When Robert Spano joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as music director in 2001, he brought with him a mission to change the soundscape of the American concert hall. His goal, to gradually change the public’s perception of new music by introducing accessible works of lesser-known living American composers, led to sustained partnerships with the composers that came to be known as the Atlanta School. In this project I trace the formation of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra up to Spano’s appointment as Music Director. I then examine Spano’s model for commissioning new works as both an effective means of disseminating new music and an attempt to “plug into” the standard repertoire. Finally, I explore the notion of “accessibility” as it emerged in the nineteenth century to distinguish between classes of music and to show how the term is wielded in much the same way today to keep modernist ideologies in control of the canon.