YAMawards

Announcing the Winners of the YAMawards 2022

by administrator, October 25, 2022

The 18th of October marked the 13th edition of the YAMawards, the international music awards ceremony that honours creativity and innovation in Young Audiences Music productions.

YAM (Young Audiences Music) is JM International’s program 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.

Since the YAMawards launched in 2008, only the best of the best in Young Audiences Music productions have prevailed. The level of craft, depth of storytelling and passion inherent to each finalist and winner, a testament to what it takes to truly engage and inspire young minds. And this year was no different.

This year’s YAMawards had 7 distinct categories, each with its own winner:

- Best Small Ensemble for Young Audiences
- Best Large Ensemble for Young Audiences
- Best Opera for Young Audiences (Powered by RESEO)
- Best Participatory Project with Young Audiences
- Public Choice Award (selected from the top 4 nominees in each category, by public vote)
- Best Digital Production for Young Audiences
- Best School Concert for Young Audiences

This year we have added a new category to the YAMawards: The ‘Best School Concert for Young Audiences’, a special new award dedicated to the late chairman of JMI’s YAM

Committee, Ebbe Hoyrup. This category recognises the many thousands of professional concerts for young audiences that are performed every year – not in huge concert halls or theatres, but in the more modest settings of perhaps a school gym, an assembly hall or a classroom. These productions are typically rather simple set-ups, designed for easy touring, with limited scenography and little or no lighting - forcing the musicians to trust in the strength of the music itself and their own ability to create meaningful and personal live connections with their audience. These concerts strive to ensure that all kids have access to music, no matter their social background or financial means. School Concerts serve as a fundamental vehicle to bring music to kids where they are, making those important magic moments happen for all.

It’s time to meet the 2022 winners

Introducing the best of the best in Young Audiences Music productions for 2022 selected from over 70 submissions from 26 different countries:

BEST SMALL ENSEMBLE

Production: Oum Pa Pa!
Producer: M'lart production
Country: France

Between music and comedy, "Oum Pa Pa! " is a rhythmic show where Bizet meets Tchaikovsky and Yann Tiersen meets Piazzolla... Surrounded by two flutes, a viola, and sometimes piccolos, the accordion reveals itself through a succession of surprising scenes. This production is a great way to listen to music in new exciting ways, offering its audiences a dazzling palette of timbres and colours. In this dreamy recital, the high-flying technique of the musicians serves rich, warm and tender scores, unveiling an unfailing fantasy, a surprising tableaux with precise choreography. Dancing the line between music and comedy, this production is great art driven by a laughing desire to share that makes us listen.

BEST LARGE ENSEMBLE

Production: The Alehouse Sessions
Producer: Barokksolistene
Country: Norway

In The Alehouse sessions, Barokksolistene recreated some of the atmosphere that existed in pubs and inns in London in the 17th and 18th centuries. With popular, seductive, gripping and fun songs and music, accompanied by talk and humor, and performed in a way that gives it new life and relevance. The Alehouse Sessions is full of an energy and joy that captures the audience immediately. They create, with their stunning performance, a strong, authentic connection to the audience, especially as everything is performed by heart. Extremely professional ensemble with music that is very accessible and engaging for people at any age. What makes them even more intriguing is that the music is not only very diverse, but showcases a variety of interesting instruments and traditions for the next generation.

BEST OPERA FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES (POWERED BY RESEO)

Production: Pay the Piper
Producer: Glyndebourne Youth Opera
Country: UK

Pay the Piper is a new commission for Glyndebourne Youth Opera (GYO) written by the 4 female composers of Glyndebourne’s “Balancing the Score” scheme and librettist Hazel Gould. The production utilises movement and puppetry with opera in a non-traditional staging to tell a new interpretation of the German folk tale The Pied Piper of Hamelin. This version told the story from a variety of perspectives and highlighted themes of subjective truth, memory and growing up. As well as the GYO chorus, the production included 8 local young actors, new to puppetry, who operated the 7m high ‘Lonely Child’ puppet which served as a constant reminder of the stakes at the heart of the story. Pay the Piper offers a rich diversity of artistic languages, all of them of excellent artistic quality. This quality was never a finality on itself, but one of the ingredients in how to tell a story, matched equally by the inclusive nature of the process..

BEST PARTICIPATORY PROJECT WITH YOUNG AUDIENCES

Production: The Upbeat
Producer: Harpa
Country: Iceland

The Upbeat - Composition Award for Children and Youth gives young people the opportunity to submit a musical composition or a draft of a composition and receive support to work out their ideas with artists. Upbeat really touched the hearts of the jury and it certainly appeared to touch the hearts of the young people participating as well as the whole community. It is an artistically high level production that consciously places young people as artists at its very core, and succeeds in giving its audiences something truly unique and engaging.

BEST DIGITAL PRODUCTION FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES

Production: Nobellum
Producer: Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and David Chocron
Country: Norway

Nobellum is a digital production, a "film concert", which uses music to tell a story, accompanied by motion graphics and video, that gives an artistic impression of the Nobel Peace Prize, its origin, some of its most significant winners, and the breadth and depth of their struggles. When awarding the Best Digital Production, the jury looks for many qualities including professional artistic and musical level, the quality and unique usage of the digital format, and of course, the relevance and intention of the program for young audiences. Nobellum has all these qualities, along with a very important message to tell. World class musicians and a good story makes this a great production. The jury have commented “It’s one of the few times we’ve been so moved by the emotion of a digital concert/production. Behind a strong theme is an amazing musical repertoire that includes works of many great masters, both historic and contemporary. The music, although often combined with other subjects, is given enough space to stand on its own and enthrall young audiences.

THE PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD

Production: Wild (The Musical)
Producer: City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong
Country: Hong Kong

WILD (The Musical) is a multidisciplinary Broadway-style musical production set in the jungle with a classical orchestra and conductor cast as part of the story and the theatrical action. The plot of the musical concerns two human poachers who come into the jungle to traffic wild animals. When they discover that all the animals are enormously talented, they commence a plan to capture the animals for a lucrative show on New York’s Broadway. Their plans go astray as the sounds of the WILD reign supreme!

BEST SCHOOL CONCERT FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES

Production: Thousand buttons and four strings
Producer: Almir & Daniel
Country: Norway

A “Thousand buttons and four strings” is a story about two friends: Daniel on violin from Serbia and Almir on accordion from Bosnia. The duo has a presence that catches your attention! The duo presents traditional folk music from the Balkans as well as new compositions of high quality within the genre. Almir and Daniel are professional musicians with many years of experience performing for a younger audience. Their communication with the audience is both inviting and inspiring through their personal stories of family, friendship, and the love for music.

FOLLOW ALL THE YAMAWARDS NEWS:

YAMawards Website: https://yamawards.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngaudiencesmusic

Instagram: @youngaudiencesmusic

Hashtag: #YAMawards2021

Alternatively, if you have any queries, you can email the YAMawards team at: info@yamawards.org

*UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:

Article 13 - 1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.

Article 31 - 2. States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.

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