The Raymore-Peculiar High School was awarded a top state honor for the second year in a row. The band has been selected to perform at the Missouri Music Educators Association annual state conference.

Bands from all across the state submit recordings to be considered. Unbiased, out-of-state judges come in to listen to each groups recording without knowing which band they are listening to. The judges select the top groups to perform during the conference.

Ray-Pec's Symphonic Band, under the direction of John Wilson, were selected in 2012 and again in 2013. This is unusual because groups typically are not allowed to submit recording for three years after being selected. However, the Missouri Bandmaster's Association waived this limitation in celebration of the MMEA's 75th Conference. This allowed all bands across the state to submit auditions regardless of when their group last performed at the conference. 

Two students from Raymore-Peculiar High School earned a place in the Missouri All-State Band. This band is filled with outstanding musicians who first made the All-District Band and then competed against the other top musicians in the state.

The All-State Band is a huge honor for high school students. It is one of the most difficult honors to achieve and it offers an amazing experience for the students involved.

From Ray-Pec, Logan Jungman and Jack Renfro were selected after a rigorous audition process in Columbia, Missouri. The students prepared several very difficult musical passages as well as their major, melodic minor, and chromatic scales. Logan earned fourth chair tuba and Jack earned second chair tenor saxophone.

On Jan. 8, Mai Tadokoro will perform Marimba Spirtitual accompanied by Ray-Pec percussionists Daichi Tadokoro, Kit Leonard, Austin Coop. Mai is Daichi’s sister. The concert is at 7 p.m. Tuesday Jan. 8, in the Academy Theatre at Ray-Pec High School. Also performing will be the Ray-Pec Concert Band. A native of Nara, Japan, Mai Tadokoro moved to the United States in 2002. Mai is an active percussionist and educator in the Kansas City, Mo., Raymore, Mo., and the Lawrence, Kan. area.


Mai has performed as a timpanist and percussionist for opera festival in Germany, Neue Eutiner Festspiel. She was a principal percussionist with Fountain City Brass Band who has won several championships at both North America Brass Band Association Competition and US Open series. She has also played timpani with Kansas City Civic Orchestra and percussion with Northland Symphony Orchestra. Mai has collaborated with Conspirare: a Grammy-nominated professional choir group in Austin, Texas, area, for a television special aired nationally on PBS, and the recording of which was released on the Harmonia Mundi label. As a solo percussionist, Mai has won the first prize for adult solo percussion division at North America Brass Band Association Competition, the second prize for the collegiate marimba division, and third prize for collegiate multiple percussion division of Mid Missouri Percussion Arts Trophy.
Mai is also a founding member of new music percussion quartet, Ad Astra Percussion. Ad Astra Percussion commissioned Dave Hollinden’s Third Percussion Quartet.
Mai received an associate’s degree from Cottey College, a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and a master’s degree in music from The University of Texas at Austin. She is currently working on her DMA at The University of Kansas at Lawrence.