Carols for Christmas! 2009
Help !!!! We urgently need sponsors and patrons for this year’s concert.
We know you’re as keen to be a part of the 2009 Carols for Christmas! concert
as we are, or you wouldn’t be reading this page.
Message from Ian Perry, financial Controller of Carols for Christmas! asbl
2008 was a difficult year for many of us and also for Carols for Christmas!. We put on a good concert but to a small audience in the BOZAR and a number of expenses went up, e.g. orchestra and taxes. The result was a significant loss of the order of 10000€ which has had to be carried by Celia and myself as Carols for Christmas! has a principle of paying all its debts. In fact the net deficit of Carols for Christmas! over the last 13 years is considerably more than this but spread over the years was a price both worth paying and possible for us to support.
2009, unfortunately, does not look any better. First, the BOZAR is not available on any date in December. So we have made a provisional booking with the Conservatoire Royale for Sunday 13th December. The Conservatoire is half the price of the BOZAR for less than one third of the capacity but at least we should be able to play to a full house. Unfortunately other costs will not decrease by very much and our maximum ticket receipts will be limited to several thousand euros less than our 2008 takings. Therefore it will be virtually impossible to balance the budget for the concert unless we get additional and major sponsorship. We need of the order 10000€ additional sponsorship to be able to put on the 2009 concert.
Another financial problem we have had is that the Brussels City Council has refused to exempt us from a tax they charge on shows put on in Brussels. And worse than this they have asked us to pay for the year 2006 as well as 2008 so the total we had to pay out last month, under threat of sending in the bailiffs, was 1500€. In all previous years we have requested and been granted an exemption.
Obviously Celia and I would like to see Carols for Christmas! put on a concert in 2009 but we on our own can not afford to underwrite it financially in the way we did for the 2008 concert. So this means that if the 2009 concert is to take place major investment is required from new sponsors. The only year in the last eight that a significant profit was made on the concert, and thus a significant contribution made to charities was in 2002 when we received 10000€ of sponsorship. Since 2005 all our printing costs have been generously sponsored by ING Bank which has saved us more than 5000€ a year but this has been far from enough to enable the concert to break even.
We have looked into moving our rehearsals to the Notre Dame de Lindthout school near Montgomery. However this would cost us at least 1000€ extra, have very limited parking (as most of the car park that used to be available there is disappearing from September) and furthermore we would have to operate our own bar. Therefore we have decided to stay at the Collège St Pierre in Uccle. Rehearsals are scheduled to start on Wednesday, 2nd September at 19h45. Below you will find a copy of the provisional programme for the concert which, by popular request, returns to a larger proportion of more traditional English carols and audience participation.
To be sure of a concert this year please find us sponsorship and support .
Ian and Celia Perry for Carols for Christmas!
Provisional Programme CfC! 2009 concert
| Date and place: | Conservatoire, rue Royale, 13/12/2009 |
| Orchestra: | Overture 1 to be decided |
| Overture 2 to be decided | |
| Adult choir: | Come all ye faithful (with descant) |
| Hark the Herald Angels sing (with descant) | |
| Once in Royal David's City (with boy soloist and descant) | |
| It came upon the midnight clear (with descant) | |
| While shepherds watched their flocks by night (with descant) | |
| Silent Night | |
| Sleigh Ride | |
| Do you hear what I hear ? (with soloists) | |
| Shining Light | |
| Shepherd's Pipe Carol | |
| Quelle est cette odeur agréable | |
| Spanish item (Janssens) | |
| Adult solo items: | 1 to be decided |
| 2 to be decided | |
| Boy solo items: | Pueri concinite |
| Childrens' items: | Away in a manger |
| Donkey Song – He Haw | |
| The Virgin Mary had a baby boy | |
| Entre le boeuf et l’âne gris |
