According to the association statues, the primary goal of the work of the association is the „advancement of art, culture and education“. This goal is pursued by various activities.
Public Relations
The Ahrensburg Youth Orchestra Support Association informs with flyers, posters, websites, and via the daily press about current activities and promotes long term musical engagement of children and adolescents in Ahrensburg and the surrounding area.
Instruments Rental
The association’s instrument stock consists of musical instruments of all instrumental groups of the classical orchestra. For a small fee, these can be rented by children and youths who do not have an instrument of their own. The rental revenues are used for the regular maintenance of the instruments; costs for acquisitions of new instruments and expensive repairs are often born by the Ahrensburg Youth Orchestra Support Assiciation.
Student Recitals
Many of the instrumental teachers cooperating with the Ahrensburg Youth Orchestra Support Association teach in the rooms of the Stormarnschule in the afternoon. This school’s Eduard Söring Auditorium is also used for instrumental student recitals, where children and youths present the pieces on which they have been working to parents, relatives and friends as well as all other interested audience.
Orchestras
Musically active children and youths in and around Ahrensburg have the option of playing in one of the youth orchestras. For the youngest musicians starting at about 9 years, there is the Friday orchestra; slightly older players (from about 12 years on) can play in the Wednesday orchestra. Both orchestras are formally school orchestras of the Stormarnschule, but are open to students of other schools as well. More advanced children and youths can join the Ahrensburg Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is organised as an activity of the youth section of the Ahrensburg Youth Orchestra Support Association.
Orchestra Travels
The Ahrensburg Youth Symphony Orchestra is periodically going abroad on concert journeys to get to know other countries and to meet other musicians there. Past years have led the orchestra to Michigan (USA), Viljandi (Estonia), Shanghai (China), Helsinki (Finland) and Rzeszów (Poland). The funding of these travels is based on concert revenues, grants from public and private agencies, participants’ contributions, but also on finacial support from the association.
Hosting of Guest Orchestras
Because of the youth orchestras’ numerous international contacts, orchestras and choirs from Germany and abroad are frequently visiting Ahrensburg and performing concerts, partly in cooperation with the orchestras from Ahrensburg. For the accommodation of these guests, the Ahrensburg Youth Orchestra Support Association generally offers private quarters of its members and friends. This further deepens the international encounters of the members of the association and the orchestras.