Nominations open for YAMawards

YAM (Young Audiences Music) is an official program of JM International (JMI), the world’s largest youth music NGO. The platform is dedicated to bringing live music to children and youth worldwide (20,000+ concerts held annually) as well as providing support to professionals in this space. YAM places the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child at its core, working to ensure access to music and culture as a basic human right for every young person and child.

Award Categories

• Best Small Ensemble for young audiences:
  • The Best Small Ensemble Category is open to live music productions by professionals of groups from 1 – 10 musicians. Productions could be designed for school or theatre settings and are judged by their artist integrity, relevance and impact. They are looking for productions that inspire, push artistic boundaries and engage audiences in new ways. Multidisciplinary productions (musical theatre, etc) are welcome, but music must always remain the focal element of the production.
• Best Large Ensemble for young audiences:
  • The Best Large Ensemble Category is targeted at professional orchestras and other large ensembles (10+ musicians) performing for young audiences. They look for ensembles that go beyond playing their regular repertoire, productions that are either designed specifically for young audiences or that have made a considerable effort to appeal to a young public. On top of artistic excellence, the award aims to honour innovation within the form, whether that be artistic, production or other.
• Best Opera for young audiences:
  • Powered by RESEO (The European Network for Opera and Dance Education)
  • The Best Opera for young audiences award is attributed to new works for young audiences of all ages, based upon new librettos (adaptations of existing stories are accepted) or new compositions.
• Best Participatory Project with young audiences:
  • Celebrating young audiences music projects where the process outweighs the artistic outcome, this category focuses on projects involving kids as participants or as amateur musicians; whether a performance, musical workshop, a co-production or simply using music to sensitise kids to ideas and concepts. The most important factor is that young audiences be directly engaged in the creative process.
• Ebbe Høyrup’s Best School concert for young audiences:
  • The Ebbe Høyrup’s Best School Concert or Young Audiences Category is open to live-music productions by professionals of groups from 1-8 musicians. This category is for productions meant for (or able to) touring in school settings. The productions are judged by their artist integrity, relevance and impact. They are looking for productions that are able to inspire, push artistic boundaries and engage audiences in new ways by performing in schools. Multidisciplinary productions are welcome, but music must always remain the focal element of the production.

The YAMawards 2024 Prizes

• Best Small Ensemble – for Young Audiences (€1000)
• Best Large Ensemble – for Young Audiences (€1000) (Groups of 8+/Orchestras/Etc)
• Best Opera – for Young Audiences (€1000) Powered by RESEO (The European Network for Opera, Music & Dance Education)
• Ebbe Høyrup’s Best School Concert – for Young Audiences (€1000)
• Best Participatory Project – with Young Audiences (€1000) (Projects where the participation of young audiences/the process is the main focus)
• Public Choice Award (€1000) (Selected from the nominees in each category, decided by online public vote.)

Criteria

• Entries are judged by a professional international jury who base their decision on the quality of music, the quality of performance, the relevance/necessity of the program, audience communication and its international potential.
• The YAMawards Ceremony is open to everyone who registered to the YAMsession, an annual international event for creative professionals working in the field of young audiences development.
• There are no restrictions on when the productions should have taken place, except for the Best Opera award in which the production must have premiered after May 2016 to be eligible.
• The jury bases its appreciation on the following criteria:
  • The music and other artistic material (text, choreography, etc) must be of high quality within its chosen genre.
  • The musicians/singers must be of a high calibre.
  • Music must be the primary focus of the production.

For more information, visit JM International (JMI).