The Missouri Military Academy Band earned the ranking of outstanding at the District 18 Missouri State High School Activities Association music festival in Columbia, Missouri, on March 16.

The festival, hosted at Muriel Williams Battle High School, invited large groups — which must include at least half of all students grades nine through 12 at each school — to perform prepared pieces. The Academy Band played “Encanto” by Robert W. Smith and “Procession of the Nobles” by Andrew Balent. 

"I would like to thank the young musicians for their hard, dedicated work. They should be proud that they earned this ranking — I know I am," MMA band director James Garrett said. “I hope that they will continue music education in their future.”

At MSHSAA music festivals, performances are ranked as exemplary, outstanding, satisfactory, developing or ineffective, with exemplary being the top rating. According to the MSHSAA Music Manual, an outstanding performance is “of distinctive quality yet has minor defects in musical expressions and fundamental techniques.”

The following cadets represented MMA in the Academy Band at the festival:

• Benjamin Huynh (flute)
• Kevith Sangster (flute/drum major)
• Miles Matthew (clarinet)
• Michael Machary-Pagan (clarinet/bass clarinet)SW
• Kruze Hagan (alto saxophone)
• Aaron Huynh (alto saxophone)
• Gabriel Hood (alto saxophone)
• Luke Ott (alto saxophone)
• DeKoven Martin (tenor saxophone)
• Ian Robison (tenor saxophone/bass)
• Logan Lockhart Guditis (baritone sax)
• John Carlos Ahuja (trumpet)
• Sage Fuller (trumpet)
• Landon Meyer (trombone)
• Michael Pfeifer (French horn)
• Angelo Urdaneta (tuba)
• Peter Didicher (percussion)
• Anthony Melick (percussion)
• David Lee (percussion)
• Hunter Repa (percussion)