![\"Cellist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_3704.jpeg\")
Berks Sinfonietta guest artist cellist Joshua Griffith.<\/p>\nBerks Sinfonietta opened its 13th season Saturday evening in Wyomissing with a concert that paired one of classical music\u2019s major symphonies with performances by two young musicians selected through the orchestra\u2019s annual scholarship competition.<\/p>\n
The Aug. 22 concert, held at Atonement Lutheran Church and led by Artistic Director David A. McConnell, featured cellist Joshua Griffith and double bassist Grace Campling as guest artists.<\/p>\n
Griffith performed the opening movement of Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s Cello Concerto in B minor, while Campling performed the first two movements of Serge Koussevitzky\u2019s Double Bass Concerto, Op. 3. Following intermission, Berks Sinfonietta performed Johannes Brahms\u2019 Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68.<\/p>\n
For Griffith, the concert marked the first time he had performed as a soloist with an orchestra \u2014 and the realization of a goal nearly as old as his time playing the cello.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve wanted to play the Dvo\u0159\u00e1k concerto since I started cello, which was almost 10 years ago, and I\u2019ve been practicing for basically my entire career of playing to get to this moment,\u201d Griffith said. \u201cI was very happy with the performance tonight. I thought the orchestra sounded amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s concerto gave Griffith a prominent role in front of the orchestra, with the cello carrying sweeping melodies while the musicians around him shifted between quieter accompaniment and powerful full-orchestra passages. Although the piece is technically demanding, listeners did not need a background in classical music to follow its contrasts, moving between dramatic moments and more lyrical, reflective sections.<\/p>\n
Written during Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s time in the United States in the 1890s, the concerto eventually became one of the best-known works written for the cello.<\/p>\n
Berks Sinfonietta guest artist cellist Joshua Griffith.<\/p>\n
Griffith recently graduated from 21st Century Cyber Charter School and has pursued his education through homeschooling and cyber schooling throughout his academic career. He began studying cello at age 8 and has studied for the past eight years with Brian Mishler, who was among the cellists performing with Berks Sinfonietta Saturday.<\/p>\n
Because Griffith did not have access to a traditional school orchestra, he said community music programs became an important part of his development.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was cyber schooled, so I never had a formal music education,\u201d Griffith said. \u201cSo I had to get private lessons from Mr. Mishler, who was also playing as one of the cellos in the orchestra tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffith also spent five years with the Reading Symphony Junior String Orchestra and four years with the Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I never had school orchestra, I had to find other ways of playing,\u201d Griffith said. \u201cThat was another amazing opportunity, especially because of my background of not being in a school. That was a great social opportunity, and getting to play with the kids was just some of the most fun I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffith is a two-time recipient of the Peter Brye Cello Scholarship from the Reading Musical Foundation. Outside of music, he is a visual artist who works in oil, watercolor, sculpture and clay pottery. He also served as captain of the Exeter varsity water polo team and was a member of the Exeter varsity swim team.<\/p>\n
He plans to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design to study industrial design and hopes to remain involved with music through the college\u2019s club orchestra. He also hopes to continue competitive swimming.<\/p>\n
Joining Griffith as a scholarship winner was Campling, a senior at Exeter Township Senior High School who began playing bass in third grade.<\/p>\n
![\"Double](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_3705.jpeg\")
Berks Sinfonietta guest artist double bassist Grace Campling.<\/p>\n
Campling is a former member of the Reading Symphony Junior Strings Orchestra and currently performs with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. She has also performed locally with Berks Sinfonietta and the Reading Pops Orchestra and has earned multiple merit scholarships through the Reading Musical Foundation.<\/p>\n
She represented her school in Pennsylvania Music Educators Association festivals, placing first at the state level in both 2025 and 2026. Campling was also accepted into the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra in Switzerland for summer 2026.<\/p>\n
Campling began studying bass with Charles Breaux and currently studies with Mary Javian as she works toward her goal of becoming a professional musician.<\/p>\n
Her featured work, Koussevitzky\u2019s Double Bass Concerto, put an instrument often heard supporting an orchestra from its lowest register into the spotlight. The bass moved from deep, resonant notes to surprisingly melodic passages higher in its range, giving Campling an opportunity to demonstrate a side of the instrument casual concertgoers may not often hear.<\/p>\n
The concerto was composed in the early 1900s by Serge Koussevitzky, a Russian-born conductor, composer and double-bass player who later spent 25 years as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n
After intermission, the focus shifted from the two soloists to the full Berks Sinfonietta for Brahms\u2019 Symphony No. 1.<\/p>\n
The four-movement symphony begins with an imposing, almost tense sound before moving through quieter and warmer passages. Across the work, musical ideas introduced early repeatedly return in different forms, building toward a final movement that gradually becomes brighter and more triumphant. One of its best-known melodies has often been compared to the \u201cOde to Joy\u201d theme from Beethoven\u2019s Ninth Symphony.<\/p>\n
Brahms was 43 when the symphony premiered in 1876, after spending years working on it under the considerable shadow of Beethoven. The finished work became one of the major symphonies of the Romantic era.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s performance also served as the first concert in Berks Sinfonietta\u2019s 2026-27 season. The orchestra is scheduled to return to Atonement Lutheran Church on Oct. 3 for \u201cConversations in C: The Triple Concerto,\u201d followed by \u201cAn Unexpected Symphony\u201d on Jan. 9.<\/p>\n
For Griffith, Saturday\u2019s performance was both a milestone and an opportunity to encourage others to experience making music themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ever get the opportunity to pick up an instrument, definitely do so,\u201d Griffith said. \u201cIt works a completely different side of your brain, and it just is so fulfilling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berks Sinfonietta opened its 13th season Saturday evening in Wyomissing with a concert that paired one of classical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-272718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}