2024-12-31-accounts - Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra

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Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra Scottish Charity Account Number SCO32149 Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024

Trustees, as elected at AGM on 1 May 2024

Recruitment and appointment of Trustees

All the Association’s trustees are appointed or reappointed by the members at our annual general meeting, which was held in May 2024.

Governing document

The orchestra is a charitable unincorporated association and the purposes and administration arrangements are set out in our constitution.

Charitable purposes

Our purposes, as recorded in our constitution, are to advance the education of the public in music and, in particular chamber music, and related arts.

Activities and achievements

Activities are described under two headings, Aberdeen City Orchestra (current trading name for the orchestra) and Aberdeen City Youth Ensembles

Aberdeen City Orchestra

During 2024 Aberdeen City Orchestra put on 4 concerts with very different programmes. Two different conductors guided the orchestra during the year, . A professional recording and film was made of each concert.

24th Feb 2024: this concert was titled “Cinderella” and featured three different musical realisations of the Cinderella story. It was fascinating for the orchestra and audience to be able to contrast the dark excitement of Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suite no.1 with lighter approaches in Rossini’s La Cenerentola Overture and Massienet’s Cendrillon Suite. The concert was conducted by

25th May 2024: on this occasion the orchestra teamed up with piano soloist rom Norway to perform Greig’s piano concerto in Aberdeen’s Music Hall. The programme was completed with excerpts from three Wagner operas, Die Meistersinger, Tristan und Isolde, and Lohengrin. The concert opened with Beethoven’s Die Weihe des Hauses Overture.

28 September 2024: the third concert in the series was and opportunity to delve into Brahms’ symphonic style. The concert opened with another extract from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger followed by Brahms’ Variations on a theme by Haydn. In the second half the orchestra performed and Brahms’ third symphony.

The May and September concerts were both conducted by

14 December 2024: The final concert of the year, “A Winter Meditation” was conducted by This was a festive collection featuring the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy and Glazunov. The concert concluded with a magical rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.

Aberdeen City Orchestra Youth Ensembles

The orchestra’s youth groups continued to flourish in 2024-25. The Youth Orchestra was set up in 2022, under the umbrella of the main orchestra. The Youth Orchestra is now formed of 40 young people of Grade 5+ standard and continues to be supported by volunteer musicians from within the main orchestra. To ensure the sustainability of the groups, this year we have started to make modest payments to the administrator and conductors.

The Youth Ensemble programmes chosen are deliberately varied but challenging and in the two concerts in 2024 concert featured Beethoven Symphony 5, Haydn Symphony 104 and the world premiere of “Unprecedented Times” by The playing standard necessarily remains very high and this was demonstrated recently through two of the violinists having progressed to the finals of the Scottish Young Musician of the Year 2025 competition. A number of the young players also participate in the adult orchestra performances.

String players below grade 5 standard can participate in two weekly string groups aimed at grades 1-3 and 3-5. The groups are designed to allow young musicians to progress, along with their playing skills and meet other young musicians from Aberdeenshire. We endeavour to make all groups inclusive and supportive, but at the same time challenge the young people’s musicality.

Although all groups are nominally fee paying, we continue to waive fees for some individuals, in order to avoid finance being a barrier to music making. The gap has been partly bridged through the fund-raising efforts of the church in which the ensembles are based and the church continues to be very supportive of all youth ensemble activities.

Trustee remuneration and expenses

During the financial year 2024 £2143 was paid to trustees as direct reimbursement of expenses incurred on behalf of the charity.

A total of £1900 was paid to trustees for services provided to the orchestra. £500 was paid to as leader of the orchestra for two concerts and £750 was paid to for his work running the ACO Youth Groups. £500 was paid to as leader of the orchestra for two concerts and £150 was paid to her for work with the Youth Ensemble and Junior Strings group.

Reserves

Income of £25,564.43 for the year was less than the outgoings of £27,905.05 by £2,340.62. As a result, the Association held unrestricted funds of £20,414.50 at the year end. The Committee considers that the current reserves will enable us to continue to run the orchestra for the foreseeable future and attract high quality conductors and musicians to work with us. Although this year’s programme resulted in a loss for Aberdeen City Orchestra this year we hope that our strategy of putting on a film music concert in the Aberdeen’s Music Hall in 2025 will allow us to replenish our reserve as it did in 2023. The level of our reserves enables the orchestra to be ambitious in our programming and we are planning to commission a new piece of music for 2026. While we aim to break even on concerts, the level of reserves mitigates the financial risk. A substantial element of the reserve also relates specifically to the Youth Groups and is held with a view to planning future tours and also funding good quality tutors for all groups on a more permanent basis.

Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf.

Chairman from 1/5/2024

1 May 2025

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Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra, SC032149

I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31[st] December 2024.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) 2005 Act and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). The charity trustees consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1) (d) of the Accounts Regulations does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section 44(1) (c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of independent examiner’s statement

My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeks explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and, consequently, I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.

Independent examiner’s statement

In the course of my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:
to keep accounting records in accordance with section 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations, and
to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations

have not been met, or

2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed:

Name:

Address: Aberdeen, UK

Date: ��

	RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS	2024	2023
		£	£
	Ticket Sales Membership Subs Grant Funding Received HMRC Gift Aid Rebate/ORT Charitable Donations ACO Youth Ensemble Online shop test	9,829.28 2,877.87 252.00 3,160.20 - 9,416.54 28.54	15,927.50 2,246.02 2,469.47 19.15 7,718.97
	TOTAL RECEIPTS	25,564.43	28,381.11
	Soloist Fees Music Hire / Print costs Conductors Fees & Expenses Leaders Fees & Expenses / Musicians Publicity/Flowers Concert Hall Hire Instrument hire / lighting hire / refreshments Van hire for transportaton PRS Fees Companies House / HRMC Fees Making Music Sub/Public Liability Insurance Podium / instrument costs /Equipment Bank / Website charges Administration ACO Youth Ensemble costs Merchandise costs	1,426.00 1,522.71 3,547.70 2,369.02 1,834.00 5,055.00 871.66 - 365.88 413.22 468.00 188.58 389.80 25.00 9,428.48 -	3,165.75 1,880.00 2,025.10 2,791.72 4,650.00 75.00 490.49 640.88 303.00 449.00 126.84 4,518.90
	TOTAL PAYMENTS	27,905.05	21,116.68
	SURPLUS/(DEFICIT) FOR YEAR	-2,340.62	7,264.43
	Bank & Cash in Hand Opening 22,755.12 15,490.69 Surplus/Deficit for Year -2,340.62 7,264.43 Closing 20,414.50 22,755.12 Reserves Youth Ensemble / String Group 4,422.18 4,434.12 General Orchestral Funds 15,992.32 18,321.00 General Funds TOTAL 20,414.50 22,755.12 Bank balance breakdown OTR 2,817.18 18.25 Treasurer acccount 17,568.27 22,736.87 Stripe Account 29.05 Paypal Account - - TOTAL 20,414.50 22,755.12 Basis of reporting receipts and payments , 15 April 2025 ~~==~~
2024 Accounts presentation	2024 Accounts presentationfor review REv1

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GRAND TOTAL 11,731.62 10,276.00 3,160.20 252.00 116.07 28.54 25,564.43 7,221.19 2,011.24 3,795.02 4,770.00 3,755.00 2,278.20 1,091.58 503.86 468.00 402.94 413.22 444.80 750.00 27,905.05 -2,340.62
28.54 28.54 188.58 468.00 414.80 1,071.38 -1,042.84 25.00 135.00 468.00 10.00 244.80 129.00 59.58 1,071.38
General
- - - - - - - - -
Total 1,902.34 7,398.13 116.07 9,416.54 3,673.49 488.53 3,470.00 474.20 168.00 367.20 37.06 750.00 9,428.48 -11.94
1,018.11 3,543.13 4,561.24 1,690.00 488.53 2,195.00 197.74 750.00 5,321.27 -760.03
Autumn
Youth ensemble
884.23 3,855.00 116.07 4,855.30 1,983.49 1,275.00 474.20 168.00 169.46 37.06 4,107.21 748.09
Spring
Youth Ensemble
- -
9,829.28 2,877.87 3,160.20 252.00 16,119.35 3,547.70 1,522.71 3,795.02 1,300.00 3,755.00 1,804.00 735.00 136.66 365.88 413.22 30.00 17,405.19 -1,285.84
TOTAL
72.52 48.90 3,160.20 3,281.62 363.37 50.00 50.00 412.50 413.22 1,289.09 1,992.53
/income
Prior/NEXT year expense
2,856.98 584.02 252.00 3,693.00 550.00 300.95 488.50 300.00 355.00 404.85 720.00 136.66 3,255.96 437.04
Midstocket
December concert A Winter Meditation,
- - -
1,387.06 594.81 1,981.87 1,225.70 239.61 382.50 300.00 355.00 479.30 15.00 59.42 3,056.53 -1,074.66
Brahms 3, Midstocket
September Concert
3,906.50 795.73 4,702.23 1,222.00 565.73 2,304.02 350.00 2,640.00 300.50 253.92 30.00 7,666.17 -2,963.94
Music Hall
Piano Concerto,
May Concert Greig
1,606.22 854.41 2,460.63 550.00 53.05 620.00 300.00 355.00 206.85 52.54 2,137.44 323.19
Midstocket
Cinderellas at
February Concert
Ticket Sales Membership subs OTR Relief Grant awarded Donation Online shop test TOTAL INCOME Conductors Fees & Expenses Music Hire / Print costs Leaders Fees & Expenses / Musicians Rehearsal Hall Concert Hall Marketing Equipment and transport Refreshments Making Music/insurance PRS OTR Relief costs Other Administrator TOTAL COSTS SURPLUS/(DEFICIT) per concert General Expenditure analysis Committee cost: Room hire Making Music platform cost Making Music sus and insurance Google workspace cost Google domain cost Website squarespace subscription Conductors stand Publicity shots to update website Stamp for music purchases
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