Our Story

JMI initially focused on presenting "good music" (classical music) to young audiences through concerts in the main concert halls and later through school concerts. The focus changed over time to also encompass young musicians through music camps, competitions and youth orchestras.

In the late 60's, JMI began to open up to other styles of music such as contemporary classical music, ethnic and traditional music, jazz, pop and rock. In doing so JMI became an international platform for youth and music worldwide, enabling young people to develop through music across all boundaries.

The Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra (JMWO) was the organisation's first international program, bringing together young classical musicians from around the world annually to learn from the world's great conductors, as well as one another. Launched in 1949, by Igor Markievitch, it was not until 1969 that it was institutionalised by Gilles Lefebvre as the ‘Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra’. Around 10,000 young musicians have passed through the orchestra over the last 50 years, under the batons of prestigious and renowned maestros such as Zubin Mehta, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Dutoit, Yakov Kreizberg and Kurt Masur. In 1996 the orchestra was appointed as an UNESCO’ Artist For Peace in recognition of its humanitarian message. The orchestra was made up of young musicians from all corners of the globe and played for two sessions annually. The JMWO has toured over 30 countries and has enjoyed the patronage of the cities of: Montreal, Canada (1968-1985), Berlin, Germany (1986-2004) and Valencia, Spain (2005-2009).

Following the success of the JMWO, the World Youth Choir was initiated by JMI in 1989 and has since gathered more than 1.000 singers from 70 countries in almost 40 sessions. The World Youth Choir has been awarded the title of UNESCO Artist for Peace (1996-1998), and performed at the Peace Nobel Prize Ceremony and Concert in Oslo (2011). The project today is run together with the European Choral Association and the International Federation for Choral Music.

YAM (YoungAudiences Music) is JMI's program for delivering live music encounters to kids and youth. Across our network we facilitate over 20,000 YAM concerts annually across over 20 countries. Although young audiences music development has always been at the foundation of what we do, the first combined program effort was the YAMawards in Turkey, 2008, an international award to promote and acknowledge the best productions for Young Audience. This event quickly developed into a YAMsession in 2012, an international conference packed with showcases, inspring talks and annual space for our members to share best practices and grow together.

Initiated as a partnership with the World Bank, JMI took on the fight against global corruption with its Fair Play programme, an annual campaign for music videos for young musicians speaking out against injustice in their communities. IN 2012 a partnership was formed with Transparency International to bring the Fair Play winners to connect, perform and receive additional training and support at the biannual International Anti-Corruption Conference, the world's largest anti-corruption conference.

Europe's largest political youth festival may have started out with a few hundred people on the steps of Maalbeek park in Brussels but today is held annually outside the Brussels and Strasburg Parliaments, bringing thousands of young people together to stand up for youth rights and get down to great music from Europe's best-emerging bands. It is a true celebration of young people's engagement in their own political destinies! Since 2010, JMI partners up with the European Youth Forum and the European Parliament to discover and give a platform to the future sound of Europe!

In 2020 JMI celebrated its 75th birthday! Originating as a peace movement exploring the socio-cultural impact of music on young people and children, the way we do things may have changed but why we do them sure has not! JMI put together a host of special Anniversary activities that took place in 2020 and 2021. The highlight of the celebrations took place on the 30th of September 2021, where JMI members and special guests were invited to join us at the Maison de la Poste in order to celebrate 75 years of Jeunesses Musicales International with a gala concert by the Antwerpen Camerata featuring 3 new works composed by the winners the JMI 75 Years Young Composers Competition.