Access to Music Ltd. was founded in 1992 with a remit to increase the number of people involved in music at all stages of their lives.

The organisation's prime aim has been to promote and improve popular music training in the UK. This goal is at the heart of more recent initiatives such as the Music Manifesto, of which Access to Music is a signatory.

Access to Music has worked, and is working with, a wide range of organisations to achieve its aim. It is a member of the National Association of Music Educators (NAME) and the Music Industries Association (MIA). It has worked with partners including Rockschool, Lloyds TSB, Yamaha, Creative & Cultural Skills, Qualifcations & Curriculum Agency (QCA), Music Live, London Development Agency, Learning & Skills Council (LSC), Bacardi, Sibelius, Music Education Council, PRS/MCPS, Musicians' Channel, Arts Council England, Job Centre Plus, New Deal for Musicians, Westminster University and the Royal Northern College of Music. It also works closely in partnership with FE colleges and schools across the country.

Access to Music's head office is situated in the centre of Leicester in the heart of England. This office supports the following departments: Service Development, Curriculum, Marketing & Design, Admissions and Student Support, Finance, Operations and Technical Support.

To support its education activities, Access to Music has created Atom Events, Atom Management and Atom Music to promote music opportunities for students and ex-students. These are all exciting industry-orientated initiatives designed to help students progress into musical employment.

In 2006, Access to Music was credited with being one of the best training providers in the country by the Adult Learning Inspectorate. This was following a Grade 2 inspection during Spring 2006.

 

 

John Ridgeon was born in Barking in 1944 in the East End of London, an area which has always remained important to him and which was later to become the home of Access to Music’s British Academy of New Music (BANM).

John started learning the piano and trumpet at the age of 7 and by the age of 10 was awarded a Junior Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Music where he later gained a scholarship to study full-time.

On leaving the Royal Academy, he performed as a professional trumpet player and taught in East London schools. During this period, John discovered his two professional passions: the physiology of brass playing and the need to help young people develop their musical talents. These two passions have challenged John throughout his professional life and have been the root of his diverse successes.

John has had a wide and varied experience of education having played a major role in developing music education in the London boroughs of Redbridge and Barnet and, from 1977-1992, as Senior Music Adviser for Leicestershire Local Education Authority.

Alongside this, John founded the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s teaching programme; chaired the National Association of Brass Teachers; was an executive member of the UK Council for Music Education & Training (now the Music Education Council); wrote many books on brass playing which are standard repertoire throughout the brass playing world; wrote exam syllabuses for the Guildhall School of Music and the Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music; conducted and lectured in universities and conservatoires in the USA, Japan, Australia, throughout Scandinavia and Europe as well as the UK, and regularly broadcast for the BBC. In 1982, John was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship and in 1990 he was awarded an honorary ARAM (Associate of the Royal Academy of Music) for his outstanding services to music.

The combination of these experiences equipped John to establish Access to Music in 1992 and to sustain its development and growth through to today. The outstanding success of the organisation has been built on the same set of beliefs and principles which John formed earlier in his career. His efforts have been aided by a growing team of talented and dedicated musicians, educators and administrators who empathise with, and challenge, ATM’s students to achieve at the very highest levels.