Our members 3,500+ members, one voice
strain to make themselves heard by the powers that be,
29 events, covering 11 topics
wish it was easier to connect with other amateur groups,
97% of members insured
shop around for ages to find affordable insurance,
500 new pieces commissioned by members
wonder how to challenge themselves artistically,
1.5 million total annual audiences
fret about how to attract a wide audience to their events,
ÂŁ18.8 million spent on 34,000 music professionals
struggle to express their contribution to the professional music sector, and then
get on with making music. Annual Report 2018 A year of crossing stuff off the to-do list Fighting for the best deals and providing the expertise, networks and support that our members need to set up, run and thrive as leisure-time music groups.
Singers from member group, the Newcastle Choral Society
Annual Report 2018
Our vision Everyone has opportunities within reach to make and present their kind of music with others.
Our mission Making Music is a membership organisation which supports, stands up for and celebrates groups of people making and presenting music together in their leisure time across the UK.
Our objectives 1. To help Making Music groups become stronger and better able to connect with new members and audiences. 2. To stand up for and celebrate Making Music groups, their members, and others coming together to make or present music in their leisure time across the UK. 3. To invite and welcome all kinds of music groups to become a part of the Making Music community.
Message from the Chief Executive
5
Services 6 Advocacy and campaigns
10
Projects and awards
14
Our members
16
Financial summary
18
Staff and Board 2018
19
It’s a pleasure to introduce Making Music’s Annual Report for 2018. The year saw a wide range of events, activities and developments, which focus on encouraging and supporting a variety of leisure-time musical activities and celebrating the health, richness and diversity of music making across the UK. Support to our member groups through services, resources, tools, guidance and events empowers them to run their groups confidently and in the best way possible, freeing them to concentrate on the music. Membership continues to grow and widen to embrace an expanding range of music-making and more diverse musical forms. Our sustained advocacy with policymakers seeks to deepen their engagement with the sector to protect and develop public services which support music. On behalf of the board I thank sincerely our staff, our volunteers, and everyone associated with Making Music for their tireless energy and commitment. Dorothy Wilson MBE FRSA Chair, Making Music
Message from the Chief Executive In 2018 we tackled two of our members’ main concerns head on: financial sustainability and recruitment of new members and audiences. That remains our task – to help members to run groups as well and as easily as possible, to enable more music in communities for and by everyone. We also developed our campaigns and advocacy work; and were able to make a positive difference, for instance, to the future of the Surrey Performing Arts Library and the #ChangeTheTune campaign in Scotland. Two initiatives stand out: our Orchestra Tax Relief service has enabled groups to reclaim an average of 15% of their event costs. Started in the autumn, it had already led to £32,000 being received by groups by the end of 2018. Do consider if this sustainable source of funding is right for your group (www.makingmusic.org.uk/resource/otr): you don’t have to be an orchestra and you don’t have to pay tax to claim it! The second is the work by our Member Services and Member Engagement teams and Youth Engagement Manager, with more members than ever attending events across the UK, and a continually increasing range of resources on the website, including the 2018 hit: the GDPR toolkit. Also significant is our new partnership with Brass Bands England, bringing new intelligence, new energy, new kinds of groups to Making Music. 2018 also saw the publication of our Exploring Music
Making report, a first attempt to capture the breadth of musical genres being practised in communities. If this is an elephant, our researcher managed to examine its two front legs and no more. But we do now have some insight and understanding to enable us to connect with the relevant networks and groups in jazz, folk, world music, and more. And let’s celebrate the second UK-wide Make Music Day (21 June!): three times as many events, reaching 100,000 audiences through live and streamed performances, connecting musicians and groups across the UK and the world. www.makemusicday.co.uk It’s been another fantastic year at Making Music, thanks to the inspiration that members provide, and thanks to the dedication of the staff and volunteers across the UK. I look forward immensely to another year of supporting our members.
Barbara Eifler Chief Executive, Making Music
Opposite: Member group The Pico Players Photo: Miguel Neumann
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Services
We support our member groups with a wide range of services, resources, tools, guidance and events, empowering them to run their groups confidently and in the best way possible, and freeing them up to concentrate on the music. In 2018, we added some new services in response to what members have told us they need. We teamed up with the Child Protection Company to create an online safeguarding course specifically for leisure-time music groups which covers safeguarding for children and adults at risk, gives individuals running groups an excellent understanding of their responsibilities, and removes one of the barriers to inviting more and new people into their group.
473
The new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) came into force in individuals worked May 2018, affecting leisure- through our new GDPR toolkit with time music groups. Our 30,550 page views toolkit brought together guidance to help groups understand the regulations, and tools and resources to prepare for and comply with the new legislation. Find a full list of our services at www.makingmusic.org.uk/resources
Highlights in numbers
312
DBS checks carried out for member groups
In 2018 we helped 10 groups submit Orchestra Tax Relief claims to a total of
ÂŁ32,121 On average groups received a payment equal to 14% of their concert budget for the year.
6
35
individuals from 12 member groups completed safeguarding training courses since June 2018
21
groups registered as charities since January 2018
Signing up to Making Music was the best move we, as a choir, have ever made. Your pragmatic, no-nonsense approach to everything is really helpful and we have adopted things like the GDPR policy in its entirety.
Events
33%
more people attended events this year compared to 2017. Topics included:
Fran Forbear, Northampton Philharmonic Choir
Services in numbers
10,000 2,000
97% 50
email conversations with member groups
telephone calls to 1,100+ member groups
of members took up insurance
new resources added to our website
61,684
Find a Group searches on our website
29 11 392 86%   
events across the UK
different topics covered
bookings
of attendees scored events 4 or 5 out of 5
We made changes to our Making Music Council meetings to enable more members to take part. With 7 meetings in 4 nations, and 71 attendees, even more members are informing what Making Music does and how it delivers its support to the sector.
Partners We deliver many services by working with others. Our thanks go to all of our partners, but in particular to:
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Making Music member group the Choir With No Name participate in the international One Day One Choir event for World Peace Day, at the British Museum Photo: Hilary Woodhall
I’m just writing on behalf of my committee to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone at Making Music for all the really useful stuff you’ve provided ... we just couldn’t have managed without your help. Making Music member
Advocacy and campaigns
We want to make sure that leisure-time music groups have the right conditions to flourish. We work to ensure that policymakers consider the leisure-time music sector when creating legislation, and to give members a strong voice to achieve change where it’s needed. Music education In response to concerns highlighted in the member survey we published, this year we continued to support the Bacc for the Future campaign (England), urging government to include an arts subject in the EBacc school performance measure. We responded to the Welsh government’s Hitting the Right Note report on music education, and supported the Scottish #ChangeTheTune campaign, including giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Petition Committee on instrumental tuition in schools. Making Music is an active member of the Music Education Council (UK), and the Music Education Partnership Group (Scotland).
Music libraries Public library music lending services continue to be threatened by local authorities’ funding cuts. Making Music facilitated a sustainable solution for the Bristol Music Library with the Bristol Music Trust which is also rescuing the collection formerly at the University of the West of England. We ran a successful campaign to take on the Surrey Performing Arts Library from Surrey County Council, and helped set up the new charity to run the library.
Child licensing More anecdotal evidence from members gave fresh impetus to the need to address the inadvertent problems created by the 2014 Children in 10
Entertainment Regulations (England) (Scotland, Wales 2015) and their uneven interpretation and implementation around the country, working with fellow organisations under the umbrella of the Music Education Council.
Advocacy and consultations We contributed a case study on our Orchestra Tax Relief service to the Cultural Cities Enquiry into the policies needed to support culture in UK cities. Based on feedback from members, we responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on Scotland’s Culture Strategy; we submitted evidence, and encouraged members to do so, to the Culture, Media and Sport Commons Select Committee inquiry on the Social Impact of Participation in Culture and Sport; and contributed (and encouraged members to contribute) to the consultations around Arts Council England’s next ten-year strategy. We joined the new Culture Health & Wellbeing Alliance and the MARCH network (examining the impact of community assets, including groups, on mental health) led by Dr Daisy Fancourt, to explore how music groups could engage with the growing Arts & Health agenda. We analysed the latest government Taking Part survey and music education hub data and supported the Centre for Performance Science’s HEartS project, exploring the impact of arts and culture on health and wellbeing, from individual, social, and economic perspectives.
Research We published research from our collaboration with Sheffield University’s Professor Stephanie E Pitts, Making Music Making Communities; discussed Kings College London’s ground-breaking Towards Cultural Democracy; and the 2018 report – which we had contributed to – Valuing live music: The UK Live Music Census 2017. We published our Exploring Music Making report, a first phase of research into the way music groups in genres other than classical operate, and what umbrella networks they relate to. It includes recommendations on how Making Music can collaborate with and support a wider range of the music being practised in communities.
Venues We are aware that members are having increasing difficulties with spaces for practice and performance, so at our annual Making Music Council meetings with members we started to explore the issues and to consider how Making
Music could tackle these on behalf of members.
Promoting our members and the sector We facilitated member content being broadcast by Classic FM and BBC Radio 3 and continued supporting Make Music Day, an ideal vehicle for highlighting leisure-time musical activity to new people, raising its profile and building new connections. We also signposted Learn to Play Day (March), the Get Creative Festival (May), and Fun Palaces (October) as useful opportunities. We represented members and the sector at events and conferences, engaging with organisations in the professional music and other relevant sectors. Our Chief Executive regularly contributed to advocacy networks What Next?, Music Network UK and Cultural Campaigning Network. Our Chief Executive is a Trustee of Voluntary Arts, the Music Libraries Trust, and Music Network UK, a co-founder of the New Surrey Performing Arts Library, and chairs Singing Network UK.
Making Music member group Bristol a Cappella on Make Music Day 2018
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Thank you so much. We literally started from nothing and with nothing! Your help has been so invaluable. Making Music member
Making Music member group, the Royal Sutton Coldfield Orchestra, host an open rehearsal for Make Music Day 2018 Photo: Hilary Woodhall
Projects and awards
Making Music’s projects aim to celebrate the achievements and variety of leisure-time musical activities and support members’ ambitions and development. Adopt a Composer
Nicholas Olsen and Da Capo Alba (Scotland)
Over the course of a year, composers matched with a Making Music member write a piece specially for that group, with the resulting performance broadcast by BBC Radio 3. Along the way, groups share their stories through blogs and photos. The 2018 pairings were:
Robert Laidlow and Southampton Concert Wind Band (Southampton)
Chloe Knibbs and Ex Urbe (West Midlands) James Banner and Two Rivers Concert Band (West Yorkshire)
Run in partnership with Sound and Music, in association with BBC Radio 3, and funded by the PRS Foundation and the Philip & Dorothy Green Music Trust.
Laura Snowden and the Chandos Chamber Choir (London)
Engaging new and younger people
Nathan James Dearden and Swansea Philharmonic Choir (Wales)
Past pieces from the project are available to Making Music members to listen to, download and play for free at: www.makingmusic.org.uk/legacy
In 2018, we widened the scope of the youth engagement event we have been running, to address
Making Music member group the Fretful Federation Mandolin Orchestra with musical director Lindsay Stoner and composer Esmeralda Conde Ruiz (seated, from left)
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groups’ general need to improve their recruitment, realising that many of the barriers to under-35s joining groups applied to people of any age. We therefore renamed the event ‘Growing your membership (with a focus on under 35s)’ and delivered well-attended sessions in Cardiff, Birmingham, Southampton, Luton, Newcastle and Denbigh. In collaboration with Sheffield University’s Dr Michael Bonshor (also an experienced choir leader), we delivered training sessions for musical directors at the ABCD Annual Convention, looking at group dynamics and people management in running a music group. We also developed a Youth Health Check service, matching groups with a local volunteer who reviewed their online presence and attended one of their rehearsals, then offering feedback on what the group could do to better reach out to younger members. We look forward to offering this service to more groups next year. The main recurring findings from the health checks have also been summarised into a resource available to all members, joining a growing number of resources on recruitment.
The subsidies enabled 58 groups to book these young artists 59 times, saving them a total of £11,500. Funded by the Philip & Dorothy Green Music Trust.
Make Music Day UK We continued to support Make Music Day UK, offering opportunities created by Making Music for our members to engage with it through our own events in England (Bristol), Scotland (Edinburgh) and Wales (Cardiff), as a great vehicle to help leisure-time music celebrate its achievements, connect to new participants and audiences, and encourage new and more people to become hobby musicians. Making Music also co-chairs the UK steering group and continues to host the Arts Council England funded project in its office. 2018 in numbers (all tripled compared to the first UK-wide coordinated day in 2017): 558 events; 202 venues 6,792 performers 100,000 audiences
Philip & Dorothy Green Young Artists
Awards
Musical stars of tomorrow are chosen for this award by a panel of professionals and are then available to Making Music members to engage as soloists to perform alongside them or to present in concert, with subsidies of up to 60% of the artist’s fee.
The President’s Award for outstanding contribution to Making Music and its members went to former Making Music Chairman Peter Lawson, of the Norwich and Norfolk Music Club.
The 2018 artists were: Lewis Banks, saxophone Emma Halnan, flute Catriona Hewitson, soprano Toby Hughes, double bass Alexandra Lomeiko, violin Ugnius Pauliukonis, piano
The Lady Hilary Groves Prize for outstanding contribution to the musical life in the community was awarded to Mark Lawrence, conductor of the Big Friendly Choir in Bristol. Take it away, the instrument purchase scheme, was awarded the Sir Charles Groves prize for outstanding contribution to the musical life of the UK, for its recent extension of its 0% finance to adult learners as well as under-25s.
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– £ £7,2 14 00 ,50 0
Our members
At the end of 2018 Making Music had 3,573 member groups representing approximately 190,000 individuals. There are three types of group membership.
£14,500 – £21,000
£7,200 or under
£ – £ 21, 31 00 ,0 0 00
000 £31, 00 00,0 – £1
1. Full membership Open to any leisure-time music group which is set up as a not-for-profit organisation and does not pay its members.
3,100
2. Associate membership Open to any music group or organisation, but only leisure-time groups are eligible for the insurance scheme.
294
Above £100,000
full members
associate members
Our members by level of income £7,200 or under 46% of members
£21,000 – £31,000 9% of members
£7,200 – £14,500 24% of members
£31,000 – £100,000 9% of members
£14,500 – £21,000 10% of members
Above £100,000 2% of members
3. Affiliate membership
Open to any network organisation wishing to purchase Making Music services for its own members.
179
groups represented by our affiliate members
Group type breakdown
1,093 435 2,045
instrumental groups (31%)
promoting groups (12%)
16
singing groups (57%)
Corporate members
Member groups
57
is the average number of people in a member group
On average our member groups stage
13,448
performances per year
48
years is the average number of years our groups have been running
89%
of members are charities or not-forprofit organisations
Volunteers Making Music is fortunate in being supported by a large group of volunteers in a variety of roles. A heartfelt thank you to them from Making Music and its members for their help and contribution.
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board members
32
membership engagement volunteers
12 9
Corporate supporters
youth engagement volunteers
Selected Artists Panel volunteers
3
office volunteers
17
Financial summary
Making Music’s accounts in 2018 comprised unrestricted fund income of mainly membership subscriptions and member services, alongside restricted fund income (mainly grants for specific projects), bank interest and royalties income from the Philip & Dorothy Green Music Trust, which supports the Philip & Dorothy Green Young Artists and the Adopt a Composer project.
Income Membership subscriptions Donations and legacies
On the expenditure side, Making Music’s costs – as with most membership organisations – are its staff, the provision of membership services and associated costs, marketing, and office costs. Below is a summary of the financial information for 2018.
£ £ 2018 2017 440,850 21,130
417,651 31,888
Advertising and merchandising
36,190
31,978
Investment income and interest
(2,685)*
19,643
Grants, sponsorship and fees
81,419
69,518
Special events
19,377
17,887
Member services
34,813
32,764
Total
Expenditure Costs of generating funds Grants payable (PDGYA) Events Marketing
631,094 621,329
2018 2017 25,622
16,607
9,700
12,650
141,530 118,045 15,813 14,735
Staff costs (unrestricted)
321,865
293,364
Office costs
120,719
116,032
Other
34,449 31,351
Total
669,698 602,784
Surplus
(38,604)**
8,545
*The negative figure here arose from notional loss on investments. **In 2018 Making Music generated a surplus of £9,941 in unrestricted funds. For more detail, view the full Directors & Trustees Report and Accounts on the website: www.makingmusic.org.uk/report 18
Staff and Board 2018
Governance Making Music is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. Its governing document, the Memorandum & Articles of Association, states its objective as: ‘To maintain, improve and advance education by promoting the art and practice and public performance of music throughout the United Kingdom and in other countries.’ It is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors, of which 9 are elected from and by the membership and up to 3 more who can be co-opted. The directors are also the trustees of the charity.
Board (served throughout 2018 unless otherwise indicated) Chair
Dorothy Wilson MBE
Vice Chair
Clare Birks
Honorary Treasurer
Peris Roberts
Directors
Celeste Berteau Heather Catchpole Abby Charles (appointed June 2018) Allan Grayson-Jones (retired June 2018) Chris Goodall Paul Graham (appointed June 2018) Paul McKinley (co-opted July 2018) Andrew Palmer (retired June 2018) Glynne Stackhouse Valerie Taylor
Staff (at the end of 2018) Chief Executive
Barbara Eifler
Finance, IT & Facilities Director
Workineh Asres
Membership & Operations Director
Ben Saffell
Marketing & Communications Director
Liz Clark
Membership & Projects Manager
Sally Palmer
Membership Coordinator
Joe Hooper
Projects & Membership Assistant
Caitlin Goreing
Office & Membership Assistant
Lily Funnell
Communications & Marketing Manager
Natalie Joanes
Marketing & Communications Officer
Molly Dixon
Youth Engagement Manager
Xenia Davis
Member Engagement Manager
Sharon Moloney
Manager, Scotland
Alison Reeves
Manager, Wales
Iori Haugen
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History Frederick Woodhouse of the Incorporated Society of Musicians and Sir George Dyson founded the National Federation of Music Societies (NFMS) on 23 February 1935, with the support of the Carnegie UK Trust. In 2000, the NFMS changed its name to Making Music. Today Making Music is the UK’s number one organisation for leisure-time music groups, supporting, connecting, celebrating and championing local musical activity in all musical genres.
Making Music The National Federation of Music Societies 8 Holyrood Street London SE1 2EL
Making Music is the trading name of the National Federation of Music Societies, a registered charity in England and Wales no. 249219 and in Scotland no. SC038849. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales no. 308632. VAT registration no. 239 0186 63.
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020 7939 6030 info@makingmusic.org.uk www.makingmusic.org.uk