Registered Charity No 802308 

## **ELY CHORAL SOCIETY** 

## **TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT for the year ended 31 August 2025** 

## **Purpose and Trustees** 

Ely Choral Society is a charity registered with the Charity Commission, registration number 802308. 

Its charitable purpose is 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. Also 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. 

The Society is managed by a committee of Trustees elected from the Society’s membership. 

The Trustees who served during the year were: 

Jeremy James (Chairman) Angela Major Elizabeth Burton Clarke Brunt Elisabeth Every Roger Young Ruth James Jenny Holloman Virginia Grace 

Musical Director: Andrew Parnell 

## **Chair’s Report** 

The chair’s report is, above all, an opportunity to look back at the last year – our 2024/25 season – to celebrate everything that was good – and to thank those who contributed to making it so good. 

Musically, our 2024/25 season was, as Andrew has reminded us, a good and varied year of musicmaking.   And, as the Treasurer reported, it was also a good year of surplus-making, with every concert showing a profit (a very rare occurrence).  Our finances, as a result, are in very good shape, and it means that we can embark on ambitious projects like paying to hire an orchestra for next term’s performance of Haydn’s _Creation._ 

Over the course of the year, it has been great to see our numbers growing steadily, although with a little concern that nearly all of them have been sopranos and altos.  So I repeat the challenge I suggested last year: let’s see if we can recruit a few more tenors and basses. 



Looking back over the last year, there are lots of people to thank for their particular contributions. 

Our committee must be thanked for their work which includes 

- reviewing past concerts to see what lessons (positive or negative) can be learnt for future concerts; 

- planning the practicalities of upcoming concerts and agreeing the budgets for them; 

- looking at future plans; 

- monitoring our financial position; 

- receiving regular reports on Ely Youth Choir which we support. 

Our thanks to all the members of the committee.  One member isn’t seeking re-election this evening: Lizzie Burton.  We are grateful to her for her work on the committee over recent years. 

## Some particular thank you’s: 

- Anna.  Anna, as we know, is retiring from her role as librarian.  But she isn’t retiring completely, and she has asked to say something about this in the AOB section of this meeting.  But even though her retirement might be only partial, we cannot let it go unmarked; and so, Anna, we would like to offer you a little something to express our thanks and to ask you to accept these flowers and this bottle of wine. 

   - And, of course, our thanks extend to all Anna’s whole team of librarians who, with great efficiency, make sure that we always have the music we need. 

There are lots more people to thank. 

- Angela, who works so hard on making sure that our concerts are well advertised, both physically and on social media; 

- Roger Young, who produces the programmes for our concerts; 

- to Ruth James, who looks after the Friends of ECS, who recruits new Friends and who communicates with them all; 

- Clarke, who ticks us off in the register every week, and who manages all our communications – lots of them sometimes; 

- Lis Every, Jonathan Rogers, Hazel and Clarke and all who are involved in the smooth running of Ely Youth Choir; 

- Ginny, who manages our finances with great skill and efficiency; 

- people like Lis Every, Gail’s husband Jim, and other friends and family members who look after our refreshments at the Christmas and summer concerts; 

- and Roger Hill, who manages our website and also designs our publicity material. 

So our thanks to lots of people for their contribution, often unseen in the background, to another great year’s music-making.  But great music-making doesn’t happen without a great Musical Director – a Musical Director who presents us with a great variety of music to sing: from Bernstein to Rutter, from Verdi to Broadway, we never get from Andrew anything that could be described as predictable. 

So, looking back on all that he’s challenged us with, all that variety he’s presented us with, and all the enjoyment we’ve had, let me end by saying on everyone’s behalf a huge thank you to Andrew. 

## **Financial review** 

It had been a good year: 

- the accounts showed a surplus of £12,602 for the year 

- one of the reasons the Central income has increased is because 2 years Gift Aid has been claimed (none claimed previous year) 

- Other reasons for this increase include increase in membership fees and numbers. Because of this, it has not been necessary to raise fees this year. 

- Every concert made a profit this year including Verdi Requiem in the Cathedral 



- our balance sheet shows a total of over £43,000.  Our reserves policy is that we should have at least £23,000 in order to cover any emergencies 

- Mike Axford has, again, acted as the Independent Examiner of our accounts. 

## **Jeremy James** 

## **Chair** 



YCH
RAL
CIETY
IPICOIAEANO EXPEWtMTURE ACCOUNT fOrth•y•tr*￿d.
31 AugL*t 2024
31 Auqu•t
CENTRALINCOIAE
14,S53
**
17.022
757
424
Ftptwjs
EYC RestTh*
1S.473
23M
CENTRAL EXPÉWDMIRE
M*rq Muw
Hire of iuNn
Musical Diroth
11,4(A81
17,J301
19201
{8.1421
I2￿)
{3481
122}
12821
1478}
lJ,7701
web￿
Admin
1551
12WI
I2￿)
{3.￿)
Bink Chwge•
EYC. UN••iTryAd
EYC Ro&ffithd
114,1531
114,7ty
NeT TOTAL
4.857
15.3471
12.e8ts)
49)
616
3,74)
12,8WJI
3.10
12.3211
B,702
10.4
19.3821
(2.LWI
1120)
410
IIETTOTAL
E>¥thid￿(•
429
71
102
1701
125
11SII
NET TOT
8UIIPLLWDEFKm F¢Jll TIIEYeAft

SOCIETY
IS.4n
114.153)
114.
Tri
23
(22,YhJl
11.W)
{IX
31 Awwt1024
43
432
11.447
1451Sllblofth•*rt
X*J t¥dr￿l￿thii
11th￿￿￿￿20
E￿c￿2￿y

|||ELY CHORAL SOCIETY|ELY CHORAL SOCIETY|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||INCOMEANDEXPENDITUREACCOUNTfortheyearended:|||||
|€<br>31August|20i14|l.=*r*.rNcoitE||31Augu.st 2025<br>f,€||
|14,553||lsro""rlption.||17,022||
|:*||lrrienos<br>lGifrAid||757<br>5,424||
|||lDonations||||
|'t90||Itnterest received||297||
|||IEYC: unrestricted||60||
||15,473|levc,notria"o<br>l.=nr*,EXPENDTT,RE|||23,560|
|(571)||luaringlvtusic||(624)||
|(1,406)||luireofreheansal room||(e20)||
|(7,330)||lruusicat Director||(8,142)||
|(e0)||lRccompanist||(205)||
|(300)||lw"o=itt||(348)||
|(55)||leorin||(22)||
|(200)||lproti.itv||(282)||
|(206)||lBankCharges||(476)||
|(3,9e5)||lEYc: unresfiaeo||(3,770)||
|||leYc,R*tria"o||||
||(14,153)||||(14?89)|
|||I||||
||1,320|I<br>rorAL|||8,771|
|||lilEr||||
|||CONCERT PROFITABIUTY||||
|2,208||Previous year|lncome|||
|(170)|||Expenditure|||
||2,038|||||
|4,857||Aufumn concert|lncorne|3,2M||
|(5,347)|||Expenditure|(2,688)||
||(4e0)|||||
|3,743||Christnasconcert|lncome|3,169||
|(2,892)|||Expanditure|(2,321\||
||851|||||
|9,702||Eastercon@rt|lncome|10,426||
|(11,511)|||Expenditure|(e,382)||
||(1,809)||||1,044|
|2,5U||Summer concert|lncome|3,s89||
|(1,e76)|||Expenditure|(2,084)||
||||||1,505|
|||Nextyea/s concerb|lncome|-||
|(410)|(410)||Expenditure|(120)_|(120)|
|||NETTOTAL|||3,793|
|||OTHERACTIVITIES||||
|1,084||Musichireandsales|lncome|1,482||
|(1,510)|||Erpenditure|(1,411)_||
|102|(426)|Folders|ln@me|,125|71|
|(70)|||Expenditure|(158)||
||||||(33)|
||(3S4)|||||
||{,664||||12,802|





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## 

## 



|||ELY CHORAL SOCIETY|ELY CHORAL SOCIETY|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||INCOMEANDEXPENDITUREACCOUNTfortheyearended:|||||
|€<br>31August|20i14|l.=*r*.rNcoitE||31Augu.st 2025<br>f,€||
|14,553||lsro""rlption.||17,022||
|:*||lrrienos<br>lGifrAid||757<br>5,424||
|||lDonations||||
|'t90||Itnterest received||297||
|||IEYC: unrestricted||60||
||15,473|levc,notria"o<br>l.=nr*,EXPENDTT,RE|||23,560|
|(571)||luaringlvtusic||(624)||
|(1,406)||luireofreheansal room||(e20)||
|(7,330)||lruusicat Director||(8,142)||
|(e0)||lRccompanist||(205)||
|(300)||lw"o=itt||(348)||
|(55)||leorin||(22)||
|(200)||lproti.itv||(282)||
|(206)||lBankCharges||(476)||
|(3,9e5)||lEYc: unresfiaeo||(3,770)||
|||leYc,R*tria"o||||
||(14,153)||||(14?89)|
|||I||||
||1,320|I<br>rorAL|||8,771|
|||lilEr||||
|||CONCERT PROFITABIUTY||||
|2,208||Previous year|lncome|||
|(170)|||Expenditure|||
||2,038|||||
|4,857||Aufumn concert|lncorne|3,2M||
|(5,347)|||Expenditure|(2,688)||
||(4e0)|||||
|3,743||Christnasconcert|lncome|3,169||
|(2,892)|||Expanditure|(2,321\||
||851|||||
|9,702||Eastercon@rt|lncome|10,426||
|(11,511)|||Expenditure|(e,382)||
||(1,809)||||1,044|
|2,5U||Summer concert|lncome|3,s89||
|(1,e76)|||Expenditure|(2,084)||
||||||1,505|
|||Nextyea/s concerb|lncome|-||
|(410)|(410)||Expenditure|(120)_|(120)|
|||NETTOTAL|||3,793|
|||OTHERACTIVITIES||||
|1,084||Musichireandsales|lncome|1,482||
|(1,510)|||Erpenditure|(1,411)_||
|102|(426)|Folders|ln@me|,125|71|
|(70)|||Expenditure|(158)||
||||||(33)|
||(3S4)|||||
||{,664||||12,802|





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