Reading Symphony Gets Local with “Berks in Focus”
October is going to be one for the books in Reading, PA. Our October 10 concert with the Reading Symphony Orchestra will feature the premiere of “Berks in Focus: Symphony of a Thousand Images.”
This exciting community multi-arts collaboration has been over a year in the making and will be created from crowd-sourced images submitted by Berks County youth ages 5-22. We are also incorporating historical sources to provide extra community relevancy and a fascinating counterpoint to the newly created imagery. The project has been a joint effort between the Reading Symphony, Westwater Arts, and the Yocum Institute for Arts Education, who spearheaded the photo collection process and is actively engaging with schools across Berks County. The participants were asked to “Celebrate the life, culture and beauty of Berks Couny through your eyes!” Providing the musical tour de force for the imagery is Joseph Curiale’s evocative, three-movement work Awakening.
Some of the topics to be included in the project are: community celebrations, local sports, favorite hometown places, volunteerism, outdoor recreation, and the natural beauty, cityscapes, and agricultural heritage of Berks County. The deadline for submissions is Sunday, July 12, 2026, and the Yocum Institute has created an easy to use website for participants to upload their photos.
This will be Westwater Arts’ 3rd collaboration with the RSO, and it feels fitting to pay it forward on the local level by engaging the RSO’s own community. As with the other two collaborations, our October concert will be led by Maestro Andrew Constantine.
In addition to the premiere we are also presenting our ever-popular National Park Suite, set to Copland’s emblematic Tender Land suite. The National Parks are such a universally appealing topic and something that everyone can get behind. In this way, we are bridging the gap between the local and national levels.
Also on the program at downtown Reading’s Santander Performing Arts Center are Gershwin’s Cuban Overture and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
(Sample project photographs by Firoz Ansari via WikiCommons, Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers Collection, Nadia Pochan.)
