In 2024, we celebrated 75 years promoting music in Canada!
Our 75th anniversary festivities were a celebration of the classical world in all its forms and were held over the course of a year, from May 2024 to May 2025, with special events, memorable concerts, inspiring collaborations, and unforgettable moments.
It was also an opportunity to mark the 40th anniversary of the Jeunesses Musicales Canada Foundation, which helps us to pursue our mission.
Check out the programme:
(Click to enlarge the picture)
Jeunesses Musicales Canada was created on August 23, 1949, following a meeting between Father J.H. Lemieux, Anaïs Allard-Rousseau, and Laurette Desruisseaux-Boisvert, who were brought together by Gilles Lefebvre in St-Hyacinthe, Québec. Lefebvre suggested linking all the existing organizations that were devoted to cultural activities among young people and submitted a plan of action calling for concert tours, new lines of administrative collaboration, scholarships, a summer camp, a permanent headquarters, and exchanges between young performers.
Jeunesses Musicales Canada is affiliated with Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI), considered by UNESCO as the world’s leading cultural organization dedicated to youth and music. Jeunesses Musicales Canada is supported by the JM Canada Foundation as well as all three levels of Canadian and Quebecois government.
During a regular season, JMC presents some 1,600 concerts and workshops with more than 120 artists, creators and presenters in Québec, Ontario and Maritimes. All in all, the JMC concert tours visit more than 130 Canadian cities in a year. This is why JMC is the most important classical music distributor and producer in Canada, with an annual audience of 130,000 (including 103,000 children ages 3 to 12).
JMC’s history in images (click on the image below to view, in French only)
Our founder, Gilles Lefebvre
“I gave life to the Jeunesses Musicales movement in Canada and the world, first and foremost, to share my true love of a musical genre that needs an initial introduction in order to be fully appreciated, one that requires silence to be heard, one that speaks to the heart and the mind.”
A very charismatic and persuasive figure, Gilles Lefebvre combed the country, recruiting, and founding JMC Chapters. He gathered various key players in our society to work towards JMC’s mission: to promote the presentation of classical music, especially to youth, and to support the career development of the finest young professional instrumentalists, singers, and composers, both at home and abroad.
