Ebbe has left us...

Ebbe Høyrup has left us ...
But he is leaving us with so much. His ideas ... His ideals.
All the passion and patience he put into LMS of course but also into the collaboration with JMI and the growing of YAM.
All the members of the YAM Committee will miss him enormously and I am, as Danish President of JMI, so proud of my fellow countrymen for all he did for live music and youth.

Jessie Westenholz
JMI President

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On Friday August 6, 2021 a musical light left us. A man who moved mountains with kindness.

Ebbe Høyrup was the CEO of Levende Musik I Skolen (LMS) or Live Music in Schools where, since 1992, he dedicated his life to providing live music concerts to the children of Denmark, based on the vision that all children have a fundamental right experience LIVE music of the highest quality.

Ebbe first came into our international youth music family in Kranj, Slovenia in 2009, during the 64th JMI AGA (Annual General Assembly), where he swiftly joined the YAM Committee (the international body responsible for JMI’s Young Audiences Music programme), a place that he would come to call home.

Anyone who has spent even a little time with Ebbe will tell you the same thing, that he was an extremely kind, calm and considerate person, always ready with a warm smile and a cheeky chuckle to brighten up the spirits of those around him. If you spent a little more time with Ebbe, you very quickly came to realise his deeper qualities, that he was a inspiring leader who led through true selflessness and sincerity, who by his patient, thoughtful demeanour, managed to bring diverse people around the same table in order to achieve great things together. The results of Ebbe’s leadership are evident in the growth and development of LMS in becoming one of Denmark’s most important music institutions, as well as the continued development of JMI’s YAM programme, that through year’s of internal cooperation, has gone from strength to strength under his astute stewardship.

Ebbe was crucially instrumental in developing the YAM programme to what it is today with the YAMawards, YAMsession and YAMspace forming a musical trinity to support the backbone of our sector. Ebbe became chair of the YAMcommittee in 2010 and has ever since been an incredible partner to the JMI network and Head Office. None more evident than when leading the YAM Committee into The Blackboard Music Project (2014), a Cooperation Grant within the scope of the European Union’s Creative Europe Programme that aimed to amplify collaboration, knowledge sharing and the mobility of young audiences music productions across the continent. The EU’s recognition of the project as a “European Best Practice” is largely thanks to Ebbe and his team’s work over the 3 years that the project took place, bringing together the JMI family in order to achieve great things together.

We were extremely proud of the work Ebbe and the LMS team did in hosting a flawless YAMsession 2019 in Horsens, Denmark, which coupled the LMS Festival and provided live music experiences for over 10,000 children from the region.

Ebbe carried out the role of YAM chairperson with love, leadership, vision, commitment and kindness until last Friday. He will forever hold a very special place in the hearts of each and every YAM committee member that he worked with over the past 12 years, passionate colleagues who were all truly his friends.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, the LMS team, the YAM Committee (and its alumni), the JMI family, all the musicians of Denmark, as well as all those who knew and loved him.

A special memorial service will be held on Friday, August 13, at 14 at Kirstinelund Development Center, Vroldvej 162, 8660 Skanderborg.