Chairman’s Newsletter January 2024

Happy new year to everybody!

Happy New Year to all our members and patrons

In October we performed A Musical Journey, written and directed by Frankie Williams. Although ticket sales were disappointing the choir had an enjoyable time singing numbers from musical theatre from Gilbert and Sullivan via Gershwin to Lloyd Webber and Mary Poppins.

September saw the society hosting the first Come and Sing event. This was led by Andrew Churchill Stone and proved to be very popular. Several of the participants subsequently signed up to sing at the Christmas concert. This may be repeated in the coming months.

The Christmas concert was once again very well supported and was almost sold out on both evenings. The Trustees will decide on whether or not to make any charitable donations once all the figures are finalised. This also saw Anne Teasdale who has been a member from the outset hang up her musical scores for the last time. We will miss her in the soprano line up.

Rehearsals restart on  Monday 15th January when we will be learning choral works by underrepresented(mainly female) composers, including Elaine Hagenberg and Amy Beach among others,  as well as Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast by Samuel Coleridge Taylor. Andrew Churchill Stone will once again be the musical Director for this concert which takes place at St Mary’s Church, Kidlington on 26th & 27th April. Please sell as many tickets as possible for this concert.

The AGM will be on Monday 4th March. This will mark the retirement of David Hughes as treasurer, a post he has held for about 16 years. We thank him for his service to the society over this time and wish him well as he continues to be part of the Bass line.

As a result there is a vacancy for Treasurer as well as Secretary as Ali Wheeler has also decided to step down but will remain as a Trustee. There will be at least 2 vacancies for trustees going forward so please think hard about joining the team and contributing to the society. Trustees meet monthly and are responsible for the day to day running of the society, as well as organising concerts and social events.

As a registered charity we are legally required to have 3 officers, namely Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. Without someone in these posts we can’t continue as a charity. So please step up to fill the vacant Treasurer and Secretary posts.

Over the past few years the societies funds have been in decline to the extent that there is barely enough to meet the basic running costs. This is due to a number of factors including a sharp decline in membership, rising costs and poor ticket sales. As a result the Trustees are going to have to make some difficult choices regarding what concerts we can afford to put on over the next couple of years.

The Trustees are determined to steer KAOS through this difficult period and keep going but this might be in a different format than the society and its members are used to.

Looking forward to seeing you all on 15th January, but please let me know (chair@kaos.news) if you are going to sing in this concert if you haven’t signed up already.