The Ahrensburg Youth Symphony Orchestra will spend 4 days in Manhattan from July 29-August 2, 2017. Recognized as the leading youth orchestra in Northern Germany, the 63 member ensemble’s schedule will include performances at the CL Hoover Opera House in Junction City on Sunday, July 30 at 2:30 p.m. and KSU’s McCain Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, July 31.
In addition to their performances, which are free and open to the public, the orchestra will be interacting with students from the Manhattan and Junction City Public School Orchestra Programs and the Manhattan based Gold Orchestra. According to Gold Orches
tra Founder David Littrell, who is also director of the Kansas State University Orchestra and Distinguished Professor in the KSU School of Music, Theater and Dance, “this is a unique opportunity for orchestra students from our community to meet and play with their counterparts from another country. One of the highlights will be an open “side-by-side” rehearsal with American student musicians sitting next to German student musicians – two to a part.”
Under the musical direction of Michael Klaue, the Ahrensburg Youth Symphony Orchestra, with ages ranging from 14 – 24, travels to a foreign country each year. Recent tours have included stops in China, Estonia, Finland, Scotland, the Czech Republic, and Poland. Their tour is being arranged by the Blue Lake International Exchange Program, dedicated to promoting peace and understanding through the universal language of the arts. In addition to Manhattan, the orchestra will make stops in Memphis, Chicago, and Lansing, Michigan. While in Michigan, they will also perform at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the nation’s largest summer camp for the arts with over 5,000 students studying music, theater, visual arts and dance in Manistee National Forest.
The performance program in Manhattan and Junction City will be selected from the groups diverse repertoire including Anton Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, Ralph Vaughn Williams English Folk Songs Suite, and a series of Broadway and movie themes. They are touring with 17 year old harp soloist Julia von Grebmer, 5 time winner of the prestigious Jugend Musiziertin competition, who will perform the Camille Saint-Saens Morceau de Concert for Harp and Orchestra, and professional soprano soloist Sabrina Laney-Warren, who will perform select arias from Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and La Boheme.
The Ahrensburg Youth Symphony Orchestra’s residency in Manhattan is supported in part by BBN Architects Inc, Bramlage Family Foundation, Chuck and Susie Grier, Rock-a-Belly Deli, S&N Design and the Kansas State University School of Music, Theater and Dance.