The Reading Symphony Orchestra

05/17/2026

BLAST OFF INTO SPACE!

The Reading Symphony Orchestra ends its season with a launch into outer space with a pops concert experience. Featuring music inspired by the cosmos, you’ll relive the cinematic experiences of Star Wars and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial … and explore the solar system at lightspeed stopping by Mars and Jupiter imagined by the British composer Holst.

The afternoon is sure to be a live, immersive experience with costumes, community-driven lighting, and infinitely more.

JOIN US TOMORROW:
William E. Endslow Performing Arts Center
Reading Memorial High School
Sunday, May 17, 2026
3:30 PM

05/14/2026

Thanks The Reading Observer for the great shout out!

The Reading Symphony Orchestra will close out its pops season with a space-themed musical adventure during “Blast Off into Space!” on Sunday, May 17, at 3:30 pm at the William E. Endslow Performing Arts Center at Reading Memorial High School.

04/28/2026

Join the Reading Symphony Orchestra on a grand tour of outer space! We’re conducting an adventure into our solar system and beyond on May 17 at 3:30 PM, blasting off from the William E. Endslow Performing Arts Center in the Reading Memorial High School. This concert experience includes:

- John Williams – Pieces from Star Wars
- John Williams - Suite from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- Gustav Holst - selections from Holst’s The Planets
- Kevin Day – LightSpeed
- Intermission festivities
- Audience members are invited to dress as their favorite character!

We hope to see you there!

03/20/2026

“Saturday’s program is built around ignition and inspiration. Taken together, these three works show rhythm not as background, but as a vital force … and fire not simply as a metaphor, but as spirit.”

– George Ogata, Music Director and Conductor

Saturday, March 21, 2026, at 8:00 PM
William E. Endslow Performing Arts Center
Reading Memorial High School, Reading, Massachusetts

Featuring piano soloist Vartan Arakelian.

Tickets: www.readingsymphonyorchestra.org

03/19/2026

Creston: Symphony No. 2

Paul Creston’s Second Symphony closes the program with music that feels inspired and driven by pulse itself. Creston had a personal relationship to rhythm, so much so that it became central to his musical language and thought. In this symphony, rhythm doesn't play a secondary role. It is the animating force. The result? A work of tremendous energy, ferocity, and conviction. Music that pushes forward relentlessly and speaks with an unmistakably American voice.

For anyone who wants to hear and feel rhythm take a vaulted role, this is a creation, an American creation, worth discovering in person.

Witness Rhythm and Fire.

Saturday, March 21, 2026, at 8:00 PM
William E. Endslow Performing Arts Center
Reading Memorial High School, Reading, Massachusetts

Featuring piano soloist Vartan Arakelian.

Tickets: www.readingsymphonyorchestra.org

03/19/2026

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1
Vartan Arakelian, piano

Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto is youthful brilliance in full display: brash, vigorous, and breathtakingly alive. It has the kind of virtuosity that has swagger and dazzle. We are especially thrilled to perform it with pianist Vartan Arakelian, a remarkable young artist whose combination of command, intelligence, and musical vision makes him an ideal champion of this music.

This is the sort of concerto that reminds you how thrilling it can be when you're there, live, in front of and with an artist who dares. Experience Rhythm and Fire.

Saturday, March 21, 2026, at 8:00 PM
William E. Endslow Performing Arts Center
Reading Memorial High School, Reading, Massachusetts

Featuring piano soloist Vartan Arakelian.

Tickets: www.readingsymphonyorchestra.org

03/16/2026

Falla: Ritual Fire Dance from El amor brujo

Our second concert of the season begins awash in flames. Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance is music of enchantment, propulsion, and danger. The spell is cast: The notes leap off the page as if they're a combination of dance and flickering embers.

This is how a concert should start. With fire.
Discover Rhythm and Fire.

Saturday, March 21, 2026, at 8:00 PM
William E. Endslow Performing Arts Center
Reading Memorial High School, Reading, Massachusetts

Featuring piano soloist Vartan Arakelian.

Tickets: www.readingsymphonyorchestra.org

03/05/2026

We are incredibly excited for the Second concert of our 91st Season "Rhythm & Fire" on Saturday, March 21st.

We'll be performing Falla's "Ritual Fire Dance from El amor brujo", Prokofiev's "Piano Concerto No. 1" featuring a performance from Vartan Arakelian, and Creston's "Symphony No. 2".

Find tickets and more information on our website!

11/22/2025

Shostakovich: "Symphony No. 5"

There is no work quite like Shostakovich’s "Fifth Symphony", which concludes our season opener. His musical statement lives at the crossroads of fear and defiance, tragedy and triumph. He wrote it under a regime where one wrong note could have ended his life, yet the music refuses to surrender its humanity and dignity. Every movement brims with that tension. Every climax feels like an emotional achievement after great struggle.

Hearing Shostakovich's symphony live is a reminder of what an orchestra can express when everything is on the line.

Witness in person "Soul and Steel".

Saturday, November 22, at 8:00 PM
Veterans Memorial Auditorium
Galvin Middle School, Wakefield, Massachusetts

🎟 Tickets: www.readingsymphonyorchestra.org

11/22/2025

"I view music as inextricably linked to the world we live in: our circumstances plus our hopes and dreams. This concert, Soul and Steel, was built with that spirit in mind."

– George Ogata, Music Director and Conductor

Join us tomorrow for our Season Opener!

Saturday, November 22, at 8:00 PM
Veterans Memorial Auditorium
Galvin Middle School, Wakefield, Massachusetts

🎟 Tickets: www.readingsymphonyorchestra.org