## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **For the Year Ended 30 June 2025**
## **Wokingham Choral Society Registered Charity No. 274853**
## **Charity address:** is as reported
**Trustees:** are as reported
## **Structure and management of Wokingham Choral Society**
The business of the Society is managed by a Committee of volunteers elected annually by the Society’s membership at the Annual General Meeting (AGM), held just after the end of the financial year. These same Committee members are also the Trustees of Wokingham Choral Society. All members of the Committee are drawn from the Society’s membership. The Committee meets not less than every three months to discuss and plan the business of the Society. Full details of the make-up, election and operation of the Committee are set out in Wokingham Choral Society’s Constitution.
## **Objectives and Activities of Wokingham Choral Society**
The objectives of the Society are to educate the public in the art and science of music, the presentation of concerts and other activities.
To achieve these objectives, funds are raised by charging annual subscriptions to the members, the sale of concert tickets to the public and the organisation of fundraising activities, to enable the Society to employ the services of the best possible professional Musical Directors, Rehearsal and Concert Accompanists, Concert Orchestras and Soloists.
## **Achievements and Performance of Wokingham Choral Society**
At the 2024 AGM of the Society (hereafter referred to as “the choir”), our Librarian stepped down from the role and the Committee, and a new Librarian was elected to the Committee by the choir’s membership. There were no other changes to the makeup of the Committee. Our professional Musical Director and our professional Rehearsal and Concert Accompanist continued in post throughout 2024-25 season.
Our Autumn Concert, entitled _English Masters_ , was a collaboration with pupils from St George’s School Windsor Castle. The main work performed was Britten’s cantata _Saint Nicolas_ , which features a children’s choir. In the first half of the concert, there were
performances of works by Purcell and of contemporary English composers by both the choir and pupils from St George’s School. The concert was held in the refurbished All Saints Church, Wokingham, which has now become our main concert venue; the church was filled with a capacity audience, which included friends and supporters of the choir, and parents and other relatives of the pupils from St George’s School. The Autumn Concert was followed in December by our annual, popular Christmas Carol Concert.
The Spring Concert was another collaboration, this time with Bracknell Choral Society. The two choirs joined forces to give a performance of Elgar’s _The Dream of Gerontius_ , which neither choir could feasibly mount independently. The work requires a large choir, which includes a semi-chorus, and also a large orchestra. We also needed to find a venue large enough to accommodate the ca. 180 singers, 60-piece orchestra and – it was hoped – large audience for this popular work. In the event, we chose to perform the work in Guildford Cathedral. Planning for this concert had begun in the previous season, and involved a considerable amount of additional work. Therefore, it was gratifying that the concert was a great success, attracting an audience of nearly 480 people.
We were back in All Saints Church, Wokingham for our Summer Concert, which included Mozart’s Coronation Mass and pieces by Parry, Haydn, Brahms and Handel. The concert also showcased four young soloists, who, for the main part, were still studying music at undergraduate level. Again, audience numbers for this concert were relatively healthy, further vindicating our move to a performance venue in Wokingham from Reading, where we’d customarily performed in previous seasons.
Membership numbers were again down on the previous year, from the mid-nineties to 90 by the end of the 2024-25 season. This is concerning, not least because of the impact on income from subscriptions. However, it is hoped this number will increase next season.
Wokingham Choral Society is a hard-working, welcoming and forward-looking choral society and though an auditioned choir, it is open to anyone from 16 years upwards who meets the musical standard required.
Now in its eighth decade, the choir continues its long tradition of bringing high quality performances of classical choral works to the residents of Wokingham and the surrounding area. The 2025/26 season will start with a concert of works by the Baroque masters, Bach and Handel, featuring five soloists and a period-performance orchestra.
## **Financial Review:**
Wokingham Choral Society has continued to face rising costs. In response to this, we increased our standard ticket prices for the 2024/25 season, such that they are in line with the prices charged by other local choirs. These price increases do not appear to have negatively impacted ticket sales; indeed, these have probably received a boost from the change of performance venue to Wokingham. Despite ongoing financial pressures, the choir finished the season with a relatively modest profit, thanks in large part to the hard work and generosity of its members.
Wokingham Choral Society’s Reserves at 30 June 2025 stood at £44,689 and accounts are available to support this figure.
## **Wokingham Choral Society**
## **Income & Expenditure Account for the Year Ended 30 June 2025**
|**2024**||||**2025**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|£||£|£|£|
||**Income:**||||
||**Concerts:**||||
|9,938|Ticket Sales||14,577||
|532|Programmes||449||
|2,604|Music - Choral
**Subscriptions:**||2,365|17,391|
|18,278|Members||17,370||
|644|Patrons||500||
|210|Friends||270||
||**Fund Raising:**|||18,140|
|890|Coffee Sales||1,033||
|577|100 Club||628||
|862|Raffles||1,038||
|41|Easy Fundraising||26||
|---|Bingo Evening||882||
|7|Miscellaneous Fund Raising||---||
||**Other:**|||3,607|
|52|Folders||23||
|876|Donations||2,286||
|3,134|Gift Aid||3,090||
|1,200|Sponsorship||1,025||
|---|Grants||1,000||
|567|Bank Interest||1,243||
|700|Charity Collections||2,132||
|---|Miscellaneous Income||391|11,190|
|£41,112|**Total Income c/f**|||£ 50,328|
## **Wokingham Choral Society**
## **Income & Expenditure Account for the Year Ended 30 June 2025**
|**2024**|||||**2025**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**£**||**£**|**£**||**£**|
|41,112|**Income b/f**||||50,328|
||**Less Expenditure**|||||
||**Concerts:**|||||
|2,700|Conductor|2,553||||
|1,490|Accompanist|1,541||||
|2,900|Soloists|2,100||||
|9,350|Orchestras|9,583||||
|3,249|Venue|3,258||||
|---|Cathedral Expenses (Gerontius)|757||||
|348|Green Room|---||||
|50|Music Stands|---||||
|250|Instrument Hire|157||||
|---|Instrument Tuning|130||||
|450|Music : Orchestral|259||||
|2,548|Choral|2,539||||
|398|Printing: Programmes|693||||
|208|Flyers & Posters|251||||
|63|Tickets|66||||
|13|Miscellaneous|62||||
|---|Postage: Orchestral|---||||
|---|Choral|17||||
|182|Gifts|154||||
|986|Stage Transport|789||||
|---|Stage Hire|2,574||||
|295|PRS Fees|649||||
|580|Miscellaneous|---||||
||**Rehearsals:**||28,132|||
|6,243|Musical Director|6.596||||
|5,204|Accompanist|5,493||||
|3,182|Venue|3,524||||
|---|Gerontius Workshop Rehearsal|721||||
||**Fund Raising:**||16,334|||
|107|Coffee|121||||
|315|100 Club|315||||
|29|Raffles|---||||
|---|Bingo Evening|428||864||
|£41,140|**Expenditure c/f**||£45,330|||
|£41,112|**Income c/f**||||£50,328|
## **Wokingham Choral Society**
## **Income & Expenditure Account for the Year Ended 30 June 2025**
||**2024**
**£**
**£**
**£**
41,112
**Income b/f**
41,140
**Expenditure b/f**
45,330
**General Administration;**
256
Advertising
229
---
Printing, Postage & Stationery
99
276
Insurance
286
537
Subscriptions
451
164
Meeting Venue
60
---
Miscellaneous
---
1,125
**Other:**
72
Card Commission
128
49
Folders
23
---
Hospitality
114
700
Charity Payments
2,132
152
Making Music Platform (website)
113
---
Voice Balancing
570
---
Gerontius Photographer
240
261
Miscellaneous
130
3,450
43,607
**Excess Income over Expenditure/**
**( 2,495)**
**Expenditure over Income**|**2024**
**£**
**£**
**£**
41,112
**Income b/f**
41,140
**Expenditure b/f**
45,330
**General Administration;**
256
Advertising
229
---
Printing, Postage & Stationery
99
276
Insurance
286
537
Subscriptions
451
164
Meeting Venue
60
---
Miscellaneous
---
1,125
**Other:**
72
Card Commission
128
49
Folders
23
---
Hospitality
114
700
Charity Payments
2,132
152
Making Music Platform (website)
113
---
Voice Balancing
570
---
Gerontius Photographer
240
261
Miscellaneous
130
3,450
43,607
**Excess Income over Expenditure/**
**( 2,495)**
**Expenditure over Income**|**2025**
**£**
50,328
49,905
**£ 423**|**2025**
**£**
50,328
49,905
**£ 423**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||
|||41,140
256
---
276
537
164
---
72
49
---
700
152
---
---
261|||
|**£**|**(**||||
||||||
## **Wokingham Choral Society**
## **Balance Sheet as at 30 June 2025**
|
£
£
£|**2024**
£
---
3,935
3,770
39,218
40
46,963
2,857
44,106
£
46,601
---
46,601
2,495
44,106|**CURRENT ASSETS**
Stock
Debtors and Pre-payments
Bank Accounts: Current Account
Reserve Accounts
Cash in Hand
£
**Less:**
**CURRENT LIABILITIES**
Creditors, Accruals and Receipts in Advance
£
**CAPITAL ACCOUNT**
Accumulated Funds at 1 July 2024
Plus: Capital Introduced
Profit for the Year
Minus: Loss for the Year
Accumulated Funds at 30 June 2025
£|**2025**
£
38
637
9,739
37,462
40|
|---|---|---|---|
||||47,916
3,227|
||||
44,689|
||||
£
44,106
160
423|
||||44,689
---
44,689|
INDEPENDE EK4MINER'S REpoiifTO THE ACCOUTrtrs OF
WOKINGHAM CHORAL SOCIETY
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025
I have examined the I)me and Expenditu Account for the Year Ended 30 June 2025,
and the Balance Sheet as at 30 June 2025. 1 have a150 reviewed the aC(nting records
kept by the charity. examination was rrIed out under sethn 145 of tha Charities Act
2011 (Ihe Acr) and was condu¢ted in a¢xordance with the Dwedions gNen by the Chaiity
Commisslon urKler section 145(SXbl of theA
In connection wth my examination. I confim that no materbal matter5 have come to my
attention whith give me cause to believe that in any matsrial rasped..
1) the requirements io keep accountirKJ redS in acxixdance secaion 130 of
the Act have not been met" or
2) the accounts do not accord with those re¢¢yds.
I have no ncernS and have come acmss no other matters In connèction with the
examination to which attents.on slM)uld be drawn in order to enabl8 a pn)per understsnding of
the accounts to b6 r•aGh8d.
J4
21.4......q- 7J-
Nail Coupe ACA
Dale
50 Easthampstead Road
Wokingham
Be$hIre RG40 2EF