ISM AGM

Friday 21 April 2023, 10am

in peril? and ? The Case for Change reports as well as the results of the annual teaching fees survey. It was also noted that the milestone of 11,000 members had been reached during the year and that the ISM remains committed to its members and in developing services to meet their needs. Nicola Benedetti CBE was the recipient of the Distinguished Musician Award

Lastly, the Chief Executive noted that the preparation for the name change and rebrand which took place on the ISM’s 140th Anniversary on 7 October 2022 was largely undertaken during the 2021-22 financial year.

Introduction

Vick Bain (President) opened the AGM and welcomed members to the event. Before the start of the formal business, the President reminded members that the AGM covered the period from 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. The President then introduced the AGM panel:

Pauline Black (President Elect)

Deborah Keyser (Past President)

Ivor Flint (Treasurer)

Deborah Annetts (Chief Executive)

Sabrina Taylor (Director of Finance & Facilities)

Apologies for absence for the meeting were recorded and all members present had a hard copy of the apologies to hand for information. The President recorded the names of members who had passed away during the past year and asked for a minute of silence to remember them.

1. Minutes of the AGM held on 7 May 2022

The President asked if there were any amendments to the minutes of the AGM held on 7 May 2022. There were none. The resolution to approve the minutes was proposed by John Perrin and seconded by Jeremy Huw Williams. The resolution was approved.

2. To receive the Annual Report of the Council of the Society for 2021–22

The Chief Executive gave the annual report for the financial year from 1 September 2021 ending 31 August 2022. The report covered highlights from the year including winning the prestigious Individual Members Association of the Year and the landmark holiday pay case win at the Supreme Court. The in-house legal team were thanked for recovering £165,000 for members.

The Chief Executive also reported on campaigning activity across Brexit, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and music education, including the publication of Music: a subject

The Chief Executive closed her report by thanking members for giving their time as members of the ISM Council, as well as those who take part in Local Groups. She also expressed her thanks to the fantastic ISM staff team and those many volunteers who have supported the ISM activities during these challenging times. ISM member Margaret Lion thanked the Chief Executive for her work and leadership over the past year.

The resolution to receive the annual report was proposed by Liz Partridge and seconded by Jeremy Huw Williams. The resolution was approved.

3. To receive and approve the Accounts of the ISM for the year ending 31 August 2022 and to receive the Auditor’s Report

The Treasurer spoke to the accounts for the ISM and reported that the Society’s finances remain strong, despite a challenging year due to inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine war.

The growth in membership positively contributed to income, and whilst expenditure was 2.6% higher than the previous year at £1.75m, this was due to an increase in costs associated with membership services and the rebrand that took place after the end of the financial year. Expenditure had also been required on the ISM’s office premises, however these costs were offset by savings made elsewhere. The financial year ended with reserves of £4.25m including the office premises and investments.

2023 ISM

The Treasurer finished his report by thanking the Director of Finance & Facilities, the auditors, Lindeyer Francis Ferguson and investment brokers, Investec.

The resolution to receive and approve the accounts was proposed by Margaret Lion and seconded by Annie Bouah. The resolution was approved

5. To reappoint Lindeyer Francis Ferguson Limited as Auditors for the ISM and to authorise the Council to fix their remuneration bers

The resolution to reappoint Lindeyer Francis Ferguson Limited as auditors and to authorise the Council to fix their income was proposed by Jeremy Huw Williams and seconded by John Perrin. The resolution was approved.

4. To receive the report on the ISM Members Fund and ISM Trust 2021/22

The Chief Executive spoke to the report of the Members Fund for the period ending 31 August 2022 which was for information only.

It was reported that the Fund‘s impact had increased from 2% in 2015/16 to nearly 50% in 2021/22 as a result of the decision of the Trustees in 2018 to move away from grant giving and focus on services. The ambition was for the Fund to exceed 50% impact in the next financial year.

Developed in response to member feedback, the counselling service had seen a huge surge in uptake during the financial year. The physiotherapy scheme had continued to perform well and the hearing health service had only recently commenced operations. Its impact would be reviewed next year.

The Chief Executive noted the generous legacies that had been bequeathed to the Fund during the year.

The Chief Executive then provided a short report on the ISM Trust activities for the period ending 31 August 2022 for information only

Set up in 2014 as part of the ISM’s corporate social responsibility, the ISM Trust focuses on providing professional development to the music sector for free. In November 2021 it delivered an online conference, Where next for music education? which had nearly 500 attendees, ? and guest speakers including Mark Phillips (Ofsted) and Dr Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason. During the year the Trust continued to deliver a programme of webinars which are all available free of charge, online.

Face-to-face seminars continued to be paused due to the pandemic, however partnerships with the record label NMC and ABRSM continued. Existing online resources, such as Indian Takeaway: Rāg and Tāl basics, continued to do well

The Chief Executive noted that the Trust is beginning to generate its own income and thanked everyone who has donated to it over the year, including a legacy from the estate of Marion Russell.

6. To note the retirement of members of the Council members were asked to note the llowing Council members who retired at 21 April 2023: Eugene Monteith, Dr Max Edlin, Nicolas Chisholm and Deborah Keyser.

The Chief Executive thanked all the Council members for their contributions during their terms on the ISM Council and the President expressed her thanks as well

7. To note the election of the elected Members of Council and the Appointed Members of Council ISM members were asked to note the following appointment and elections to Council as of 18 April 2023. Two members filled Elected vacancies. Dr June Fileti for London and Dr Rhiannon Mathias for Wales.

With regards to the Appointed vacancies, Andrew Keeping and John Atkinson were appointed to Council.

Nicky Spence was appointed by Council as President Elect.

8. To confirm the time and place of the next AGM

The next AGM will be held in April 2024 and more details will be released to the membership in due course.

Openforum

The President opened the discussion and invited members present to ask any questions or raise any matters for discussion.

Jeremy Huw Williams congratulated Vick Bain on her presidency. The President conveyed her thanks to the Chief Executive, fellow board members and staff team for their dedication and work over the year. President Elect Pauline Black also thanked the President and Chief Executive.

Everyone will have their favourite moments from the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III at Westminster Abbey on 6 May – mine included the King’s smile as he walked up the aisle, visibly enjoying a spectacular performance of I was glad by his beloved CHH Parry.

There were beaming smiles a-plenty from the musicians involved in the ceremony, despite the nerve-wracking experience of participating in such a historic occasion, watched by an audience of many millions around the world One of the broadest was that of ISM member Andrew Nethsingha, Organist and Master of the Choristers at the Abbey, who was responsible for conducting most of the service music, often in collaboration with Sir Antonio Pappano (ISM Distinguished Musician Award winner, 2012), outgoing Music Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, who was up in the organ loft with an instrumental ensemble composed of members of several orchestras whose Patron was the King when he was Prince of Wales.

Nethsingha only took up his post in January, moving from St John’s College Cambridge where he had been Director of Music for 15 years. But he has clearly settled in quickly to the demands of the new role, which so quickly included taking over the planning of the Coronation music from his predecessor, James O’Donnell.

Everyone involved has marvelled at the close attention paid by the King to every detail of the repertoire but as Nethsingha commented ahead of the event, ‘all coronation services are a mixture of deep-rooted tradition and contemporary innovation. As was the case in the four twentiethcentury coronations, the choice of music reflects the cultural breadth of the age in which we live.

‘It has been a privilege to collaborate with His Majesty in choosing fine musicians and accessible, communicative music for this great occasion,’ he added. Many of the singers in ’ the expanded choir evidently felt it was a privilege to be rehearsed and conducted by him, judging by the comments on social media afterwards, praising his calm demeanour and skilful management of the occasion; the musical results were evident to everyone who heard them.

With so much of the music arranged for orchestra, the role of the Abbey’s Sub-Organist Peter Holder, also an ISM member, was less obvious than it is at most services, especially as the most spectacular work for solo organ to be performed on this occasion, Iain Farrington’s jazzy Voices of the World, one of the 12 pieces specially commissioned for the Coronation, was actually played by Assistant Organist Matthew Jorysz as part of the sequence of pre-service music. But one of Holder’s moments in the spotlight came earlier in the week, when he was filmed for BBCTV’s The One Show, demonstrating the organ’s sound.

The pre-service sequence began with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists filling the choirstalls and the space between to perform the first movement of J S Bach’s Magnificat in D BWV 243, conducted by ISM member Sir John Eliot Gardiner, at his usual sprightly pace … there were jokes on Twitter that only he could manage to pack this and two other Bach choral works plus Bruckner’s Ecce sacerdos magnus / Behold a great priest into their short allocated slot before the Coronation Orchestra took over to play the first commissioned piece of the day, Brighter visions shine afar by the Master of the King’s Music, Dame Judith Weir, another ISM member.

The title of this three-minute overture comes from the Christmas carol Angels from the realms of glory Dame Judith has admitted that she quite likes the impetus to just sit down and get on with writing that comes from a relatively short-notice commission, like this and her psalm setting for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Another beautiful orchestral piece involved two ISM members: Alis Huws, the current Royal Harpist, was the soloist in Tros y Garreg / Crossing the Stone, a movement inspired by a Welsh folk tune from a harp concerto commissioned by the King when he was Prince of Wales from Sir Karl Jenkins

‘I saw HM Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation when I was only eight years old at home in Wales in 1953, on a tiny 12-inch television screen,’ recalls Jenkins ‘Little did I think, many years later, I’d be involved in the coronation of the next monarch. It’s really thrilling.’

His concerto was composed for the first Royal Harpist of the modern age, Catrin Finch. Speaking to MJ before the Coronation, Alis Huws said she has played Tros y Garreg before in other arrangements, ‘ but not quite like this! It’s really nice to have quite a strong Welsh representation, including the Welsh language for the first time ever in a Coronation.’

This provided a very dramatic moment early in the service, when Sir Bryn Terfel was the soloist in Paul Mealor’s new setting of the Kyrie eleison / Arglwydd, truhargâ / Lord, have mercy. Much more contemplative but equally dramatic in its way was the choir’s singing of the ancient plainsong hymn Veni, creator spiritus / Come, holy spirit in four languages –English, Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic – representing the four nations of the UK. But the most visually dramatic moment came with the second of two settings of the Alleluia, before and after the Gospel reading, one for the main choir and the other for the Ascension Choir, both written by Debbie Wiseman, who talked so interestingly about her work at the recent ISM The Empowered Musician event. Dressed entirely in white, the Ascension Choir performed in a circle, swaying rhythmically as they sang the first gospel choir ever to participate at a Coronation.

Baritone Roderick Williams needs no introduction to his fellow ISM members; he had a dual role at the Coronation, as the composer of one of the three arrangements of the King ’s favourite hymn, Be thou my vision, as an orchestral triptych played before the service, and as soloist in Confortare by Walford Davies, originally composed for the Coronation of George VI in 1937. His was another of those smiles that lit up our television screens as he delivered the commanding opening phrase of the piece – ‘ be strong, and show thy worth’ – before shifting gear for the expressive conclusion – ‘ keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways’.

It was evident from the social media conversations afterwards that, as ever, Willliams had captivated his audience both in the Abbey and on screen … though, with typical honesty the singer himself tweeted: ‘ Thank goodness for Andrew’s incredibly steady presence throughout. I began by singing straight to him… until I realised it was going to be Okay! Then I could risk looking beyond and singing to everyone. Thank you, Andrew.’

This was a Coronation like no other, featuring women bishops, girl choristers (from Truro Cathedral and Methodist College, Belfast), people of all ethnicities in numerous roles and no fewer than 12 pieces of specially commissioned music in a huge range of styles, six of which were by women. The emphasis on music demonstrates its significance to the King; as Sir John Eliot Gardiner pointed out in a television interview that evening, ‘ to have a head of state with that degree of passion for music is amazing’

Opposite page, top left: The Monteverdi Choir rehearsing for the Coronation

Opposite page, bottom: Roderick Williams performing at the coronation service at Westminster Abbey