Reading Choral Society hosts fifth annual Berks Choir Games.
Headliners are Parkside Harmony, Street Corner Symphony
Reading Choral Society will be hosting its 5th Anniversary Berks Choir Games on March 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Abe Lincoln Ballroom in Reading. The headliners for the evening concert are Parkside Harmony and Street Corner Symphony.
Berks Choir Games is a community engagement event hosted by Reading Choral Society that is aimed to celebrate the diversity of the choral arts in and around Berks County as well as to build bridges with our music loving community who is not necessarily connected to our regular Reading Choral Society concerts. It is a fun and upbeat night of a cappella music in a relaxed setting.
Parkside Harmony was founded in 2015 and is a contemporary men a cappella chorus and one of the newest members of the Barbershop Harmony Society.
Street Corner Symphony is a contemporary a cappella group based out of Nashville, Tennessee and was founded in 2010 to compete in NBC’s all-vocal competition –The Sing-Off. Since their win on the Sing-Off, Street Corner Symphony has made a mark on the music world, recording albums, providing clinics for schools, giving benefits for cancer, performing across the country and around the world, and even working with major artists including Ben Folds, Alison Krauss, and Take 6’s Claude McKnight.
The five members of the group all hail from Nashville and include brothers, Jeremy and Jonathan Lister. Street Corner Symphony moves seamlessly between most styles of music, feeling at home in all of them. Their repertoire covers a wide range, from gospel to rock and pop, appealing to the young and old alike.
The first portion of the concert will include the music from the ensembles that took part in afternoon workshops. Participating ensembles are RCS Chamber Choir, Pretzel City Chorus (Barbershop), Counterpoint Quartet, Phalanx a Cappella (Elizabethtown College), Quarter Harmony (Berks Catholic), and Freedom High School Chorale.
The afternoon workshops will be led by Street Corner Symphony and Pratt Street Power, one of Parkside Harmony’s quartets.
Based out of Baltimore, Md., Pratt Street Power has been fittingly called one of the Barbershop Harmony Society’s “young powerhouses of today.” Since their formation in early 2016, they won the 2016 International Youth Barbershop Quartet Contest in Nashville, Tenn. and were also the 2017 MidAtlantic District 2nd Place Quartet and a 2017 International Quartet Semi-Finalist. All four singers are active members of Parkside Harmony – 2018 Mid-Atlantic District Chorus Champions and 2017 International Chorus Medalist.
The singers benefit greatly from singing together in the same chorus in addition to their weekly rehearsals. The members of the quartet all have classical music training, but also have studied many other kinds of music, which has influenced what they choose to sing. One of Pratt Street Power’s main goals is to support the Harmony Foundation’s mission of enriching lives through singing by attending youth outreach events for young singers and encouraging young people to sing.
Admission is charged for the Berks Choir Games. Tickets are general admission. There is a reduced price for students. Tickets may be ordered online through Brown paper Tickets https://www.brown papertickets.com/event/3923686.