The YPAS Music Department performed the 4th Annual PRISM Concert on Oct. 12, 2012. Traditionally, a Prism Concert is meant to move fast, with each group playing in quick succession of each other. The YPAS PRISM concert was intended to encourage the eight hundred middle schoolers that attended to pursue their musical interests through high school.
Principal Larry Wooldridge was greeted with a loud applause, and told the audience, “This concert is to inspire you.”
Parker Van Houten, an eighth grader at Noe Middle School, had wanted to go to YPAS for Vocals ever since he was in sixth grade.
“The PRISM concert solidified my intentions of applying for YPAS when I saw just how far these students could go in less than two months under the right guidance,” Van Houten said. “I was blown away with the techniques and subtleties that performers were showing.”
YPAS students who performed in the concert remembered going in their eighth grade year. For Noelle Greenwell (10), a clarinet player at YPAS, it helped the high school decision-making process easier.
“As an eighth grader, I was already looking into YPAS as my number one choice in high school,” Greenwell said. “But I wasn’t exactly sure on how comfortable I felt with the school. I didn’t really know the environment that well.
“But when I attended the PRISM concert in eighth grade I heard the band and instantly knew that that was the school I wanted to go to. In my ears the music sounded so professional and I wanted to be in it so bad.”
The concert included vocals, orchestra, band, and piano.