YMES History Globally
The Yamaha Music School began in 1954, in Tokyo, as an experimental class for young children. Following intense research to determine the best course of action, the initial enrolment was 150 students. Because of its unique instruction methods and the results they produced, the Yamaha Music School quickly gained an excellent reputation throughout the world. From these modest beginnings, it has grown to an organization of over 16,000 locations in 40 countries with 22,000 instructors teaching over 800,000 students. More than 4,000,000 people have graduated from Yamaha Music Schools.
The head of the Yamaha Music School is the Yamaha Music Foundation, a non-profit organization. It was established in 1966 with the approval of the Japanese Ministry of Education for the purpose of advancing the development of music education and bringing the joy of music to as many people as possible. Its three main functions are as follows:
- The development and promotion of age-specific music instruction for the "Yamaha Music Education System" (YMES) for preschool children to adults
- The training of music leaders for the popularization of music on a broad scale throughout society
- The execution and promotion of music popularization activities to the public through various music festivals, contests and concerts
