Berks Sinfonietta opened its 13th season Saturday evening in Wyomissing with a concert that paired one of classical music’s major symphonies with performances by two young musicians selected through the orchestra’s annual scholarship competition.
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.
Griffith performed the opening movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor, while Campling performed the first two movements of Serge Koussevitzky’s Double Bass Concerto, Op. 3. Following intermission, Berks Sinfonietta performed Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68.
For Griffith, the concert marked the first time he had performed as a soloist with an orchestra — and the realization of a goal nearly as old as his time playing the cello.
“I’ve wanted to play the Dvořák concerto since I started cello, which was almost 10 years ago, and I’ve been practicing for basically my entire career of playing to get to this moment,” Griffith said. “I was very happy with the performance tonight. I thought the orchestra sounded amazing.”
Dvořák’s 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.
Written during Dvořák’s time in the United States in the 1890s, the concerto eventually became one of the best-known works written for the cello.
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.
Because Griffith did not have access to a traditional school orchestra, he said community music programs became an important part of his development.
“I was cyber schooled, so I never had a formal music education,” Griffith said. “So I had to get private lessons from Mr. Mishler, who was also playing as one of the cellos in the orchestra tonight.”
Griffith also spent five years with the Reading Symphony Junior String Orchestra and four years with the Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra.
“Because I never had school orchestra, I had to find other ways of playing,” Griffith said. “That 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’ve had.”
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.
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’s club orchestra. He also hopes to continue competitive swimming.
Joining Griffith as a scholarship winner was Campling, a senior at Exeter Township Senior High School who began playing bass in third grade.
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.
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.
Campling began studying bass with Charles Breaux and currently studies with Mary Javian as she works toward her goal of becoming a professional musician.
Her featured work, Koussevitzky’s 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.
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.
After intermission, the focus shifted from the two soloists to the full Berks Sinfonietta for Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.
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 “Ode to Joy” theme from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
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.
Saturday’s performance also served as the first concert in Berks Sinfonietta’s 2026-27 season. The orchestra is scheduled to return to Atonement Lutheran Church on Oct. 3 for “Conversations in C: The Triple Concerto,” followed by “An Unexpected Symphony” on Jan. 9.
For Griffith, Saturday’s performance was both a milestone and an opportunity to encourage others to experience making music themselves.
“If you ever get the opportunity to pick up an instrument, definitely do so,” Griffith said. “It works a completely different side of your brain, and it just is so fulfilling.”
