Background

This page is made up of the following sections:

Long Time Ago
Now

The JML was established on the 26th of February 1956 by a group of music lovers. It was affiliated with the Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI). (See their site at www.jmi.net).

During that same year, when President Chamoun wanted to have a musical performance in Baalbeck, he turned to the JML who organized the first Baalbeck Festival in 1956. They were immediately subsumed in the first Baalbeck Festivals Executive Committee.

Since that time, the JML was active in Lebanon: preparing concerts, promoting music and supporting musicians. When the war started, Mr. Antoine Medawar was the President of the JML. Through his remarkable and dedicated personal effort, assisted by members of his committee, the JML kept operating as normal.

Towards the end of the war, there was a dormant period. In 1997, Mr. Medawar saw it critical to elect a new Executive Committee. A meeting took place in the CCF which saw the election of 12 members. These met and elected Joe Letayf as President. Sadly, however, it was found out that this election was not valid. The procedure required the JML representative at the government to inform the Ministry of Interior in writing about the elections including a copy of the Ulm Wa Khabar (UWK). The UWK was not to be found. The Ministry's files were burnt in a fire that destroyed a lot of other files. No one had a copy. The Founding Members were mostly and sadly not with us anymore.
 
Two things resulted: the new "virtual" Committee proceeded with some activities in 1998: concerts and lectures. The JMAIL was one of these activities that grew into an 800 member newsletter. Secondly, the Ministry demanded a legalization of the JML's existence through the procedure of "I'adat takween malaf", the "reconstitution of JML's status". This was not possible without the original UWK. The only alternative was to have the Founding Members request the reconstitution. This was also difficult for various reasons.

Several attempts were made to get the UWK from the National Archives or from personal files of old members. No luck.

Result: the JML as founded in 1956 could not be "reconstituted". Ipso Facto, the old JML was defunct.

During 2005, a group of die hards decided to reform the JML by starting a "New JML". The Ministry agreed to give the new society the same name as long as the word "New" was part of the new title.

A Ulm Wa Khabar (UWK) was applied for on the 29th of September 2005 (Application number 2005/4/6695). The new society was given approval on the 16th of January 2006. The Ulm Wa Khabar number is 8/AD.

The Founding Members proceeded to announce the Nouvelles Jeunesses Musicales du Liban (NJML) in the Offical Gazette (Al Jareeda Al Rasmiah).

The Founding Members developed a brief "vision" for the NJML. Also, they developed a plan for the next few steps. Both these are charted below.

The Founding Members are the following:

Their main function is to see the NJML through to a new Executive Committee. They have 1 year to do so. The steps for that are developed on the page (Next Few Steps).

© 2006 Nouvelles Jeunesses Musicales du Liban