OXFORD YOUTH CHOIRS ANNUAL REPORT OF TRUSTEES
For the academic year 2023/2024 To be presented to the AGM, 14/07/2025
Registered charity number 299109
Legal and Administrative information Trustees Lydia Vella Chair Geoff Sutton Treasurer Catherine Wearden Honorary Secretary Matthew Brown Maria Finnis Jerome Finnis Rob Legg Arabella Saer Alex Silverman
Music staff Richard Vendome Musical Director Amy Chang Junior and Senior Choir Teacher Colin Daskin Junior and Senior Choir Teacher Margaret Lingas Junior and Senior Choir Teacher Lucia Boué Prep Choirs Teacher Hannah Rhodes Prep Choirs Teacher Izzie Mohan Accompanist
Administrator Colin Daskin
Chair’s Report Trustees For 2023 - 2024, the committee of Trustees was chaired by Lydia Vella, with Geoff Sutton continuing as treasurer. Catherine Wearden kindly offered, and was voted in, to fulfil the role of the Honorary Secretary. We were delighted to welcome Arabella Saer, Rob Legg and Matthew Brown as Trustees in June and July 2024.
Staff Matters Richard Vendome (Musical Director) retired in July 2024, having founded and directed the choir since 1984. Under his direction, the choirs achieved an outstanding reputation for musical accomplishment and education, with several members going on to professional careers in music. We are grateful to Richard for his 40 years of dedication to the choir and wish him well in his retirement. In preparation for Richard’s retirement, the Trustees advertised to appoint a new Musical Director to start in September 2024. Several strong candidates with excellent credentials were interviewed and auditioned for the role. We were delighted to appoint Benedict Goodall to the role. Ben is a professional singer who specialises in musical education and choral conducting. We look forward to working with Ben in the next chapter for the choir. Hannah Rhodes returned from maternity leave to resume her role as a teacher to the Prep choirs for 2023 - 2024, and resigned at the end of the year. Hannah worked with the choir for 11 years and we thank her for her service to the choir.
The Year’s Events in Summary In December 2023, the choir performed two Christmas concerts at St Mary and St Nicholas Church in Littlemore. These concerts were warmly received and the event was structured around a lunch to foster the sense of continuity and community between the choirs. In February 2024, the Junior and Senior choirs were excited to contribute backing vocals to a pop song composed by Frannie B, a former member of the
choir and musician. The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience of singing in a studio , which was new for many of them, and were pleased to hear the results on Spotify! In March 2024, the Junior and Senior Choirs performed Aesop’s Fables, an original composition by John Whitaker. The performance was filmed at St Andrew’s Church, Oxford, and included an ensemble of professional musicians. Our Prep choirs performed their own repertoire at the event, which was well attended with excellent feedback. In April 2024, the Junior and Senior Choirs sang in the children’s chorus for two performances of the St Matthew Passion, directed by John Lubbock. These performances afforded the children the opportunity to sing with an adult choir and orchestra and in particularly beautiful venues: St John The Evangelist Church (SJE) Oxford, and Dorchester Abbey. Our main event of 2024 was an anniversary concert at SJE to celebrate 40 years of Richard’s direction of the choir. This was a spectacular musical occasion - with exceptional performances from Roderick Williams and Colin Good and the alumnae, as well as the current choirs. We hope that Richard enjoyed the event and that it was a fitting tribute to all he has achieved with the choir! Finally, we held our summer concert in July 2024 at Cherwell School, our rehearsal venue. This concert celebrated the work of all the choirs and ended in a shared lunch for all. Looking Forward As we looked forward to the Year 2024-2025, the committee prepared to support the transition from Richard’s direction to Ben’s. We considered approaches to expand the membership and raise funds for the choir, which had both suffered during the covid lockdowns. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the singers, parents, teachers, trustees and patrons for all they do and their parts in the success of the year above, as well as their drive and commitment to meet the challenges ahead. Lydia Vella Chair of Trustees AGM 14/07/2025
TREASURER’S REPORT
OXFORD YOUTH CHOIRS For the Years 2023/2024
To be presented to the AGM, Saturday, 7.30pm, 14th July 2025
The charity made a modest surplus in the 2023-2024 financial year, thanks to generous donations and a big fund-raising concert to celebrate Richard Vendome’s 40 years as musical director. Membership fee income excluding donations remained stable compared with the previous year at £25329. Donations and concerts boosted overall income up to £37602, a drop of about 9% compared with the previous year’s income of £41183. Turning to costs, our teaching costs dropped further from £20818 to £19131, actually down 31% over two years, a major cost saving achieved while maintaining the quality of our teaching. Other non-teaching costs increased slightly from £12596 to £14039, due to increased administration costs. Thankfully rent costs remained stable due to no rent increase at Cherwell.
The final result was a surplus, down from 2022/2023 of £2652 to £1303 for 2023/2024.
Choir numbers remained stable. Fees again were kept constant to aid recruitment given there are a large number of choirs now operating in the same market sector within Oxford.
Loveadmin continues to serve the choir well, reducing the administration load and administration overhead.
Looking ahead, the main risks still facing the charity are problems in recruiting sufficient members to keep the charity afloat and increasing costs. The good news is that membership of the younger choirs is holding up while the bad news is that the senior choir membership continues to remain small in size. Fees will increase for 2025/26 along with a long overdue increase in teacher hourly rates.
In terms of future viability, I can confirm that the choir has the reserves to get through the next year to September 2025.
The choir has no employees in 2023/24 and had none in 2022/23 and 2021/22.
Expenses were reimbursed to the treasurer, for expenses incurred by credit card, December 2023 £445 for Making Music membership. Our Chair, Dr Lydia Vella, received £53.50 in April 2024 for one session accompanying the prep choirs. One of our trustees, Alex Silverman received £81.40 in December 2023 for supporting one session of the senior choir.
I reported last year that Inland Revenue gave permission for the choir to reclaim giftaid on membership fees. Using Loveadmin to administer the giftaid permissions, the choir will be claiming giftaid from now on where permitted provided membership fee payments are made direct to the choir’s bank account. A lot of membership payments in the past have come through Loveadmin, payment partner, Go Cardless, this means that a lot of payments that we previously thought would qualify for Giftaid, won’t now qualify as we learnt recently that only membership payments made direct into the choir’s bank account qualify. Steps have now been taken to ensure as many membership payments as possible go direct into the choir’s account.
We continue to bank with CAF Bank, part of HSBC Group, with a second account at Barclays Bank.
Geoff Sutton Treasurer AGM 14[th] July 2025
Oxford Youth Choirs 299109
Receipts and payments accounts
For the period 8/16/2023 9/15/2024 To from
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment funds funds funds
Total funds Last year
| Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds |
Endowment funds |
Total funds | Last year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts Subscriptions 25,329 Donations 5,493 Concerts and events 5,092 Gift aid 1,418 Bank interest 270 Insurance refund:piano - - 37,602 - - Sub total - Total receipts 37,602 A3 Payments Music tuition fees 19,131 Concert and event expenses 3,129 Administrator expenses 4,263 Rent and storage costs 7,599 Other runningcosts 2,177 - - - Sub total 36,299 - - Sub total - Total payments 36,299 Net of receipts/(payments) 1,303 A5 Transfers between funds - A6 Cash funds last year end 15,441 Cash funds this year end 16,744 to the nearest £ Sub total(Gross income for AR) A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ 25,329 5,493 5,092 1,418 270 - - 37,602 - - - 37,602 19,131 3,129 4,263 7,599 2,177 - - - 36,299 - - - 36,299 1,303 - 15,441 16,744 |
to the nearest £ |
| - - - - - - - - |
25,329 | 25,031 | ||
| 5,493 | 5,427 | |||
| 5,092 | 4,186 | |||
| 1,418 | 1,446 | |||
| 270 | 93 | |||
| - | 5,000 | |||
| - | - | |||
| 37,602 | 41,183 | |||
| - - - |
- | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | 37,602 | 41,183 | ||
| - - - - - - - - - |
19,131 | 20,818 | ||
| 3,129 | 5,767 | |||
| 4,263 | 1,728 | |||
| 7,599 | 8,862 | |||
| 2,177 | 1,465 | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| 36,299 | 38,640 | |||
| - - - |
- | |||
| - | ||||
| - | - | |||
| - | 36,299 | 38,640 | ||
| - | - - - - |
1,303 | 2,543 | |
| - | - | - | ||
| - | 15,441 | 12,898 | ||
| - | 16,744 | 15,441 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B5 Liabilities B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
Details CAF Gold Account CAF Cash Account Barclays Bank Details Gift Aid (figure not yet available) Details Details Details Independent Examiner's fee Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
to nearest £ 10,385 5,959 400 16,744 OK to nearest £ - - - - - - Unrestricted Unrestricted funds Unrestricted funds Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates |
to nearest £ - - - - OK to nearest £ - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Restricted funds Restricted funds Amount due (optional) |
to nearest £ Endowment funds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| OK | ||||
| to nearest £ Endowment funds |
||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| Current value (optional) |
||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| Current value (optional) |
||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| When due (optional) |
||||
| Independent Examiner's fee | Unrestricted | - | ||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - |
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
Signature
Date of Print Name approval
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of Oxtord Youth Choirs On aGGounts for tho year ended 1510912024 (13 months) Charity no (if any) 299109 Set out on pages 1and2 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (Ihe Twst.) for period ended 1510912024. Responsibilities and As the chanty trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordan wrth the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe Acr). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 A¢t and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicab D1CtIonS given by the Charity Commission under section 145{5)(b) of the Acl. I have completed my examination. I confinn that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe Ihat in, any material respect.. accounling records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not acrd with the accounting reGords Independent examinerfs statement I have no concems and have Come across no other matters in connedion with the examinats.on to vthich attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Pe&rrJ.fj" L•C.vOfi. Date: 231W2025 Name: Peter J Stevenson Relevant professlonal qualificalion{s) or body Ilf any): Address: Flat 25, Cher4¥ell Court, Banbury Road, Kidlington OX5 2BG IER October 2018