Music Education and Performance

The mission of the Anchorage Youth Symphony (AYS) is to provide high quality orchestral performance experiences for talented young musicians, and to further musicianship of our members through rehearsals, concerts, education, tours, and community involvement.

• AYS depends upon visiting performers to provide access to Master classes and advanced instruction that is often not available for some instruments.
• AYS engages in very costly tours to provide performance opportunities to AYS members, as well as exposure of the members to Outside critics and scholarship evaluators.
• Finally, AYS travels to rural Alaska to expose communities to live classical performance, perform with our peers, and mentor young musicians.

Next generation broadband Internet access would provide AYS, and all student musicians in Anchorage, with un-paralleled access to distant music education resources. It would improve opportunities for access to music scholarship, and it would allow students to participate fully without having their families break the bank. (Many AYS students are also competitive athletes or active in other extra-curricular activities that also require expensive travel and training costs.)