**
**research and development**
**completed**|
|||**○**
**Project trialed in schools and**
**care homes and evaluation**
**completed**|
|---|---|---|
|Statement confirming
whether the trustees have
had regard to the guidance
issued by the Charity
Commission on public
benefit|Para 1.18|**The trustees confirm they have regarded**
**the guidance issued by the Charity**
**Commission on public benefit during**
**this reporting period.**|
## **Additional information (optional)** You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
||SORP reference||
|---|---|---|
|Policy on grant making|Para 1.38|**n/a**|
|Policy on social investment
including program related
investment|Para 1.38|**n/a**|
|Contribution made by
volunteers|Para 1.38|**Chris Rowlands has been a regular**
**Volunteer for a number of performance**
**events as Front of House support and**
**also as a secretary for taking minutes**
**for the charity’s annual general**
**meetings.**|
||||
## **Achievements and Performance**
||SORP reference||
|---|---|---|
|Summary of the main
achievements of the charity,
identifying the difference the
charity’s work has made to
the circumstances of its
beneficiaries and any wider
benefits to society as a
whole.|Para 1.20|**In our second year as a registered charity,**
**we have demonstrated continued progress**
**in the fields of music education, outreach**
**and performance, in accordance with our**
**charitable objectives.**
**Our****_Byrd: Reasons to Sing_ project in**
**collaboration with Stile Antico and**
**university lecturers and researchers at**
**Birmingham and Northumbria Universities**
**has now been completed. The final wave of**
**schools involved in the project included**
**educational institutions in Birmingham,**
**Darlington, Peterborough and Croydon. The**
**Arts Council evaluation has been completed**
**and the charity are considering next steps**
**for utilising the digital resources created for**
**schools.**
**We have utilised the generous donations**
**from the Simon Gibson Charitable Trust to**
**redesign our website to ensure it is fit for**
**purpose for performance and educational**
**initiatives. We have also professionally**
**recorded Horizon Voices so that we have the**
**content to apply for future schemes and**
**funding applications.**
**The Trust funding has also enabled us to**
**research and develop our next project,**
**_Elemental_, which we have now trialled in**
**both schools and care homes in**
**Hertfordshire. An evaluation of the project is**
**underway and funding applications are**
**being made to continue this project on a**
**wider scale.**
**The ensemble has performed alongside and**
**for choral and music societies, including**
**Matlock Music Society, Tickhill Music**
**Society and The Maidstone Singers,**
**bringing choral music to a diverse range of**
**audiences across the UK with our unique**
**interactive and educational performance**
**approach.**
**We continue to host our annual Big Sing at**
**Kingshott School Hitchin to champion**
**choral singing, alongside delivering**
**masterclasses with the school’s advanced**
**chamber choir.**
**Artistic Director James Rhodes has been**
**invited to present at Music Education Expo**
**and co-host and deliver the Angela**
**Lansbury Musical Theatre Conference at the**
**University of Birmingham, with a focus on**
**musical theatre scholarship’s practical**
**impact on education.**
**Forthcoming plans for 2025-2026:**|
|**●**|**Further funding from Simon Gibson**|
|---|---|
||**Charitable Trust to**|
||**○**
**expand****_Elemental_**|
||**programme to schools and**|
||**care homes**|
||**○**
**provide a 0.1 (half a day a**|
||**week) salary to Artistic**|
||**Director James Rhodes to**|
||**work exclusively on the**|
||**artistic direction, operations**|
||**and management of the**|
||**charity**|
||**○**
**Provide some freelance**|
||**funding for a member of**|
||**Horizon Voices to work on**|
||**administration, marketing**|
||**and communications for the**|
||**charity**|
|**●**|**Funding applications with a focus on**|
||**music and dementia to align with**|
||**NHS social prescribing plans - care**|
||**homes and residential settings,**|
||**Churchill fellowship application and**|
||**project research and delivery**|
|**●**|**To develop a residency with 1-2 local**|
||**state schools to develop long term**|
||**music education impact**|
|**●**|**To develop performance**|
||**programmes to be shared with**|
||**festivals to increase outreach**|
||**possibilities for the charity**|
## **Financial Review**
|**Financial Review**|||
|---|---|---|
|Review of the charity’s
financial position at the end
of the period|Para 1.21|**We opened at the beginning of this financial**
**period with an opening balance of £7396.72.**
**Our income this year totalled £14,143.71.**
**Our spending totalled £15,730.79.**
**Our closing balance at the end of this period**
**is £5809.64**
**This residual balance is principally due to**
**the final funding received from Arts Council**
**England for the Byrd Reasons to Sing**
**project’s final phase, which had just**
**completed after the end of the financial year**
**and funding from the Simon Gibson Trust**
**for the****_Elemental_ project which had not yet**
**been invoiced for by independent**
**contractors.**|
|Statement explaining the
policy for holding reserves
stating why they are held|Para 1.22|**We do not require a significant amount of**
**reserves due to the nature of our charitable**
**objectives, in which we apply for funding for**
**specific education, outreach and**
**performance projects and proceed with the**
**projects upon successful funding**|
|||**awarding/allocation. We hold a small reserve**
**to account for any unforeseen expenditures**
**and to account for any rising costs/inflation.**|
|---|---|---|
|Amount of reserves held|Para 1.22|**We have a reserve of £1700.00, which was**
**devised from the initial gifts and donations**
**received before the CIO was formed.**|
|Reasons for holding zero
reserves|Para 1.22|**n/a**|
|Details of fund materially in
deficit|Para 1.24|**n/a**|
|Explanation of any
uncertainties about the
charity continuing as a going
concern|Para 1.23|**n/a**|
**Additional information (optional)** You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
||||
|---|---|---|
|The charity’s principal
sources of funds (including
any fundraising)|Para 1.47|**Principal sources of funding this year**
**have been:**
**● Simon Gibson Charitable Trust**
**● Arts Council England**|
|Investment policy and
objectives including any
social investment policy
adopted|Para 1.46|**n/a**|
|A description of the principal
risks facing the charity|Para 1.46|**Operational – increased number of**
**projects and events will eventually**
**result in the need for an individual to**
**work for the charity on a freelance basis**
**to manage the administrative and**
**operational aspects of the charity.**
**Funding is now being sought for the**
**Artistic Director for half a day for**
**management and for freelance members**
**of the ensemble for marketing and**
**administration.**
**Financial – income and financial**
**sustainability should be monitored.**
**Although projects do not take place**
**until successful funding awards have**
**been received, the same funding pots**
**cannot be relied upon and the charity**
**should seek to diversify their funding**
**bids with a range of funding bodies and**
**other means for generating income e.g.**
**donations, creation of a friends’**
**scheme, etc.**|
||||
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
|Description of charity’s
trusts:|||
|---|---|---|
|Type of governing document
(trust deed, royal charter)|Para 1.25|**CIO Constitution (based on the model**
**constitution provided by the Charity**
**Commission)**|
|How is the charity
constituted?
(e.g unincorporated
association, CIO)|Para 1.25|**CIO**|
|
Trustee selection methods
including details of any
constitutional provisions e.g.
election to post or name of
any person or body entitled
to appoint one or more
trustees|Para 1.25|**The charity (Horizon Voices) appoints**
**trustees through an advertising and**
**application process.**|
## **Reference and Administrative details**
|Charity name|**Horizon Voices**|
|---|---|
|Other name the charity uses|**n/a**|
|
Registered charitynumber|**1203409**|
|Charity’s principal address|**5 Barnack Grove**
**Royston**
**Hertfordshire**
**SG8 5HQ**|
## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
|1
2
3|**Trustee name**|**Office (if**
**any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**
**Name of person**
**(or body)**
**entitled to**
**appoint trustee**
**(if any)**|
|---|---|---|---|
||
Dr Katherine Bank|Chair|
Whole year 2024-2025
The charity –
Horizon
Voices|
||
Edmund
Whitehead|Trustee|Whole year 2024-2025
The charity –
Horizon
Voices|
||
Duncan Brown|Trustee|Whole year 2024-2025
The charity –
Horizon
Voices|
**Declarations**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
**Signature(s) Full name(s)**[Dr Katherine Bank ] **Position (eg Secretary,** Chair of Trustees **Chair, etc) Date** 11 January 2026