The Music Man Project

The Music Man Project is an award-winning music education and performance service for children and adults with learning disabilities. Its founder, teacher and songwriter David Stanley BEM, explains more

Above: David Stanley BEM Below: MMP Ambassadors Right: David Stanley and Tony Pheasant

Photo: The Music Man Project

Run by volunteers, the charity gives grants for accessible arts education, promotes equal access to performance, carries out research and raises awareness of the achievements of disadvantaged people in the arts. David Stanley BEM explains more about how the project began, what they are now up to and how you can become involved.

Twenty-two years ago, I met a young adult with Down’s Syndrome called Tony. I voluntarily took him to the gym, football and swimming as part of a community shared-leisure scheme. As a musician who had studied at Junior Guildhall, the Royal Academy and Kings College London, it seemed logical that I should explore how Tony might respond to my music. I started with ‘I am the Music Man’ . But Tony soon requested I played his favourite Christmas song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ . Some 14 renditions later we both collapsed in fits of laughter. It was the middle of July after all!

His reaction changed my life forever. The transformative effect of my music on Tony led me to teach a small group of people with learning disabilities, supported by local charity Southend Mencap. I promised my students that one day they would play the Royal Albert Hall. It was a joke that became a dream, that became an ambition and then my obsession. Twenty years later, I presented 200 children and adults with learning disabilities from across the UK in a ground-breaking concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

I taught the students, produced the show and composed the music. It was the UK’s largest ever celebration of accessible music-making and featured a symphony orchestra, massed choirs and celebrity guests, all supporting my students. We performed to an audience of over 3,000 people. It took two decades to fulfil my promise and I battled prejudice, ignorance and barriers to opportunity on behalf of this once-forgotten society.

I initially established a weekly music school and then, in 2012, I gave up my job as a deputy head teacher in a mainstream secondary school to start the fulltime accessible music education and performance service I lead today. The decision was enormously risky for the security of my young family, but I felt called to make this my life’s work. I knew that I would be solely responsible for either my failure or my success and this felt incredibly empowering. I was inspired by these words from the mother of a severely autistic child I had taught:

‘Without David, my daughter would still be sitting in the corner of the lounge getting more fearful and frustrated with life, leading me into a deeper and darker place wondering if there was ever going to be any good come into hers or my life.’ (Parent, 2012)

I felt a deep sense of responsibility to extend this impact to more people, to free the constraints placed on people with a learning disability across the world. I established regional Music Man Projects across the UK and travelled to South Africa, India, Nepal, the Philippines and the USA to help other communities start their own versions of my service, providing original music, resources and performance opportunities for free. I was joining this remarkable community together through song, country by country, and my original act of compassion with Tony in 1999 was multiplied infinitely, every day.

Reversing perceptions of people with learning disabilities is a key societal benefit of my work. This begins in schools where our musicians have delivered performance workshops to over 12,000 mainstream Primary School pupils. The children learn about disability diversity awareness and acceptance through singing, signing and playing with The Music Man Project Student Ambassadors.

The Music Man Project is not just an award-winning international music service, it is a great big musical family, capable of extraordinary achievements. My students have performed at the London Palladium (2015, 2017) and the Royal Albert Hall (2019). They broke a Guinness World Record, performed to members of the Royal Family, opened a National Lottery TV advert and regularly feature on TV and radio, including singing Christmas Carols live on ITV’s Good Morning Britain and receiving a standing ovation and four yes votes from celebrity judges on Britain’s Got Talent. We have released albums and published songbooks and I tell the stories of our families through my podcasts and blogs. During the pandemic we reached thousands more people through online teaching, videos and even doorstep visits to help families trapped at home.

The Music Man Project is a global beacon of accessible

Arts and Culture, and our musicians with learning disabilities are role models for their community, capable of entertaining audiences in their thousands at the world’s most prestigious performance venues. They herald a step-change from consumers of culture to talented creative artists who show what they can do rather than what they need.

Left: David Stanley teaching in the Philippines Above Right: David Stanley at the Royal Albert Hall

Future Ambitions

The Music Man Project collaborates with His Majesty’s Bands of the Royal Marines to connect elite military musicians and people with learning disabilities through the universal language of music. The partnership is supported by Music Man Project Patron Rt Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP and global PR company TEAM LEWIS. Earlier this year we recorded together a charity single called ‘Music is Magic’, which will be released this Christmas. We will also perform in concert with the Royal Marines, including a special guest appearance at the Mountbatten Festival at the Royal Albert Hall next March, and the band will accompany The Music Man Project in our own return concert at the Royal Albert Hall in April 2024. My next major ambition is for The Music Man Project to perform with The Royal Marines on Broadway, New York.

Twenty years in this industry have given me more professional satisfaction than I could ever have imagined. I’m currently the government’s Disability and Access Ambassador for Arts and Culture and in 2019 I researched best practice in New York, courtesy of a Churchill Fellowship. I now share my expertise and experience for the benefit of the whole country. My work was also presented to the United Nations in New York by the Minister for Disabled People. I represented children with SEND as a specialist advisor for the new National Plan for Music Education. It was my honour to receive the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s 2021 New Year’s Honours List for services to people with Special Needs.

I have been professionally and emotionally immersed within this community ever since I met Tony. I’m extremely close to my students, and their families trust me with their lives. I have a deep understanding of the challenges they face just to exist, such as isolation and loneliness, poverty, physical and mental health problems, dementia, Hate Crime, prejudice, inequality and ignorance. I feel a responsibility to use my music to help them thrive. The Music Man Project is my life’s work and I have the best job in the world.

Released on 16 December!

Our charity single with Royal Marines Band single ith Ro al Marines Band Services, Music is Magic, is available for pre-order and will be released on 16 December to download and stream on all major digital music stores and streaming services. The Music Man Project oversees a network of regional projects around the UK under a not-forprofit franchise arrangement. Please contact musicmanprojectuk@outlook.com to register interest in setting up your own accessible music education service.

We also welcome volunteers to support our musicians and invite performers and creatives to collaborate on future ventures.

You can help The Music Man Project fulfil more dreams, such as a performance on Broadway, a purpose-built headquarters and further expansion across the UK and around the world by donating to our charity. For further information please visit linktr.ee/MusicManProject