About Rhinegold Education

Rhinegold Education is the UK's leading provider of Secondary music education resources, and is proud to be the only publisher to support all the Edexcel, AQA and OCR specifications across GCSE and A Level Music and Music Technology, with a complete range of study guides, listening tests and revision guides for each board.

We became part of the Music Sales group in September 2010, separating the books side of the business from the magazines which are still published independently by Rhinegold Publishing.

Meet The Team

Tom Farncombe

Director of Product Creation

Tom Farncombe studied music at the University of London, Goldsmith’s College, leaving with a Master’s degree in 2002. He joined the Music Sales Group in 2004, working first in classical and then in rock & pop departments. In 2011 he became Managing Editor for the group which now owns Rhinegold Education. He is also a guitarist, bass guitarist, songwriter and composer and has played many hundreds of rock and jazz gigs in venues ranging from London pubs to Texan festivals.

Richard Payne

Education Sales & Marketing Manager

Richard studied at Bristol University gaining a BA (Hons) in Music specialising in composition. He is now a published composer, pianist and trumpet player. After 12 years’ experience working in the Music Education industry, Richard joined Music Sales to manage the Educational Marketing for Rhinegold Education, Musicroom and MusicFirst.

Katharine Allenby

Editorial and Production Manager

After a degree in English Katharine Allenby has worked for several publishers producing books on a wide range of subjects before joining Rhinegold Education. A practising musician in her spare time she sings with the BBC Symphony Chorus and enjoys playing in an orchestra as well as quartets with friends.

Thomas Lydon

Commissioning Editor

Thomas Lydon edited Music Teacher magazine for several years and was head of content for the 2014 and 2015 editions of the Music Education Expo. A choral specialist and singer, he studied music at Oxford University before going on to take a master’s degree in composition at the University of Leeds. He is an active composer and arranger and spends his Monday nights training the choir of Haslemere Musical Society.