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Welcome to the Reading Musical Foundation!
SCHOLARSHIP
WINNERS
2008-2009 Scholarship
Information Now Available!
Click here
Celebrating Our 81st Year of Serving the Cultural
Arts to Our Community
 Incorporated
in 1927 by a group of local music enthusiasts who
recognized the importance of ensuring our
community’s cultural offerings, RMF has been
supporting music education, preservation and local
music presenting organizations for 80 years.
Initially raising $23,000 to fund an ambitious
mission, its founders established an endowment with
$8,000 in their first year, roughly $93,000 in
today’s dollars.
That same year, they provided free summer concerts
in City Park and playgrounds, presented 14
educational concerts in high schools in Berks County
school districts, and underwrote concerts presented
Sunday afternoon by the Reading Symphony Orchestra
and the Reading Choral Society, at the time
accompanied by musicians from the Philadelphia
Orchestra.
Today, RMF is the largest funder of music and the
performing arts in our community and provides the
lion’s share of financial assistance for county
music students who audition on merit or demonstrate
financial need. RMF is a public, non-profit
foundation supported primarily by you – individuals,
businesses and partner foundations. A full 100% of
your contributions are reinvested in support of
music education and outreach programs, music
presenters and concert events countywide.
NOW AVAILABLE: Vision, Conviction and
Compassion: 80 Years of the Reading Musical
Foundation
Copies are $25.00 and available through RMF's
office. Please call for details - (610)
376-3395
 Eighteen
months ago C. Thomas Work, former board chair and
current honorary trustee, began researching the
history of the Reading Musical Foundation – from the
early days of formation to the explosive growth in
the 60s and into the 21st century, where a new
mission and mass of music education programs
reclassified the organization.
Fast forward to
today: that research and volunteer time has
transformed into Vision, Conviction and
Compassion: 80 Years of the Reading Musical
Foundation, a 220-page, professionally published
book with two indexes, one with names/terminology
and the other with photographs and graphics. Mr.
Work spent over ten months reading through
Foundation board and committee minutes, newspaper
articles collected in scrapbooks held by RMF as well
as in the public library, and interviewing past
presidents, trustees and relatives of trustees who
have passed. He also collected photographs of
musicians and music supporters, historic concert
programs and other music memorabilia.
Mr. Work’s
textbook account of RMF’s evolution, from an
organization formed to fund two organizations and
provide educational concerts to the community pillar
it is today, reads like a fast-paced novel. Colorful
descriptions of RMF’s characters allow readers to
truly understand the idiosyncrasies of the
Foundation’s founders.
Vision,
Compassion and Conviction is now available
through the RMF office. Donors who give $500 or more
will receive a free personalized, autographed copy
in appreciation of their gift. Autographed books are
also available to purchase at $25 a copy. Please
contact the RMF office at (610) 376-3395 for more
information.
Mission of the Reading Musical Foundation
The mission of the Reading Musical Foundation is
to promote and facilitate music education and
appreciation in order to preserve and develop
musical experience and culture within our Berks
County community.
We will provide organizational and financial support
for activities and events that lead to the education
and development of both artists and audiences. We
will carry out our mission through the application
of sound principles of management and fiscal
stewardship.
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