How it all began

Monkey Music was founded in South East London in 1993 by Angie Coates.

As a musician and teacher, Angie was aware, long before becoming a mum, of the benefits of introducing children to music from a very young age.

“Eighteen years ago, I wanted to create something special for my first baby – a musical experience that would nurture her natural love of music and that we could share. I had loved music all my life and had trained as an oboist and pianist at The Guildhall School Of Music And Drama. It was whilst I was Head Of Music at a London Prep School that I developed a real passion for teaching very young children and there that I began experimenting with my own ideas for teaching music to the youngest children in the crêche and nursery.

Those early ideas form the basis of the Monkey Music curricula which is now taught to around 10,000 families every week by a team of over 100 teachers.  I am now fortunate to have five children, each of whom has been responsible for different aspects of how the curriculum has grown and developed over the years."

By 1998, just five years after Angie had opened those first classes, the demand for Monkey Music had grown at such a rate that the natural progression was to franchise the company. 

Monkey Music achieved Full Member status of the British Franchise Association in September 2004.

Our founder

Angie Coates – Founder and Managing Director               

When a new baby arrives your world is never the same again.  Suddenly there’s another voice to be reckoned with.  Not the screaming one in the cot beside you that keeps you awake at night, but the niggling voice that buzzes around inside your head repeatedly asking ‘what is best for my baby?’

Finding the answers to this eternal question can be a daunting process.  There’s a plethora of conflicting advice and opinion on how to rear happy children and picking your way through it can cause more sleepless nights than colic, teething and soggy nappies combined!

My own answer was music. 

All children are born with an innate musicality and only if this is encouraged early enough will a child fulfil their natural musical potential.  But the benefits of music for very young children go much deeper than this. Lots of research now proves that early exposure to singing, listening to and playing music can lay a firm foundation to support all aspects of learning and development.

That’s why I developed Monkey Music.  I wanted to create a class environment for my first baby which would introduce her to the nurturing power of music within a social group.  The spin-off benefits for my daughter and that first group of little monkeys were immediately obvious. Language and numerical skills flourished through action songs and rhymes; fine motor skills were refined through playing percussion instruments, while an awareness of space and one another was developed through movement. The children’s confidence and self esteem grew rapidly as their involvement in the classes increased and they got to know each other.

I am now fortunate enough to have five children, who have all been through Monkey Music. Each of them has been responsible for different aspects of how the Monkey Music experience has developed.   Now aged between 5 and 18, my children are all very different and so express their interest in music in their own ways. However, they all agree that they can’t imagine life without music. Music gives them the confidence to make new friends. It also encourages them to be disciplined and invites them to reap the rewards of attaining high standards and new levels of enjoyment when regularly practising a new skill. As my 15 year old daughter said to me recently "being aware of  music is just like knowing that things happen if you read or talk".

By 1998, just five years after those first classes began, the demand for Monkey Music had grown at such a rate that the natural progression was to franchise the company.  By this time I was fortunate to have built up a team of highly motivated and talented teachers who were the very first group of franchisees.  Today, our ever growing team of franchisees and their teachers are the inspirational backbone to the company. They run hundreds of Monkey Music classes for thousands of families across the UK every week!

For many parents music goes a long way to answering the question ‘what is best for my baby?’  For others, our classes are simply a time to enjoy being part of a local community and an opportunity to meet other new parents. 

As for the children?  They’re having such a good time at Monkey Music that they barely seem to notice how clever they are or how quickly they are growing up!

Angie is married to a TV producer and lives with her five children in Hertfordshire.