YAM SHOWCASES '26
We’re excited to share with you the inspiring showcases that will join this year’s YAMsession, highlighting the creativity and talent of live music for young audiences.
Discover what’s in store below!
Versant Vivant
France
Performed by: Compagnie L’Observable
Artists: Emilie Tarascou & Simon Kansara
Versant Vivant is a live performance combining music, drawing, and animation, that invites audiences into a dreamlike journey where mountain creatures, humans, wild and domestic animals, predators and prey, share a common dreamscape. In this shared territory, time and space intertwine: a wingbeat lasts a season, trees draw sap from starlight, stalactites grow before our eyes. Organic, hypnotic music weaves through the performance, blending varied acoustic timbres, scratched and bowed strings, winds, keyboards, beats, creating immersive sonic worlds. Sound loops echo animated loops as musical improvisation guides the drawing unfolding live under camera, revealing the timeless, unexpected connections between different cycles of life.
Cavalzade in Cocazia
France
Performed by: RédèR Nouhaj
Artists: Frédéric Jouhannet
No one really knows where RédèR Nouhaj comes from...
A man of many folklores, he wields his violin like a lumberjack wields his axe: with precision, humility and gratitude towards the tree that has been felled. From the Caucasus, where he stayed for a while, comes a mixture of cultures and a raw melody. From the Bulgarian plains, crossed by transhumance, come wild rhythms and costumes with long hair. From his childhood comes the joy of unlikely sound objects. In a spectacular concert, he opens the notebooks of his imaginary travels. Cinema for the ears...
Cook Opera
France
Performed by: Compagnie Minute Papillon
Artists: Violaine Fournier and Cyrille Louge
Two kitchen aides have one mission: prepare a meal ordered at the restaurant. More than kitchen aides, they are musicians, obsessed with rythm, melodies, and above all: opera.
In their hands, the kitchen ustensils become musical instruments: the oven grill turns into into a harp, the pan into a bass... allowing for cooking and a merry, wordless, revisiting of the great melodies of Mozart, Puccini, Rossini or Bizet through rap, house or even world music!
I sordi
Italy
Artists: Matteo and Riccardo Nicolin
I sordi are a musical duo from Italy, composed by brothers Matteo and Riccardo Nicolin. In 2020 “eh?” was published, i sordi’s first EP, which is characterized by a witty electro-funk sound. In 2021 “mah”, their second EP, was released, where electronics are replaced by ethnic acoustic instruments such as aboriginal didgeridoo, balinese gamelan or sardinian launeddas. In July 2023 they released “sordofaben”, a disco-power-funk tune which was born out of live-touring Italy in the precedent year.
In April 2024 began the collaboration with Tuma Records with the release of "cose che non riesco a dire" (Things I can’t say) featuring Musica Per Bambini. On November 7th, 2025, “SHOCKINI” arrives — the first LP by I Sordi. I sordi are constantly committed to bringing their music everywhere through their extreme and pyrotechnical live acts.
Norway
Artists: Mattias Thedens, Oskar Goedvriend Lindberget, Richard Max, Jonas Thrana Jensen, Henrik Dullum
Gangar brings a fresh take on Nordic folk music. The young, five-piece ensemble digs into Norway's folk music archives to come up with rare traditional tunes, and give them new, modern arrangements influenced by rock, folk-metal, and jazz improvisation. Inspired by such artists as Hoven Droven, Meshuggah, and AC/DC. The band's mission is to bring traditional Norwegian melodies to a wider audience. Since their first concert in 2021, Gangar have established themselves as one of Norway’s most in-demand musical exports. They're a formidable live band that consistently delivers shows filled with energy, audience interaction, dancing, and top-shelf musicianship. They’ve forged a deep bond with audiences at home and abroad, playing over 100 shows in 14 countries, including Hungary’s Sziget Festival, Germany’s Rudolstadt Festival, Port Fairy Folk Festival in Australia, and Norway’s Midgardsblot and Malakoff Festivals.
Gangar
ONDE/WAVES
Italy
Performed by: Compagnia Teatrale Petra - Compagnia L'Albero - Orchestra Senza Spine
Artists: Graziana Palazzo, Laura Sacco and Claudio Cauzillo
ONDE / WAVES is an opera performance for children aged 0–3 inspired by The Wave by Suzy Lee. Through voices, instruments, movement and visual imagery, the performance explores a child’s first encounter with the sea and the discovery of the unknown. Sound, gesture and space create an immersive sensory experience where music becomes a playful dialogue between performers and young audiences, inviting curiosity, listening and exploration.
Twang
Denmark
Artists: Peter Johns, Spencer Gross and Thyge Van Dassen
The energetic, semi-acoustic, Danish/American western swing trio Twang sings and plays with nimble fingers, tight swing grooves and delicate 3-part singing that will make your hair stand on end and put a smile on your face. The thrilling sound of banjo, violin and guitar played with virtuosity, and the three musicians perched around one singing microphone merges into a warm and captivating concert experience for both eyes and ears. Western swing superhits blend in with Twang’s own songs about everything from social media to confronting society. Twang has been touring all over Denmark for LMS for years with great acclaim.
Basco
Denmark
Artists: Anders Ringgaard, Villads Hoffmann, Hal Parfitt Murray and Andreas Tophøj
With their musical excellence, intense presence and pulsating energy, the award-winning Danish folk and roots band Basco invites you on a rare, authentic musical journey. They have combined Scandinavian, English and Celtic traditions in a unique way and created their very own original sound with crisp arrangements and an intensity in playing in a league of its own. At this concert you will get to experience the music up close, when the four top level folk musicians enter their own circle in the middle of the audience and creates wonderful music and tell stories with their instruments.
PRODUCERS FORUM SHOWCASE
VALØYA
Denmark
Artists: Daphne Sander, Mark Vang Lauridsen, Shona Mélis,
Christian Mathias Laursen
Valøya offers an unfiltered universe of Nordic folk music, stirred together with elements of pop and jazz. The band takes you back to the roots, revealing how the same emotions that moved people a thousand years ago still live within us today.
Through murderous tales, strange love ballads, supernatural legends and much more, the four young musicians dust off the old ballads and breathe new life into them, turning medieval songs into stories that resonate, move the body, and draw you in.
The concert presented in the Producers’ Forum will be an adaption of Valøyas concert (here aimed for 0.- 3. grade school children), and it will involve storytelling connected to the songs, as well as different kinds of interactions with the audience: Movement, improvised word input, call & response singing and more!
OFFICIAL OPENING CONCERT
MIRJA KLIPPEL
Finland
Artists: Mirja Klippel – Vocal, acoustic guitar, waldzither
Alex Jönsson – Guitar, backing vocal
With a big voice, a heartfelt soundscape and a flair for writing songs that connect deeply personal experiences with images of Nordic nature, award winning Finnish songwriter and singer Mirja Klippel has made a name for herself as a special talent on the alternative folk scene. Her debut EP Lift Your Lion earned the Danish-based musician a Danish Music Award Folk as Songwriter of the Year, and later albums have received several nominations. She has toured extensively in both
Europe and the North Atlantic – and in the Danish schools with LMS for everal years. As always, she will be performing together with Alex Jönsson (guitar, singing).
