Musiko Musika
Our vision is the cultures and music of different communities contribute to the future of a society that respects the right of everybody to live in a peaceful world in a sustainable and equitable manner.
Our Mission is to generate happy, safe and trusting environments for people of all ages and origins to share, learn and engage with music, culture, and creativity as continuous life-long processes.
“Musiko Musika does extraordinary work in bringing communities together through music, with integrity, warmth and deep respect for cultural heritage. Their commitment to creating meaningful musical opportunities for young people is particularly powerful, and it has been a real pleasure to work alongside the organisation over the years and to see the impact of its work on musicians and audiences alike.”
Chrissy Kinsella, London Music Fund (now CEO London Mozart Players)
Report of the trustees for the year ended 31st March 2026
The trustees are pleased to present their report together with the financial statements of the charity Musiko Musika (Charity Commission registered number 1099508 principal address 8 Red Square, Piano Lane, Carysfort Road London N16 9AW) for the year beginning 1 April 2025 and ended 31 March 2026.
The objects for which Musiko Musika is registered are:
to promote, maintain, improve and advance cultural and musical education in the community, particularly education of students attending schools or other educational establishments and other young people particularly by the encouragement of the Art of Music with special reference to the education and training of young musicians, pupils who have or may discover musical gifts or aptitude and other persons likely to benefit therefrom, the practice and provision of music and musical studies; and
the creation, encouragement, teaching and performance of music including, without limitation, the acquisition and provision of facilities, instruments, scores and other means of performance and study and places for such purposes and any other matters which can be achieved by charitable means for charitable objects.
Investment powers
Under the articles of association, the charity has the power to make any investment, which the trustees see fit.
Professional advisers
Accountant and Independent Examiner: Paul Davis FCA, Bright Grahame Murray, Emperor's Gate, 114a Cromwell Road, Kensington, London, SW7 4AG.
Bank: Lloyds Bank.
Section 2 Trustees and Governance
Organisation
A board of trustees who meet quarterly, administers the charity. All trustees are appointed by resolution of the existing trustee body. There are no custodian trustees.
Name of trustee
| Dates during which the named trustees acted if not for the whole period of this report | Names if directors of any corporate charity trustee at the date of this report | Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint any charity trustee |
David Ayres |
|
| Trustee resolution |
Niamh Broderick |
|
| Trustee resolution |
Mansukhlal Hirani |
|
| Trustee resolution |
Juliet Offner |
|
| Trustee resolution |
Isabel Ros-López |
|
| Trustee resolution |
Elanor Warwick (Chair) |
|
| Trustee resolution |
Mansukhlal Hirani resigned after the period on 1 April 2026.
Section 3 Activities and Achievements
A report from the Joint Artistic Directors consisting of a review of the activities and progress on our Key Performance Indicators during the period 2025 / 2026 and an overview of future developments
Musiko Musika continues to be artistically directed and managed by Mauricio Venegas-Astorga and Rachel Pantin, founders of the organisation, and has been an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation since April 2012 with a new funding agreement in place for the NPO period 2023-26, now with extension years to 2028. Since April 2015 the organisation has had a base for its work at the Lyric Hammersmith and is one of a group of 8 partner organisations working with the Lyric, creating the biggest cultural hub for children and young people in West London. Our patrons are Baroness Christine Crawley, Baroness Gabrielle Bertin, Martin Morales and Richard Harvey.
The roots of the organisation are in Quimantu, the Anglo-Chilean band that was founded by Mauricio Venegas-Astorga in 1981. Quimantu has always had a social and cultural mission that extends beyond the band’s work in creating, performing, and recording music. In 1998 that mission took shape as a new organisation – Musiko Musika – an organisation that could work in parallel to Quimantu, reaching further than the band could alone, engaging children, young people, families and the community with music as a powerful agent for social change, as a tool for increasing our understanding of each other, and as means of giving creative and cultural expression to our lives.
Our three full time staff of two Artistic Directors and Assistant Director work closely with a team of highly skilled and culturally diverse freelance musicians and artists. Each person brings with them specific expertise and experience and with the talent pipeline of ECCO our projects also benefit from a wide range of ages. The team has expanded this year to welcome new musicians who have strengthened our offer and we continue to invest in the development of MM’s team through training and skills sharing opportunities.
Refreshed Business Plan for April 2026 to March 2030:
With the review of our Business Plan in the autumn of 2025 we have deepened our commitment to the underlying social and cultural values of the organisation. It is driven by the urgent need for sustained investment into the cultural life of our communities through which young people can thrive and our shared humanity can be recognised, celebrated and harnessed to the task of building a more equitable and more peaceful world.
Our organisational development strategy for 2026-30
Maintain our focus on work projects and partnerships that are effective and strongly align with our vision, mission and values
Respond to the need for communities and individuals to connect and develop mutual understanding and shared values
Ensure that in a rapidly changing social, political and technological environment our work supports and is relevant to the social and cultural needs of the people and communities we work with
Provide a deeper musical and cultural experience to more people
Grow / expand the supportive inter-generational, inter-cultural community that underpins the organisation and our work
Embed digital development, youth leadership and environmental sustainability in our organisational development, programme delivery and artistic development
Our aims for 2026-30
1) Support artistic, social and talent development:
Create opportunities, pathways and progression routes for children, young musicians, communities and professionals to create, share and celebrate music from diverse cultures, styles and origins.
2) Deliver social, cultural and educational impact:
Improve the social, cultural and educational development, wellbeing and outcomes for children and young people.
3) Generate cultural communities and connections:
Enrich and develop cultural capital and social bonds within and across communities.
4) Reduce MM's environmental impact:
Contribute to a more environmentally sustainable future through innovation, creativity and social justice.
Activity strands:
There are two main strands to Musiko Musika's programme of work:
The World Music Academy strand provides world music programmes through participatory projects, the Voces Festival, performances, residencies, training and touring projects and the ECCO (Ethnic Contemporary Classical Orchestra) ensembles for young people.
The Sing Songo projects work in the UK and in Chile with children at early years, primary and secondary level as well as with families and teachers, using music to support the development of strong speech and language skills and other areas of the curriculum including personal, social and emotional development.
Digital: Both strands are supported by an extensive digital resource of videos, audio, publications and our two apps available for Apple and Android devices (Sing Songo and World Music Academy).
Equality, diversity and inclusion
The core principle at the heart of Musiko Musika’s EDI approach is that human beings are all equal, with empathy being the baseline for ensuring that our EDI policy is implemented across our work and throughout the organisation. Our EDI Policy and Action Plan set out our commitment to the principle that equality of opportunity and access, diversity of representation, provision and participation and inclusion are a continuous process of development and understanding for the organisation. Our guiding values:
Acceptance of difference
Flexibility
Communication
Connection
In response to the evolution of the social, political and cultural environment in which we live and work we continue to work to three key themes in our Action Plan that will have an impact on equality, diversity and inclusion in the work of the organisation and music, culture and education in the wider world. These are:
Theme 1: Accessibility
Theme 2: Inclusion beyond cultural diversity
Theme 3: Youth leadership & youth representation
Our EDI Action Plan is supported by and works in parallel with the Inclusivity and Relevance strand of our Arts Council Investment Principles Plan. Our 3-year ambition (2023-26) for the Inclusivity and Relevance Investment Principle is as follows:
“We have a deeply embedded sense of inclusion in our work and practises and will have codified our approach and systems in EDI that keep our work relevant so we can maintain and replicate these as MM grows and develops; we will share them externally as a leader on inclusive practice in our sector.”
In 2025/26 our staff and freelance artists extended to 34 people, of whom 65% are from backgrounds other than white European. We continue to strive to address through the provision of technology and support as well as in the design and production of our apps and digital content the barriers to inclusion that are embedded in society. With our partners we are also addressing equality of opportunity and access in the socio-economic diversity of the communities that we reach.
Environmental statement
Musiko Musika’s Environmental Policy is a statement of our commitment to help reduce the impact of our activities on the environment based upon the following principles of:
integrating sustainability considerations into all our business decisions;
minimising the impact on sustainability of all office and transportation activities;
reviewing, annually reporting, and to continually strive to improve our sustainability performance.
The policy is supported by an Environmental Action Plan.
Our annual environmental report for 2025/26 (from data submitted to Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Tools) shows emissions of 7.8 tonnes CO2 (emissions in 2024/25 were 7 tonnes). This slight increase in emissions is mostly due to the use of coaches for transportation of choirs to concerts during the Surtierra Touring Project. We switched from a hybrid car to a hybrid van which meant that we had far less use of a diesel fuel hire van for the touring. With the average fuel consumption of 98 mpg and 8.3mi/KWh this is a further way in which we have been able to reduce our emissions. Participation in the International Touring and Environmental Responsibility Programme served to increase skills and capacity in the organisation to successfully implement our Environmental Action Plan.
Energy for the office (electricity) continues to be supplied by a 100% renewable energy provider. We note that we have been informed by Julie’s Bicycle that due to the way in which data on electricity is currently collected and measured (across the country) and then reported elsewhere it is not possible for the reduced emissions from using a 100% renewable energy provider to be reflected in our carbon footprint.
Our 3-year ambition 2023-26 for Arts Council England’s Environmental Responsibility Investment Principle is as follows:
“Our significant artistic and organisational development ambitions around environmental sustainability will be supported by the skills, knowledge and capabilities in the organisation (team and board) and external partnerships to inform the development of our programming and new business models.”
Section 4 Policies
Reserves policy and risk management (Grant making policy, and investment selecting policy are not applicable)
As last year, Musiko Musika’s financial position continues to be stable despite a very challenging economic and funding landscape for the arts. Despite tough funding externalities, income remains stable reflecting the extent to which the quality of work and positive outcomes for participants is being recognised by funders. Additional resources are being carefully deployed to fulfil the strategic objectives of the organisation and to reach out to the vulnerable and diverse groups that Musiko Musika works with, ensuring that the life affirming musical experiences the organisation excels at continue to be available.
The extension for a further two years of Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation funding into 2027/28 gives a welcome base of stability for core costs. The range of external funding is echoed in the diverse range of practical partnerships, which continue to introduce new connections into the family of longer-term collaborators. All of which enrich Musiko Musika’s impact and activities beyond financial benefit, through effective collaborations and supportive alliances.
Through careful management reserves targets of holding at least two months operational budget as a sufficient financial buffer have been maintained.
Risk management is undertaken through regular reviews of the financial position of the organisation and monitoring the comprehensive Risk Register alongside ACE’s approach to risk assessments. These are an important opportunity to review and ensure that the appropriate mitigating actions are in place to strengthen Musiko Musika and secure its successful operation and delivery of its mission. These procedures are now well-established and alongside the organisation’s strong project management skills we can ensure that we deliver high quality educational and cultural experiences whilst potential risks are mitigated, and new business avenues are constantly being explored.
Trustees’ responsibilities in relation to the financial statements
The trustees, who are also the directors of Musiko Musika for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.
In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:
select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Accountant
The trustees agree to the reappointment of Paul Davis of Bright Grahame Murray as accountant.
Section 5 Signature and Declaration
I declare in my capacity of charity trustee that the trustees have approved the above: and have authorised me to sign it on their behalf.
Ms EJ P Warwick (Chair)
Date:
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Musiko Musika (the charity) for the year ended 31 March 2026.
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the charity are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act 2011.
Since the charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000, the independent examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 386 of the Companies Act 2006.
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
the financial statements do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 other than any requirement that the financial statements give a true and fair view, which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the financial statements have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their financial statements in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Musiko Musika is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 8 Red Square, Piano Lane, Carysfort Road, London, N16 9AW, UK.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland" and the Charities SORP "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)". The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities not to prepare a statement of cash flows.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and estimated selling price less costs to complete and sell. Cost comprises direct materials and, where applicable, direct labour costs and those overheads that have been incurred in bringing the stocks to their present location and condition. Items held for distribution at no or nominal consideration are measured the lower of replacement cost and cost.
Net realisable value is the estimated selling price less all estimated costs of completion and costs to be incurred in marketing, selling and distribution.
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.
Website and app costs
Project costs
Travelling
Insurance
Communication and stationery
DBS Checks
Payroll costs
Bank charges
Project costs
Independent examiner fees
Other governance costs
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
During the year, the charity received donations totalling £80,000 (2025: £nil) from R Pantin, the charity's company secretary and a member of key management personnel. The donations were unrestricted and no amounts were outstanding at the year end.