More than music: How AMP creates opportunities for Atlanta youth

When seventh-grader Spencer Branch picked up a trombone for the first time, he unlocked his future.

Six years later, the young man from South Atlanta was headed to Hampton University in Virginia on a full scholarship to play in the school’s marching band.

He cultivated his talent for the trombone through the nonprofit Atlanta Music Project (AMP), a music education program based in the heart of Atlanta’s Capitol View neighborhood. There, he took lessons, practiced and performed under the guidance of professional music educators at no cost.

AMP’s co-founder and CEO, Dantes Rameau, said Spencer represents so many of the kids who come through his organization’s doors and find music as a way to open options for their future.

“He was never going to take it pro,” Dantes said. “He loved design and got accepted to Hampton University to study architecture. But Spencer figured out a way to use music to pay for college.”

Dantes and co-founder Aisha Moody started AMP in fall 2010 as an after-school program in partnership with the city’s recreation centers. For two hours a day, five days a week, 30 elementary students met at the Jeremiah S. Gilbert House, where teachers provided instruments and lessons. 

Nearly 16 years later, the program has grown to more than 1,000 students. Programming has expanded to include youth orchestras and choirs, an academy, a preparatory school and a summer series. Through the growth, the mission and heart remain to develop confidence, creativity and ambition in metro Atlanta’s youth.

“We’re trying to bring the best out of kids, and we’re just using music as a vehicle,” Dantes said. “Once they’re in our programs, we’re teaching them a whole other set of life skills that hopefully they can hold on to for the rest of their lives.”

Thirty percent of AMP’s alumni continue studying music in college, and 62% perform in college ensembles as non-music majors.

Dantes, who is a classically trained bassoonist, drew his inspiration for AMP from El Sistema, Venezuela’s free national music program. Through a TED Prize fellowship at the New England Conservatory, he spent a year learning how to start and run a community music nonprofit, including four months in Venezuela observing El Sistema firsthand.

Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Dantes wanted to find a city where a similar program didn’t exist, and he could use his own experiences to inspire students. Atlanta was the fit.

“My heart was set on working in a community where the kids look like me, where I could be an example for the kids in those communities,” he said. “And I told myself, I would give it a shot. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just go home. And 16 years later, it’s grown, [and] it’s still going.”

As AMP has grown, so has its influence in the community and its ability to bridge cultures. Several students appeared on an NPR Tiny Desk Concert with Atlanta rapper T.I. in 2018. A group traveled to New Zealand in 2024 to compete in the World Choir Games, where they won the youth choirs category. And many others have had the opportunity to learn from guest artists-in-residence, including the Nashville Symphony’s principal oboist, Titus Underwood, and Grammy-winning classical singer, Karen Slack.

Dantes said Karen’s time at AMP was particularly memorable because of a concert she performed with the program’s orchestra and choir and how it illustrated the connection music can have.

“In the audience, you had the real well-heeled opera fans that just know her from her opera career,” Dantes said. “Then you had the parents and families of the kids on stage, and they gave Karen a standing ovation on her way in — not at the end, only on the way in — because they understood what it meant for her to be there working and performing with our kids.”

In a state that ranks 50th in the nation for state funding of the arts, AMP is creating opportunities that never existed in Atlanta before. But the program also faces the reality that tuition-free music education is not a self-sustaining endeavor. It relies solely on fundraising to remain operational.

One recent avenue AMP has started using is an agency fund through the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia (CFNEG). 

“An agency fund allows us to start thinking about sustainability in the long term,” Dantes said.

AMP’s agency fund was started by Susan Nickerson in honor of her late sister, Jayne Nickerson Gocken. Before she died in 2011, Jayne had served on AMP’s board of directors and loved playing cello. Susan said the fund was to honor Jayne’s passions and bring music to others.

“[Music] really fed her soul,” Susan said. “All the grants and special programs in the world won’t help if the entity is not around to do it.”

Susan, whose donor advised fund through CFNEG allowed her to create this fund for AMP with a modest investment, said it provides the program with the latitude it needs to make decisions.

“With an agency fund, they can use it at will, as their individual boards determine,” she said. “The flexibility and availability on a more immediate basis are extremely attractive for me to be able to empower them.”

It also allows her to simplify her estate planning, she said, noting that her CFNEG donor advised fund already has distribution instructions for her executor. It also “takes a lot of the burden off of AMP, and they can just focus on the mission,” she added.

Dantes said he is grateful for CFNEG’s support and the ability to remain focused on AMP’s mission of creating opportunities for children in underserved communities.

“We can be that place for a lot of kids,” he said. “And that’s really important, because there’s a lot of opportunity in the U.S. If they feel good about themselves and they feel confident, then they can try things, take risks and people will support them, and they’ll be fine.”