Brinkburn Music

Report and Financial Statements

Elizabeth Anderson

Jane Blackburn

Richard Maudslay, CBE

Amanda Platt

Anthony Sargent

Anne Suggate

Foundry Lane Studios

Foundry Lane

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE6 1LH

Lloyds TSB

11 Market Place

Morpeth

Northumberland

NE61 1AN

The Directors present their report and accounts for the year ended 30 September 2007

Brinkburn Music is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity.  It has a Board of Directors who meet a minimum of three times a year for board meetings and throughout the year in sub-committees to steer the management of specific issues.  They supervise the organisation of an annual classical music festival that is held at Brinkburn Priory, Northumberland and frequently an education programme.  The education work consists of both stand-alone projects and workshops that link directly into the festival programme.

Brinkburn Music Summer Festival 2007, the fourteenth festival, was held over two weekends, from 6 - 8 and 14 - 15 July.  In what was generally a poor summer we were lucky with the weather for most of the festival.

Flamboyant baroque ensemble, Red Priest, opened the festival with a lively programme based around Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  On Saturday Joanna MacGregor performed Messiaen’s monumental work, Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus, which lasted over 2 hours without an interval and mesmerised the audience.  The King’s Singers returned to the festival with a wonderful programme ranging from renaissance to contemporary works. 

The first weekend ended with some lighter piano repertoire from Joanna MacGregor on Sunday afternoon, then a stirring programme from our regional chamber orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, including Schubert, Schoenberg and Mozart.

The second weekend featured a special Choral Celebration Day, beginning with a family concert from a Northern Sinfonia ensemble with singer Julia Regan and a children’s choir performing a selection of Gerard McBurney’s arrangements of popular nursery rhymes.  This was followed by a wonderful concert from the Brinkburn Festival Choir and the fantastic Tees Valley Youth Choir who made a huge impact on audiences and festival staff alike with their infectious enthusiasm and professionalism.

The highlight of the day was a stunning performance from the Gabrieli Consort, with a programme of choral works from the renaissance through to 20^th century on the theme of the Virgin Mary, Hail Queen of Heaven.

 The 2007 festival closed with a grand Beethoven day: a return visit by pianist Paul Lewis, performing Beethoven’s three last sonatas, was followed by the Gabrieli Consort & Players performing the ambitious Missa Solemnis, with 94 performers on the small Brinkburn stage!

 This year’s festival included 10 concerts and attracted 2741 attendees.  If we exclude the Adult Choir, the average attendance per concert in 2007 was 293.

Our education projects enable local people to benefit from professional tuition in workshops, and then take part in performances at the festival.  They also attract many newcomers to the festival.   This year we again invited adult singers from the region to sing in the Brinkburn Festival Choir, directed by David Lawrence.  We also staged another Family Concert which attracted many families with young children.

We are very grateful to the Northern Rock Foundation for their grant of £60,000 this year, which is the first year of a new three-year grant.  Following the problems faced by Northern Rock plc and therefore the Foundation, we have been assured that our grant for the remaining years is perfectly safe.  We applaud the Foundation for the fantastic support that we received from them for a number of years now, and wish them and the plc every good wish for a positive resolution to their current difficulties.

RESULTS

The results for the year are as set out on the attached income and expenditure account, showing a deficit on the unrestricted fund of £8490 (2006 Surplus £484).  There was no restricted income during the year.

The deficit was largely due to our decision to knowingly adopt a particularly ambitious artistic programme whilst we were fortunate to have the funds to support it.  The programme included the special Gabrieli performance of Missa Solemnis, including over 90 performers on stage.  The combined effect of reduced income and increased artistic costs produced a deficit for the year.

Elizabeth Anderson

Jane Blackburn

Richard Maudslay, CBE               

Amanda Platt

Anthony Sargent

Anne Suggate

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

The festival continues its policy of exciting and innovative programming, as well as providing unique opportunities for local people to participate in musical activity.

DIRECTORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

The Directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and to enable them to ensure that the accounts comply with the Companies Act 1985.  They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and hence taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

TAXATION STATUS

The company has been granted charitable status for taxation purposes.

On behalf of the Board

Richard Maudslay                                                                                Date:

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