Story
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Amid the encircling gloom of cuts there is light!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ex Cathedra, I believe, is poised to enter its golden age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">But our funding from Birmingham City Council for next season has been cut by nearly £11,000 in addition to a £4,000 cut already announced by Arts Council England.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is great uncertainty around our funding from April 2012, and there is a risk that we could lose our funding entirely.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">That is why I am asking for your help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this time, we need your support more than ever to help us continue to deliver great music made in Birmingham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please be an Angel and make/renew a donation today.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">You can see the extraordinary range of our work in films which we have just completed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will find them on our website:</span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; color: #c00000; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';"><a href="http://www.excathedra.co.uk/"><span style="color: #c00000;">www.excathedra.co.uk</span></a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';"> (13’)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; color: #c00000; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';"><a href="http://www.excathedra.co.uk/singing_playgrounds.php"><span style="color: #c00000;">www.excathedra.co.uk/singing_playgrounds.php</span></a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';"> (3.40’)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">We have recently had successful debuts at the Edinburgh International Festival, in Champagne, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and at Cadogan Hall, London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2011 includes a celebration of my 60th birthday in February, and our New York debut in March 2011.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Future plans are equally exciting and after 40 years I believe even more passionately in what we are doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are a unique resource for the region and no other city in the country has anything comparable; Ex Cathedra needs to be allowed to flourish.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">We have diversified our sources of income.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Full houses and generous private donations have certainly helped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe in Public Funding because our work is for public good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need the stability of this income to leverage in funding from other sources. These are difficult times but our ethos and all we have achieved are threatened if politicians opt for safe and conservative solutions to cutbacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may be able to persuade them to change their minds. We represent very good value for money.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">But to ensure our survival we need more true philanthropists to step up and help to maintain our work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ex Cathedra has the Promethean fire and optimism – we also need your financial support!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please give generously.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Be an Angel!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Thank you,</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jeffrey Skidmore</span></p>