Our Team

David Stanley is a disability rights campaigner, musical director, teacher, composer and the founder and CEO of The Music Man Project, a multi award-winning international music education service for people with disabilities. David studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, King’s College London, the Royal Academy of Music and the Institute of Education (UCL). He holds a Master’s Degree in Musical Analysis, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education and the National Professional Qualification for Secondary School Headship (NPQH). 

David was awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s 2021 New Year Honours List for services to people with Special Needs. He is a Churchill Fellow, Paul Harris Fellow (Rotary International) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. David was a 2020 Global Peace Ambassador for People with Disabilities and became the UK Government’s Disability and Access Ambassador for Arts and Culture in 2021. He is also a member of the advisory panel for the new National Plan for Music Education, representing the rights of children and young people with SEND. In 2022 David’s work to improve access to music for people with learning disabilities around the world reached the United Nations in New York. 

David received the first ever Sir David Amess Memorial Award at the 2022 Bengal’s Pride Awards. In the same year his charity was shortlisted to the final of the Music and Drama Education Awards in the Rocksteady Inclusive Education Category and David was shortlisted in the Lifetime Achievement Category. In 2021 David won the King’s College London Distinguished Alumni Award for demonstrating outstanding achievement in the arts and culture sector, specifically his commitment to improving disability rights in the music industry and his determination to use music as a universal language to free the constraints placed on people with disabilities across the world. David was also named a ‘Community Hero’ by the UK Community Network in recognition of his efforts to reach vulnerable people during the coronavirus pandemic and recruitment company, Venquis, listed him as one of the 33 most inspirational leaders who have ‘Made A Difference’. In 2020 David’s Music Man Project won a Danny Award in New York for Best Performance of a Cover Song. David also won the 2019 Lions International Outstanding Contribution to the Community Award and the 2016 Kids Count Inspiration Best Creative Contribution Award. The Music Man Project reached the final of the Music Teacher Awards for Excellence in 2017 and 2015. Read David’s full biog.