North Cheshire Wind Orchestra Friends Scheme

As with all arts organisations we continually moan about a lack of funding. However, did you know:

• The North Cheshire Wind Orchestra does not receive a penny from national and local government or arts funding bodies towards our ongoing operational costs.

• That means that rehearsal room hire, storage space for instruments, music hire and purchase, transportation of percussion instruments, insurance and maintenance costs and all fees paid to conductors, soloists and other tutors have to be found from member subscriptions and concert revenue.

• Whilst we are extremely grateful to the Cultural Services department of Warrington Borough Council (who operate Pyramid and Parr Hall) and the Arts Council of England for their generous support, the nature of the funding they are permitted to award us is project based: we are only allowed to use it for special events such as commissioning new music and the Bandanna opera production. Even when we do achieve funding, it is after a lengthy and arduous application process and we have to find at least 10% of the project budget ourselves.

• The committee members who run the NCWO do so voluntarily and do not get paid for their considerable efforts.

• We are fortunate to have professional conductors because (much as we would like to) we are simply unable to pay them a professional fee.

• The players you see in front of you at NCWO concerts pay more to play than you, the audience member, does to listen.

• By contrast, a comparable organisation in, for example, Germany would most likely receive significant support from its local town or city. The conductor would be paid a pro rata civil servant salary, rehearsal space would be provided as would concert venues, there would be a budget for purchasing music, touring and general running costs.

• Why is this? Well, in most European countries income tax is higher than it is in the UK. This is not the place to get into a political debate but generally European governments have long taken the view that supporting the arts - especially on a local basis - is socially acceptable and desirable. Therefore cultural activities are funded by the state and local governments to a far greater extent than in the UK where the political wisdom is that citizens should be able to choose to a greater degree where their money goes.

• It follows that we and similar organisations in the UK rely to a much greater degree than our colleagues in Europe, on friends and supporters to fund our activities.

If you value the work that we do and believe it should continue please consider joining our Friends scheme. We are now a registered charity so any contributions you make qualify for tax relief.

Further details:

• Friends scheme application form (pdf)

Registered Charity Number 1110947
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