The Europe Jazz Network (EJN) is proud to announce that the 7th EJN Award for Music & Community is awarded to Sounds of Change, an outstanding initiative that places music at the heart of social healing and empowerment.
Jury Statement
The 2025 EJN Award for Music & Community is presented to Sounds of Change (Netherlands), an outstanding initiative that places music at the heart of social healing and empowerment. In a world increasingly shaken by conflict, displacement and trauma, their work resonates more than ever. Through a clear, structured methodology, they train teachers, aid workers and psychologists to use music as a tool for connection, expression, and recovery—especially with young people and communities affected by crises. Active across all over the Middle East, Ukraine and the Netherlands, Sounds of Change has grown into a far-reaching and deeply rooted project, creating safe and inclusive spaces where music becomes a language of resilience and hope. The jury recognises the project's scale, consistency, and long-term vision, and celebrates its unwavering belief in music’s ability to restore humanity where it is most at risk.
The jury also highly commended three additional projects from the nomination list of the Award, highlighting different but all essential aspects of working with communities that traditionally have less access to cultural production and fruition:
- FEEL SOUNDS (Germany), led by Yma América Martínez, an inclusive music initiative that connects deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing people through rhythm, vibration, and movement;
- Genetic Choir (Netherlands), a vocal ensemble and artistic community exploring fully improvised singing with projects like Stem & Luister in care homes;
- Outsider Art Festival (Finland), which celebrates artistic equality by showcasing music and other art forms created at the margins of society through a co-curated and inclusive process.
About the Award
The EJN Award for Music & Community is bestowed each year by the Europe Jazz Network to an organisation or project for its groundbreaking work on social inclusion, celebrating initiatives that use jazz and creative music as tools to engage, connect and empower communities.For the second time in 2025, a public nomination phase was launched through an online form, opening the process to both EJN members and non-members. This allowed the wider community to suggest interesting and relevant projects, and submit detailed information about them. From these submissions, a shortlist of 18 projects was created and carefully evaluated by a jury composed of EJN Board members, previous award winners, and experts in the field. The 2025 jury was composed of Alex Carr (EJN Board member, Cheltenham Festivals, UK), Maria Rylander (EJN Board member, Göteborg Artist Center, Sweden), Mark van Schaick (EJN Board member, Buma Cultuur / inJazz, Netherlands), Candela Carrera (previous award winner, Taller de Músics, Spain), and François Matarasso (community arts researcher and EJN consultant for social inclusion, UK/France).
About Sounds of Change
Sounds of Change is a Netherlands-based foundation that trains aid workers, psychologists, teachers, therapists and musicians to use music as a tool in psycho-social support and educational programmes, particularly in settings affected by conflict, displacement, or social trauma. Rather than teaching musical technique per se, their methodology emphasises creative musical processes—improvisation, composition, group expression—embedded into trauma-sensitive frameworks. Their work spans the Middle East, Ukraine, the Netherlands, and conflict-impacted areas such as refugee camps and underserved communities, always adapting to cultural and linguistic diversity.They support partners to integrate musical facilitation into existing psycho-social or educational programmes, and offer both on-site and online training (including an online library of musical exercises and manuals). For more about their approach, mission and projects, see soundsofchange.org.
