During the next two days, young people from 39 states will wrap up their week of activities in YoungArts Week, sponsored by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

Founded 31 years ago by Ted Arison, founder of the Carnival Cruise Lines empire, and his wife, Lin, the foundation finds talented young artists ages 17 and 18 across the country, and nurtures them through events, such as workshops and college scholarships. It’s given out more than $6 million in awards to its artists and provided $84 million in college scholarship opportunities.

The foundation’s communications director, Ellen Gray, said more than 16,000 students have taken part in the program since its 1981 inception. This year, 597 students were involved in the program, which involves master classes, performances and concerts, and of those, there were 152 finalists who are now in town for YoungArts Week, she said.

Nine different disciplines — cinema, dance, jazz, classical music, photography, theater, visual arts, writing and voice — are covered by the arts foundation. There are a large smattering of master classes today hosted by luminaries, such as dancers Bill T. Jones and Jacques d’Amboise, singer Jon Secada, actors Malcolm Gets and Debi Mazar, and tonight, a chamber music concert at the New World Center in Miami Beach featuring the music finalists, two of whom are from South Florida.

Miami cellist Anna Litvinenko will be joined by pianist Jeff Zhang (Maple Grove, Minn.) in the first movement of the Cello Sonata No. 1 (in C minor, Op. 32), of Camille Saint-Saëns, and clarinetist Dominic Giardino of Key West will partner with flutist Christine Murphy (Park Ridge, Ill.), for a set of duos by the American composer Robert Muczynski and the “Chôros No. 2” of Heitor Villa-Lobos.

There are several other pieces of contemporary American music, such as the Sonata for Flute and Harp of Lowell Liebermann, the “Gazebo Dances” for two pianos of John Corigliano, and Lembit Beecher’s “Rain Down,” for piano and percussion.

The 8 p.m. program opens with an arrangement for three trumpets of two movements from the early (despite its high opus number of 87) Trio for two oboes and English horn by Beethoven and ends with the first movement of the great F minor Piano Quintet (Op. 34) of Johannes Brahms.

Tonight’s concert at the New World Center also is accompanied by a Wallcast, in which the music will be broadcast on the wall outside the Frank Gehry-designed structure on 17th Street and Washington Avenue.

The week wraps with a gala Saturday night at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts. In addition to the celebration of the young artists, the event will honor Robert Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts; visual artist Doug Aitken (a former YoungArts participant); and actor and director Robert Redford.

The Miami-based foundation will, of course, continue its work after the gala ends. “This year, YoungArts is expanding its regional programs,” Gray said. From Feb. 22-26, YoungArts Miami will invite young artists from Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties to participate in another round of activities, including master classes at the New World Center. Dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov will be one of the master teachers, Gray said.

It’s a fair bet that if you stop by the New World Center tonight, you’ll hear performances by some of the most promising musicians in the country, names that might very well be in the household category years from now. Those interested in the musical future of the country will surely want to be there.