Every year, the Carl Orff Foundations award grants to projects in the artistic and educational fields, as well as scholarships for scientific work.
Since 2018, the foundation has been planning a new Carl Orff Museum at the Ziegelstadel. Construction began in summer 2023 and the new museum is scheduled to open in spring 2025. With the operation of the new museum, the foundation is fulfilling the wishes of Liselotte Orff, who stipulated in her will that a utilisation concept in accordance with the foundation's statutes should be drawn up for the property.In addition, the foundation promotes musical and academic engagement with Carl Orff's artistic and educational work.
Carl Orff's work is timelessly relevant and influences art and education worldwide. With the online magazine Kunst und Pädagogik, the Carl Orff Foundation has created a forum in which the composer's work is kept alive. Here, musicians and scholars who are uncovering new connections through their research have a voice. In their articles, educators show how they apply Orff's principles and basic ideas in their daily teaching, passing them on to the younger generation and thus enabling Orff's living concept of music education to constantly change and evolve in his spirit.Orff® – Kunst und Pädagogik is published by Schott Music in German and English exclusively in digital form. The magazine is available free of charge as an Orff app in the App Store (Apple), on Google Play or as a desktop app:
Orff-App (Apple iOs) Orff-App (Android) E-Paper (Schott Music)
There is a close connection between the Carl Orff Foundation and the Orff Centre Munich. The state institute was founded on the initiative of Liselotte Orff and the then Bavarian Minister of Education and Culture, Professor Dr Hans Maier. The Orff-Centre Munich, plays an important role as the state institute for research and documentation of the Free State of Bavaria. It maintains the composer's archive and promotes musicological research into Orff's life and work.The Orff Centre's main tasks include cataloguing Carl Orff's estate, conducting academic research into his work and biography, publishing works and organising events.
The collaboration between Carl Orff and the Schott Music publishing house began in 1925. Orff's Monteverdi adaptation "Orpheus" was published by Schott Verlag at that time. Since then, Carl Orff's artistic works as well as music books and writings on the Orff Schulwerk have been managed and published by Schott Music Verlag.
Over the years, Orff's business relationship with the owners of the publishing house, Willy and Ludwig Strecker, developed into a close personal friendship. This close contact continued when the publishing house was taken over by their grandson, Dr. Peter Hanser-Strecker, who is a member of the board of trustees of the Carl Orff Foundation.
The Carl Orff Foundation and the publishing house work closely together.
There is also close cooperation with the Bavarian State Library, with which the foundation has concluded a deposit agreement. The score of the famous Carmina Burana is kept there, as are all of Carl Orff's other autographs.