Stratford upon Avon Choral Society Registered Charity No. 502020 www.stratfordchoral.org.uk TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2023-2024 Trustees Tim Moore-Bridger- Chairman Glenda Kershaw - Treasurer Jackie Gough - Secretary Carol Jackson - Membership Secretary Jean Hutchison- Librarian Fiona Macvie Liz Ststham Sheelagh Douglas Philippa Vandome Neil Harrison Chris McKinty Structure and Management The Society is managed by a committee, which comprises five officers and six ordinary committee members. Each officer is elected annually, and ordinary committae members are elected for a period of two years. Officers can be re-elected on up to nine consecutive occasions. Ordinary committee Members can be re-elected on up to four consecutive occasions. All officers and ordinary committee members are trustees of the charity who give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or other benefits (save those benefits ofmembership afforded to every member of the Society). In planning activities for the year, trustees have regard to the Charity Com- mission's guidance on public benefit at committee meetings. The trustees meet regularly and are responsible for 811 decisions made in relation to the Society's activities. Sub-committees have been set up for publicity and to assist with the selection of the music to be performed by the Society. The sUtoMM1ttees, some of whose members are not trustee8, report back with their recommen- dations to a full committee meeting of the trustees. Objects The objects of the Society as defined in the Society's constitution adopted on 23rd May 2022 are.. To advance, improve, develop and maintain public education in, and appreciation of, the art and science of music in all its aspects by any means the trustees see fit, including through the presentation of public concerts and recitals. To further such charitable purpose or purposes as the trustees in their absolute discretion shall think fit but in particular through the making of grants and donations. Chalmlan's raport It gives me great pleasure to provide a report on the 2023-24 season, which has been extremety successful in many ways.
Our first concert in November was Handel's Oratorio San7son. This work has some similarities to Messiah but is more rareSy performed by Choral Societies. It was enjoyable to learn the choruses, which were not in fact too difficult. The Oratorio is somewhat operatic in form. with six soloists and a chorus employed to set the scene or to comment on the action. The story of Samson is set in Gaza. The war there had just started a week before our performance, which was potentially problematic. However, Handel's wonderful music ena- bled singers and audience to transcend the horrors of the present time, and to reflect on the uplffting story of Samson. Prelude to Chnstmas was our Dember concert. There is always something magical about a pre-christmas concert, with traditional and less well-known carols, and an eclectic mix of readings. The reviewer in the Strat- ford Herald particularly enjoyed Rutter's C8ndlelight Carol, and the fact that the audience could join in with some of the traditional favourite carols as well. We were extremely pleased to have Tim Raistrick reading once more, and for the first time Juliet Grundy. Their choice of readings was delighfful, and I particularly en- joyed the arrangement of The Twelve Days of Christmas, With the choirjoining the readers in a wonderfully amusing version of the carol. l am pleased that Juliet subsequently joined the choir to sing in our March con- cert. A week or so before Prelude we were invited again to sing carols at the Shakespeare Hospice, when they have the lighting of their Christmas tree. It was again cold, but our efforts were much appreciated. The Choral Society is very much an organisation based in the community, and we should take every opportunity we can to take our musical endeavours beyond just our three major concerts. The Hospice carol singing may well be an annual fixture, and I hope there may be others as well. l am very grateful to Jon for conclucting us once again. We knew that Mozart's Requiem would be a popular item both for usto sing and for our audience, and so it proved to be. Many of us had sung the Requiem before but il was Oliver's inspiring direction that enabled us to see things differently and produce what I think was a superb performance. An audience of something over 240 was the highest that I can ever remember for a concert in Holy Trinity 8nd may well have been the high- est ever. To see the church packed in the way it was made for a remarkable occasion. As last year we have been rehearsing for a summer concert, scheduled for June 15th at St. Andrew's. We will be performing Shakespe8re in Song- a selection of modern settings of songs taken from the plays, including seven arrangements by George Shearing entitled Songs 8nd Sonnets. Once again Iwo instrumentslists, stu- dents from King Edward Vl School will be joining us. In addition, we will have the pleasure of hearing Oliver singing a few pieces. It has been great fun to learn, and I very much hope that members of the choir not sing- ing will join us for what promises to be a delightful concert. This year we have again been joined by the Regency Sinfonia and by the Holy Trinity organist. We have also had good soloists. It is imperative that we invite soloists to sing with us who suit the choir and the location, normally Holy Trinity, and the work that we are singing. Our booking secretary Val does a fine job, but it isn't easy always to find the right soloists to invite. Then, as happened t1 this year, they sometimes fall ill at the last moment. I'm very grateful to Val and of course to 014ver for being able to find exlIent replacements at very short notice, for both Samson and the Requiem. Concerts have all been at Holy Trinity as is usually the case. This has not been without its problems. First of all, we had some misunderstanding with the church authorities aboul the rehearsal on the Saturday aftèrnoon, in particular over the way in which the choir and the soloists were accommodated into the church while tour- ists were visiting Shakespeare's grave. This was a problem that we had not understood nor foreseen. We were able to discuss this at some length with the church authorities and resolve any misunderstandings, and what we now have is greater clarity about the Holy Trinity expectations of us, and more suitable arrangements for the choir and soloists during the Saturday rehearsal.
In the Spring there was also a real issue with the Hoty Trinity organ. This was being repaired and scaffolding had been erected around the organ at the beginning of the year. We had been assured that it was highly likely that the scaffolding would be removed before our concert. We were therefore extremely worried when ten days before the concert we We told that it might not be removed in time. We were forced to consider alternatives and approached the Stratford Playhouse and King Edward Vl School to see if they could rescue the situation for us. Both parties were extremely supportive. As it happened, we didn't need to go to either the school or the Playhouse as the scaffolding was tsken down just in time, but it did mean that contact with them had been made. Perhaps in future it might not be a bad idea to consider a concert taking place other than at Holy Trinity. The Choral Society is very fortunate to have so many loy81 followers, and18m particularly grateful for the sup- port of our Patrons, and our Sponsors, The Rigby Foundation and Holiday Inspirations Ltd. Within the choir membership very many assist in different ways throughout the year, and l am very grateful to you all. But my special thanks go to the members of the committee who do such a tremendous job on behalf of the Society. We have had five full Committee meetings, all on Zoom, and the music subcommittee has met three times. Committee meetings however do not in any sense represent the full work of members of the committee. There is so much to organise and arrange for a Society such as ours. There are the concerts themselves, and all they entail, rehearsals, programmes and publicity, the management of our finances- which you will see from the Treasurer's report are in a strong position- dissemination of information to members, organisation of auditions and re-auditions, ordering and distributing music before rehearsals start, and then collecting and returning the MLSSIC to the respective libraries, production of a Newsletter every cou- ple of months, social events, such as the splendid evening at the RSC to attend Ben and Imo at the Swan Thatre, a comprehensive website, which will prove invaluable in the future, as we develop new means of dis- tributing tickets. This list is not exhaustive, but it demonstrates some of the ways in which members of the committee have m8intained the work of the Choral Society, for which l am very grateful. I hope very much that other members of the choir will refct on this and think if they would like to join the committee to continue this invaluable work. Two committee members are standing down this year. Sheelagh has bean on the committee for five years and has been in charge of tickets 8nd relations with Patrons and Season Ticket holders. I'm very grateful to her for the way in which she has managed this essential, and often tricky task. Then there is Carol, a member of the choir since 1988 and membership secretary for the last nine years. She is incredibly efficient, involved in all that we do. Anyone who saw her"Desert Island Discs" which we ar- ranged during COVID, will remember her high-powered lrfe in London before she migrated to Chipping Camp- den in the eighties, and will not be in the slightest surprised that she has proved to be an outstanding mem- bership secretary. She has organised seating for concerts, registers at rehearsals, auditions and reauditions, communication with all members of the Society, management of the full database of members, and much more besides. She has been an invaluable colleague and supporter to me since I became Chairman years ago. Singing is in her blood, and l am delighted that Carol is going to continue singing with the choir in the years ahead. Thank you very much, Carol, from all the membership of the Choral Society. Then there are Rachel and Oliver. Rachel is the supreme professional, such a wonderful accompanist that she is almost not nOtid at all. Anything that Oliver asks she does at once without a slip. How she does it is miraculous, but it greatly enhances our rehearsals and the ultimate perfomance. l am very pleased that she will be seen as a performer in her own right in the summer concert. And Oliver is a quite outstanding Musical Director. He has that quiet authority which comes from being a fine schwlmaster, coupled with a superb singing voice. He makes us work hard each Monday, but he makes it such fun. There is always a feeling of enjoyment and satisf8Ction at the end of our rehearsals. His attention
to detail, concentrating on articulation and dynamics, has I'm sure made us a far better choir than we once were. We are incredibly fortunate to have Oliver as our Musical Diredor and thank him for all his efforts with us. In conclusion it is worth saying that our aim is to provide singing and an appreciation of music for those who wish to perform, and enjoyment of music for our audience. I feel pretty sure that those 0 aims have been met this year. Next year we have a most exciting programme, with Rossinl's Petite Messe Solennelle in November, Han- del's Messiah at Christmas, and just before Easter Bach's great St. John Passion with an orchestra of period instruments. There is very much to look fomard to. Troasurer's Report for the year ended 30th April 2024 Another successful year for the Society financially. We had forecast to break even, which was unusual in a Prelude year, when we would hope to add to our reseNes, but we were aware that the costs of both the au- tumn and spring concerts would be high. The surplus of £3,143 is almost entirely due to audience numbers that we attracted to our concerts. The budget is based upon ticket sales (excluding patrons and season ticket holdefs) of 120, though we aspire to 150. We outperformed budget in all three concerts with ticket sales of 134, 158 and an amazing 226 in the main season. The summer concert appears in the accounts for the first time, the surplus being from the June 2023 concert. The associated costs in the accounts include the honoraria and rehearsal room hire (from May 20231, though the subscription income included relates to the 2024 concert, the subscriptions relating to the 2023 concert being in last year's accounts. The summer season ending with the June 2023 concert did make a modest profit, which we would hope to repeat in June 2024, although numbers singing are slightly down. Donations appear to be down, but this is due to the legacy of £2,500 ihcluded last year. Costs continue to rise steadily with inflation. As mentioned above, honoraris and rehearsal room costs have increased due to the summer season. The main above inflation cost is in the NFMS subscription and insur- ance. This is due to moving into a higher banding, with the inclusion of our summer season income. Sale of some of our stock of Carols for Choirs Book 5 has helped to mitigate the extra cost. We have ended the year with reserves of £32,733. This enables us to plan for more expensive concerts in the next few years. In particular, the orchestra costs for the Bach concert in March 2025 will be far higher than usual, and we are also performing Messiah this year, instead of repe8ting Prelude. We expect that this will begin to eat into these reserves. The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees, report ab'ove. Signed on behalf of the Society's trustees.. Signature.. l / Full Name: Tim Moore-Bridger Chairman Date.. 07
Strattord Choral So 502020 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period from 0110512023 3010412024 Section A Receipts and payments Pest¥ictad funds Endowment funds funds Total funds La•t A1 1J32 iiooo Gir(•4 2.531 11.1VJ Pn>gT•mma 9th8 and wn80rg 2,661 2,661 2,682 237 23T Cthar rai#ino 10D 100 193 Sub total(Gross Incon for (M• tabl•). Subts 34300 8.150 6,150 6,Y40 11344 CDn¢wl v•we hire 1233 755 ProarnnMnOS and poalws I,S14 1.M4 1.511 Web5fte$tr 78 78 290 213 20,1n purchaw lable Sethto
29.450 28.173 .127 AS Transfers between funds 23.463 29.590 Cash funds tfv"s year end 32.733 32.733 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period UnrostrfGtsd R•strfct•d funds funds Endowment funds CAtegorles to n•ar••tt 81 Cash funds 23.010 Patty rash 140 n3 Dot111% Fund to***h B3 Invmtrnent a880ts Cwnnl v•k charltys own u8• Wh•n d loptloMII DL)l.iils BS Llablliti behalf of all the trust Print Nain8 Dale of val
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report members of ~ PN-LM CFL(K¥kL gDL i&ry On accounts forthe year ended 30 IoLklLL¥ Charity no (If any) Set out on pages I report to the twstees on my ey2mination of the accounts of the above charity nhe Trusl? forthe year ended Responslbllltles and As the tharity trustees ol the Trust, you are responsible for the preparatlon basis of rnport of the aco)unts in acconlance wrth the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe Actl. I report in respect of my examination of the Trust'* accounts carrted o under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination. I have followed the applicable Directions glven by the Charity Commission under sethion 145(SMb) of the Act. I have completed my exarnination. I confiTm that no material matters have come to my attention ( ") in connection with the examination which gives me cause to Pelieve that in, any material respect.. accounting records were not kept in accordance wtth section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord wlth the accountlng records Independent examlnefs Statement I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in or(ler to enable a proper unde g of the accounts to be reached. ' Please de n the brad(ets if they do not apply. Slgned: Name: Relevant prolesslonal qualifKatioAls) or body (If any): Addrw: è kv/rfM4/ fffLC IER October 2018