2025 Spring Newsletter

¡EN ACCIÓN!

2026 Spring Newsletter

What’s happening with Yakima Music en Acción

The Power of a Pause

A handful of students took time away fromYAMA and chose to come back. We're proud of the hard work of all 101 of our students this year, and we want to highlight a few who chose to pause, rest, and reflect.

What have they learned? What compelled them to return?

• Lesslie Mora, 10th grade

  • "I learned that it's important to take things in and enjoy them, to not see it as a task but more as something I want to do. Taking a break is important because it makes you really think about coming back and giving it your very all, rather than being there,

    being tired, or not being at your best. Taking a break makes so many things better; you come back with a different mindset, more energy, much better.”

• Dylan Moreno, 10th grade

  • "I felt like taking a break helped me mentally, having not as much stress on

    practicing every day. I came back because I wanted to see how I could improve and do harder things with the skills I could learn in YAMA."

• Joel Vasquez, 8th grade

  • "I didn't want to take a break from YAMA but I had to. When I was away from YAMA for some time, I was having fearful thoughts that other kids would view me like a new player when I came back. Mv advice for someone taking a break? Don't let intrusive thoughts take over you. Worry about yourself more and worry about other things later."

• Fernando Flores, Teaching Artist & YAMA Class of ‘22

  • "I came back as a teacher because YAMA was a space unlike any other

    in the classical music scene and I knew I wanted to be a part of it in any way I

    could. When I came back, I felt a sense of relief. YAMA stilhas the same feeling of

    community and genuineness as it did when I was a student here."

• Yalia Gonzales, 9th grade

  • "When I took a break, I learned that know how to

    play the violin on my own. Then I came back because I missed coming and having fun."

Meet this year’s Assistant Teachers!

We’ve hired six Assistant Teachers who are paid to coach younger students and are matched with staff mentors who offer support and feedback.

“It’s so important to have youth leadership opportunities for older students’ development, and just as important for younger students, as it gives them something to aim for.”

–Itzel Perez, Assistant Teacher Program Manager, YAMA class of ‘20

A Letter from Our Directors

Have you ever listened to a song that you love and felt your breath catch upon hearing an unexpected silence in the music? Have you ever danced along to a song when an instrument you were rocking out to suddenly drops out, only to return a short while later, much to your joy and delight? In the words of YAMA alumna Daniela Vazquez Hernandez, a “rest can be the loudest thing you play.”

Silences are powerful tools in a musician’s repertoire, adding nuance and power to the notes and harmonies that follow it. Pauses are essential tools in seasoned teachers’ tool kits, too. A teacher’s simple, “I’ll wait,” followed by an intentional pause, recenters a chatty group of students around the shared goal at hand. “Rest position” – how to hold one’s instrument while not playing – is one of the first things we teach beginning string players, because physical rest from holding an instrument is critical to a player’s sustainability and success.

As a small team running a complex daily operation, we are constantly reflecting on our relationship to both hustle culture and rest, actively fighting against the racist adage that we have to be “twice as good to get half as much” while also having an incredibly high standard for what we want young people in our community to be able to access and how we want them to grow and thrive. We want abundance, rest, and joy to be orienting factors that shape the experiences and relationships of students and staff alike.

Young people are prioritizing self-care and their mental health by taking breaks, even from things they care deeply about. We are eager to share the wisdom of YAMA musicians who have learned and grown from the process of taking a break from YAMA. YAMA keeps growing in size year after year, but another less visible way we are growing is in how we celebrate breaks and pauses. YAMA’s young artists remind us that rest, reflection, and recentering are essential for building up our individual and collective strength, and that fun and energy are foundational building blocks for navigating a tumultuous world with creativity, purposefulness, and connection.

In rest and resistance,

A. S. Pualani, Program Director

Stephanie Lin Hsu, Executive Director