Guildford's Academy Of Contemporary Music has won the prestigious Queen's Award
For Enterprise.
The music school wont he award for the "continuous development of its teaching and curriculum. By close integration with music businesses, students are helped to be creative, to drive their own commercial projects and ultimately to have successful long-term careers in the highly competitive contemporary music industry".
The Academy launched in 1995, spinning out of a guitar teaching venture with the help of a Princes Trust grant. It grew into a wide-ranging music education operation, opening its own purpose built teaching facility in Guildford in 2004. It currently has 1200 full time students, and recent graduates include Newton Faulkner and Sugababe Amelle Berrabah.