Promenaders' Musical Charities 2011

[David Underdown]

As some of you may remeber from previous years, I'm one of the trustees of the Promenaders' Musical Charities trust. This year's charities have just been announced, we will be supporting the Musicians' Benevolent Fund (http://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/, charity no 228089), CLIC Sargent (http://www.clicsargent.org.uk/Home charity no 1107328), Music in Hospitals (http://www.music-in-hospitals.org.uk/ charity no 1051659) and the Cherubim Music Trust (http://www.cherubimtrust.org/ charity no 1088403).

Regular collection updates will be made on our Facebook page http://www.Facebook.com/promenaders.musical.charities and via Twitter, http://twitter.com/prommerscharity, and of course via the traditional shout

[french frank]

:ok::ok::ok:

And, as ever, best wishes to the rattlers of buckets, donors of cash and totters up of totals :smiley:

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

D.U. Please keep us informed as the season progresses. :smiley:

[amateur51]

What a cracking quartet of beneficiary charities, David! :ok::ok:

I assume that your donations will be to their general (unrestricted) funds, i.e., without specific stipulation: this makes the donation all the more valuable how they choose to spend the donation is flexible subject to agreement with you, should you wish it.

Bravo Promenaders & Here's To A Rattling Good Year! :biggrin:

[David Underdown]

It varies slightly. With MBF I think the donation is now general, but in the past has usually been used in support of their work with young musicians (at one time there was a specific fund within MBF for this, the name of which presently escapes me). For CLICSargent, and the third and fourth charity which change each year, we normally ask for details of a specific project which they would like funding (this helps when working out how many charities we will be able to support, and in working out the final distribution of the collection). Since the merger between CLIC and Sargent Cancer Care for Children, the donation has usually gone to support music therapy through their centres at the Royal Cornwall Hospital and/or Manchester. This year it's intended that we will support the expansion of the Manchester service to the rest of the north of England. Music in Hospitals have requested that we support their OPUS (Older People United in Song) project, which aims to improve the quality of life of older people receiving healthcare treatment or support (for any kind of illness or disability) through live music intervention. With Cherubim Trust the money will go to buy one or more instruments for loan.

[Brassbandmaestro]

Best of luck DavidUnderdown! Hope you beat last year's total!

[Lee McLernon]

After Prom 4, audiences have donated more than £4,500, for which many thanks!

[bluestateprommer]

From the PMC's Facebook page:


"After Prom 19 you have donated over £16,700."

[David Underdown]

The collection last night after Prom 23 took this year's total through the £20,000 Mark. Thanks all

[Chris Newman]

Well done to everyone concerned.

[David Underdown]

After last night's Prom 33, this year's total is over £30,000

[bluestateprommer]

Nice to see that the total after Prom 73 is £82,400. Will be interesting to hear reports of "audience participation" at The Last Night in the new Peter Maxwell Davies work in honor of the PMC.

[PhilipT]

I'll leave it to David or another trustee to post the final figures one they're in. However, the collection at the Last Night alone was over £3,300 (I can believe it - my bucket had so many notes they jammed the slots and stopped the coins falling through), and it is expected that after foreign exchange and bank reconciliation adjustments ('bank reconciliation' being, I understand, the posh term for 'not counting fake pound coins') the total will come close to £87,000.

I think the dedication of the new Maxwell Davies piece went a little wider than PMC; it was to the Promenaders for their collections for musical charities over many years, and PMC as such was only set up in the last ten years or so, to put the organisation of the collections on a more formal footing when the amounts collected started getting really serious. It was, actually, quite fun to sing, and very easy, because it was basically plainchant, with the note rising between sections. I thought Stephen Jackson did an excellent job of rehearsing us in the limited time he had available.

[David Underdown]

The known figure so far is £85,700

[Brompt1]

Well done all concerned!

[Lee McLernon]

I think the dedication of the new Maxwell Davies piece went a little wider than PMC; it was to the Promenaders for their collections for musical charities over many years...

The dedication on the score reads: "For Promenaders' Musical Charities". I read that as referring to the trust that bears that name, the actions of that trust and all those involved with it and those actions.

[PhilipT]

The dedication on the score reads: "For Promenaders' Musical Charities". I read that as referring to the trust that bears that name, the actions of that trust and all those involved with it and those actions.

Fair enough, Lee. I've not seen the score, only the note in the programme.

[french frank]

Anyway, whatever, and so on. It's a spectacularly impressive effort. Is this A Record, I wonder?

[Lee McLernon]

Is this A Record, I wonder?

Last year's total was £91,488.31, which is the highest to date.

[french frank]

Last year's total was £91,488.31, which is the highest to date.Ooohh-ah! We'd better have a quick whip round!

[amateur51]

Ooohh-ah! We'd better have a quick whip round!Where's Lord Lamont when you need him (allegedly!):winkeye:

Bloomin' marvellous result, esp in these straightened times :ok: :bubbly::magic:

[BudgieJane]

bank reconciliation adjustments ('bank reconciliation' being, I understand, the posh term for 'not counting fake pound coins')
How does the bank determine which of several tens of thousands of pound coins are fake?

[David Underdown]

Weight mostly. There's also bound to be a degree of miscounting, one coin too many or too few in a bag here or there, other errors when counting up bags of particular coins and so on (I believe the only adjustments so far this season have led to increases in the total, rather than lowering.

[bluestateprommer]

On the Pittsburgh Symphony's blog, there's this video which shows the Pittsburgh SO musicians making their donation to the PMC at the RAH:

http://blogs.pittsburghsymphony.org/2011/09/london-paris/

You're free to leave any comments there if you wish. No registration required :winkeye: .

[BudgieJane]

http://blogs.pittsburghsymphony.org/2011/09/london-paris/
Hey, Cavatina, you're famous!

[David Underdown]

This year's final total for distribution was £86,000. This was divided as follows:

MBF £35,000
CLIC Sargent £20,000
Music in Hospitals £17,250
Cherubim Trust £13,750

Thanks once more to all who donated.

We are already starting to consider next year's charities. So if you know of a music related charity with a project which could benefit from our support then pass me the details, there is more information on the process on our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/promenaders.musical.charities

[amateur51]

A great result David! Congratulations to all the bucket shakers, dosh counters etc. A truly magnificent effort! :ok::ok: :star:

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This year's final total for distribution was £86,000. .............
Thanks once more to all who donated.
That's magnificent (deperately trying to think of a word appropriate to the magnitude of the achievement).

And do pass my highest regards to Lady DoverHyphenSole. :loveblush:

[PhilipT]

Congratulations to all the bucket shakers, dosh counters etc.
Sorry to quibble, amateur51, but we are actually forbidden to shake the buckets.

[amateur51]

Sorry to quibble, amateur51, but we are actually forbidden to shake the buckets.Very good point, PhilipT. In fact money-shaking is forbidden to all charity collectors. :ok::ok:

I'll rephrase that as 'people who hover expectantly' - how's that? :smiley:

[Ferretfancy]

David,

What a great result at a tough time!

Best wishes to all my friends in the Arena who worked so hard as they always do!

On a slightly facetious note, could Radio 3 qualify as a charity ? It certainly needs all the help it can get !

[PhilipT]

On a slightly facetious note, could Radio 3 qualify as a charity ? It certainly needs all the help it can get !

But imagine the consequences! After what has happened to fee-paying schools recently, they'd have to offer use of their bathrooms to the great unwashed of Radio 1. Or even Classic FM.