Stratford upon Avon Choral Society Registered Charity No. 502020 www.stratfordchoral.cffg.uk TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2025-2026 Trustees Tim Mo)re-Brk1ger- Chairmn Glenda Kershaw- Treasurer Jack￿ Gough- Secretsry Maralyn Amull- Membership Secretary Jean Hutchison- LIb￿rIan Liz Statham Philippa Vandome Neil Harrison lan Duffin Janice Walker Mike Barrie structure and Management The SocEty is managed by a committee. which comprises five Offi￿rS and six ordinary commrttee member5. Eath offi￿r ele￿ annually, and ordinary committee members are elected for a oftsvo years. Officers can be re-elected on up to nine consecutive c£casions. Ordinary committee memb8rs be r8-e￿(led on up to four consecxrtive oc- casKsns. All Offi￿rS and ordinary committee memtws are trustees of the charity who give their time vduntarily and receive no remuneration C￿ other ￿nefits {save those benefits of membership afforded to every mgmber of the Sw*ty). In pk3nning actwities for the year, trustees have ward to the Chanty C(mmission's guidance pthic benefit at c(Mnmittee meetings. The tnjstees meet regularty aThJ are responsible ￿ all decisions made in relatMM to the Society's activtties. A sutpcommittee has been set up to assist v￿h the selection of the mu8lC to be pertomied by Ihe Society. The sub-comnNttee. some of whose members are not trustees, reFQrt back with their recommendations to a full commrttee meeting of the trustees. Objgcts The otrfjects of the Srtiety as defined in the SoCie￿s eortstitution adopted on 2nd June 2025 are: To advance, imFv)ve, develop and maintain public &juca￿n in, a￿1 appreciation of, the art and sc¢ence of music in all its aspects by any means the truslees see fiL I￿￿uding through the presentatM)n of public concerts and recilals. To ftjrther such charilatAg purtM)S8 or purtM)ses as the twstees in their absolute discretion shall think frt trrtrt in particular thr￿gh the making of grants and donations. Chalmwn'$ rgport It has bw arn)ther excellent year fcff the Stratford c￿)raI Sooety. The three (x)ncerts in the main sea50n have been greally app￿ated by th8 large audience at eath one. We budget for 150 pawng lidrets in Hoty Trinrty arKI at each concert that number has been exceeded. This is greal for our finances but also means that we are perforning to a large audience in a fvll church and this is very rewarding. The new season tegan in September an inrxeased ¢I￿1r membership of 94 singers, up from 83 the previous year. It is interesting to note that of the new members. five sang in the summ8r season of 2025 and enpywl it so much they wanted to become full mem- bers this year. The Novemtrw conc¥t was comF(thl of French N￿siC. Faure ReqU￿M and C8ntwue d8 Jean Racine, and a sdemn mass by Lwis v￿Me. The Rg]uiem Is very well knchvn and extremely wpularand so the task for the choir was to make our ￿rf0mianceS of it spe- cial. If the reSpOr￿ from the audience aThl the ¢yJmments of the remewer are anything to go by, we achieved our aim. In De￿mber we had our tradthonal Prelude to Chrislmas- a collection of cards and hymns interspersed with readirys. The large audience enjopj the opportunjty lo sing some favourtte caroL8 and to listen to the choir in some that were less familiar. rim Rakstrick and Juliel GrurKty entertained us with amusing readings. and there were organ pieces by Colin Millington. the recenlly apwnled Director of Music at Holy Trinty. Pre ude is aKvays very much an infom￿1 concert and when Oliver invited members ofthe au- dience to join us for drinks in the parish hall afterwards many t￿k up the offer. It made a rousing start to the Christinas festivitses. The March ¢x)nL¥L Mendelssohn's Elijah, is a powlar wilh choral socFeties, and it attracted some extra singers, mainty tenors and basses. This gave greater balan￿ to the choir and was necessary in an wth so much choral singing. Many of the Chc￿al pieces are in response to and in conjunction with the soloists es￿IallY Etiiah. During the rehearsals Oliver made gjre that V*e understood the nalure of the work and where our ¢))ntribution fitted in 7Mth the tol81 story. There was a lot to leam. bui we managed it. We had a long rehearsal on the Saturday aftem￿n and then produced our best perfor- mance in the concert rtself. ¢￿er tsvo hours ot sirrfJirrfJ is demanding but we all felt Ihat we had achieved somethirrfJ qusle special. The soloists we have h￿1 this year have been of a very high standard. It is important that we can employ top qualty 5doists so that our concerts are of the highest quality. How- ever necessarily this is expensrve and we must ahvays bear in mind hcw we can finan The Regerw Sinfonia aco)mpanied Elijah. was quite a large (￿eStra and it may be that ti ￿as slvJhly large for Hdy Trinty. However. they certainly hdp8d to create a dramatic atmosphere. It was a pty that our reviewer felt that the gze of the orthestra pre- vented him from fully appreciating the qualty of singirNJ achteved by trKith soloists and the choir. We are rK)w in the summer season preparing folk songs arranged by John Rutter under tslle A Sprig of Thyme. 44 rnembets of the choir have thosen to partiry.pate this year. fewer than last year. It is a pity that the choir is rather unba￿need with very few tenors and basses. The summer season vrns eslabI￿hed so that members (x)uld continue to sing together througlKAJt the ea￿Y part of the summer. Previousty the season en(Sed in March and did not tegin again until SeptemtEr. However, the Ix)ncert that we perform in June has to be rewesenlatNe of the Choral Scciety as a whote and il is diffi￿lt to see how this can l* achieved rf there are so few tenors and bases ready and willing to take part We wll do our best this sumrner of cwr5e but we will need to (x)nsider carefully next year whether Ét is worth persevering wrth the summer season rfthe choir is as unbalanc£d as this. In December one of our altos. Sue Bruce. retired from the c￿r. She had been a member since 1984 and had served on the committee and as chaimian for four years. She will be very much missed and I h)pe she will o)me back and listen to us for many years lo come. At the end of this tem. Ursuba Lowe. another alto. is retiring from the Choir. She is our longest wmng member, having joined the Choir in 1976. We are very sory that she h&$ also de￿ded to retire this year. and t￿￿ that she will enjoy the last concert with us in June. The spirtt in th8 choir is tre￿ndouS and this is exem{￿￿ed by the number of people who assist in the administrdtion and organisabon. We could not achieve what we do without the commitment of so many volunteers. l am particUla￿Y pkased to have such a fine committee to work wth. As thaiman I do not need to question 8nyone aboLrt their work because I know that they wdl do what they have to do effiuen￿Y and eXpe￿y. Every com- mittee Memt￿r perfomis a vital role in our organisation and we ar8 fothnate that they are prepared to continue for at least another year. Rachel Bird is an arnaing accompanist. She is aways there supwrting the choir, sponding immediately to OINerfs requests. She is an absolutetyindispensable member of the Choral Soaety and we are very fortunate to have her as our accompanist. And of (x)urse. Oliver i8 a woThlerful director of m￿￿C. He has that immense ability to sort c￿rt our weaknesses. to cOr￿entrate on those asFects of our singing that need attent￿n and to Itft our perf0mlan￿ above we might expect to be able to achieve. He does this wrth such charni aThl enthusiasm that we end rehearsals ahvays feeling incredibly upltfted by what we have just done. Oliver has a long J￿MeY each Monday after a busy day at school, yel he still manages lo inspire us to achieve a perf0m￿nCe that ￿ worthy of the MUS￿ that we sing. We are in the 1 year of the society existence. Elij8h was 8 tremendous success and we can look forward to our November (x)tKErt. Mozart Mass in C Minorand Bach Ascen- on Or8torio wrth antiupation. Our traditional Messiah will I'm sure be as exciting as USU21 and then next Marth. in a charKJe ofvenue. we are going to perform a version of Cannina Burana for percussion and pianos. This concert w?11 be held at the Rother Street Arts House. and it will be interesling lo see whether the 3￿angernents at that venue are suitsble for our ￿rforn￿n￿. Hoty Trinty has s(Mne issues as we all know re laled to sighb'ng and to sound. There rc￿ at Ro￿r Street Arts H(MJse but Wheth￿ we find rt sats'sfackny time will tell. Finally, let me thank everyone ass(￿lated with the thoir for their supp)rt and enc¢)urag ment to me as thairman. There ￿NIch to kxjk f(xward to. Tr8asurorfs Report for the year ended 301h Aprll 2026 25.26 has been ar￿therfinancxaIty successfvl yeartrthe Sc¥iety. Ticket sales (on-l1￿ and dc￿ sales) our Ix)nc￿ts continue to meet and exixed our bullish forecast of 150 per conc￿. a¢Xual figures being 150. 172 and 156. The first con- cert of the season had very low r￿chestra 2nd sokiist costs. and with the second concert being Prdude to Christmas. the r￿* loss on the March wnc£rt of £5,040 was just cov- er8d, leaving a small cx)ncert surplus of £64. This means that the surFlus from fAJr subScript￿NiS and th)nath)n income has nol been needed to supplement corwt (x)sts. Due to higher than expected reuuf(menL this figure was also 8bove fo￿ast, which has resutted in an overall surplus of £7,677. This has left us with reseNes of r37,668, ￿)re than sufficient to cover the contyt ctssts of the cDming season. Our costs, of course, continue to rise. Given the su(xxss oflhe season. a modesl in- crease in subsuiption rates to £140 i8 pro[￿ed {pBtrons in(xeagng to £120 to accommo- date a ticket Pfice in(¥ease}. Many thanks to all who IxJntrit4Jted to the swxss ofthe 25-26 season. The tNstees declare that they have approved the trustees. re￿{a￿Ve. Signed on behalf of the SC¢￿ty.3 twstees". S￿natU￿. Date: 2 q Full Name: TÉM MJ)r&Bri(hJer Chairman straiford Choral s￿Iety 502020 Recei ts and ments accounts CC16 For the period from 0110512025 3010412026 Section A Receipts and payments Unrestric Restrlcte d funds Endowm ènt fund8 Total funds Last year funds to tho n•aro¥t totho noare8t £ tot ar••t £ tot n•ara8t £ to tho n•ar•st £ A1 Recel ts Cvri8tlons Mert)er subscrlplkjns Patron subscrlptions Gbfl 8ld Concert 1￿ckel 58le5 Program￿￿ 8ale8 and 3pon8ors Conlrlbutlon to rnuslc hire and folders Interest 2,465 14,681 1,768 2,794 9,780 2,798 910 334 2,465 14,681 1,768 2,794 9,780 2,798 910 334 1,361 12,612 1,140 2,645 11,920 2,867 536 72 Olhgr fund ralslng Sub total(Gross Income for AR) 35,530 35,530 33,552 A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). Sub total Total receipts 35.530 35.530 33,552 A3 Paymonts Rehearsal room hire 1,860 9.210 1,860 9,210 2,32S 8,680 Conductor and acconyanlst Concert rnusician 9.815 9.815 18,188 Concert venue hlra 2,528 1.275 1.375 2,528 1,275 1,375 2,459 902 Othor eoneèrt costs Program￿￿$ and post¥rs Music and folders 2,009 485 417 NFMS $ub$cripllon and in$ur8n¢e S82 582 Web Bile costs 149 140 Print, post aThJ other &xp&n$e$ 574 574 Sub total 27.8J3 27,853 38,294 A4 Asset and Investmollt urcha8e8 see table Sub total Totalpayments 27.853 27,853 36.294 Not of recelpts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end 7,677 7,677 2,742 29,991 37.668 29,991 37.668 32,733 29,991 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrostric led funds to n8ar•st Restricle d funds Endowm ent funds to nèar•8t Calegories Detalls to rnar••t B1 Cash funds Bènk 27,492 10,036 140 Building So¢iely Pelly ca8h Total cash funds le4reelWrn wlthr&arAs 8NJ p8¥m￿ts rt(811 Unrèstrlc Restrlclo d funds Endowm ent fund8 to n8ar••t funds to n•ar•8t Detalls FLWKI to wNch a•8•t bolon Currert val 10Olonal} (qAloMII Details F￿d to whlch CLwr•nt val {LWlonall Cc6t lorAlc**ll Details B4 Assets retalned for the charity's own use Furnl to whl¢h IlaWIIty rèlat08 Amourt Tlth¢n (k l