The stage lights darken as the silence fills the entirety of the Rothschild Performing Arts Center. The curtains suddenly open to the loud and clear voice of senior Grant Yang projecting throughout the entire theater’s speaker system. Filling the background of Grant’s voice, the audience sits silently engrossed in the individual words that make up the songs. All of a sudden, he drops his microphone and jumps into dance techniques along with other Downbeat members, displaying the reflections of their Downbeat jackets. 

Grant first began his performing arts career in sixth grade in his required drama class, setting the stage for the rest of his pursuit in the conservatory. However, after COVID and a year of remote school via Zoom, while Grant wanted to join the conservatory upon embarking his journey to high school, he pivoted after a negative experience with remote choir in middle school. He decided to have an open mind and dip his feet into the journalism program to pursue something else.  

“As I was coming into high school, I thought maybe choir wasn’t it, because it was such a weird and awful experience doing choir virtually,” Grant said. “I wanted to try something new. It was not until my junior year when I decided to go back to try conservatory. I had a lot of fun. There were a surprising amount of juniors, and that was a really great bonding experience for us.”

Close friend senior Jason Shim, who first met Grant in drama class, participated in the musical “Chateau de La Roche”, which inspired Grant to keep exploring performing arts. Jason recalls Grant’s brave personality and how he never feared trying new things and taking on challenges. Upon first meeting, they discovered the depth of acting together. 

“He always wears a Keith Haring shirt from the 1980s artist Keith Haring,” Jason said. “It’s emblematic of how he sees himself as sort of a counterculture guy, a guy who likes to take risks and defies expectations. The expectations when you see Grant, you expect him to be a quiet, soft spoken individual. No, he’s very much well spoken. He very much has strong beliefs, and he will often let those beliefs come in how he acts.”

During his junior year, Grant decided to try performing arts again after reflecting on his time in journalism, and joined Rhapsody. He quickly realized how meaningful the experience was to him and found it enjoyable with the opportunity it provided to bond with the other members of his class. After he decided to join Downbeat in his senior year, as performing arts felt more natural to him. In particular, Grant finds singing to be one of the most meaningful parts of his performing as the multi-faceted aspects of singing piques his interest.

“It’s like musicality,” Grant said. “There’s so much to focus on. There’s the technique. There’s obviously, again, relying on other people. It’s not something you can do alone. It’s something that has to be experienced with other people, the other singers and that feeling of being part of something.”

Close friend senior Agastya Ravuri, who met Grant in their sixth grade Latin class, cherishes how Grant has grown over the years and also emphasizes how Grant’s sense of thoughtfulness helps him to make the most of every situation.

“Grant embodies the famous Sonic enemy, Dr. Eggman,” Agastya said. “He was really admirable, and really likes to innovate and create. He was pretty quiet, and didn’t really talk much, but when he talked, his questions were really piercing. He’s one of the strongest people I know. He does what he wants and that’s really ethical.”

As Grant immerses himself in performing arts again, he reflects on the time he dedicated to journalism and what his participation in the activity taught him. He also believes that journalism allowed him to form a connection with his love for performing arts at times.  

“Journalism taught me a lot,” Grant said. “I really loved interviewing people. That was one of my favorite parts of journalism beyond taking photos at events. That gave an intersection with my performing arts; the summer after my sophomore year, I photographed the musical, the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It was awkward, but also really rewarding just to be there in that different capacity, and to be able to support my friends in that way too.”

Music teacher Susan Nace taught Grant in Study of Music and remembers how she encouraged him to join choir when she heard his voice. She recalls how he acted hesitant at first, but gained more confidence and ultimately ended up succeeding in choir. 

“In Study of Music, one of the things we do is some sight singing as part of teaching people about theory and how music works,” Nace said. “And I noticed that he had a really pleasant, beautiful voice. I said, ‘You should join choir.’ And, of course, as a frosh, he said, ‘No, no, no, I have other things I want to do.’ But then he took a risk, joined the choir and that’s where he’s been, we’re just so happy to have him in there because of his beautiful voice.”

Grant reflects on all of the memories throughout his time throughout his middle and high school journey, learning through all the elective changes, that experience can be powerful and be more meaningful than pure knowledge. 

“You never know until you try,” Grant said. “One of the things I value is curiosity and just not being sure that you know everything. Maybe you know a lot about a subject. I like to think I know a lot about CS or math. I’m interested in STEM, but there’s always so much more to learn. There’s so much more. You can always go so much deeper and with both life, intellectually, academically, you never know until you try.”