Maya McBrayer: Outstanding Mandarins Member of 2023

Annually, Mandarins Corps Members choose one of their own, to receive the Outstanding Member award. This award is given in memory of Joe Fong, our 1976 recipient. That year, the Mandarins’ repertoire included music from The Wiz; these lyrics are engraved on a perpetual trophy displayed at the Mandarins Event Center: “If you believe within your heart, you’ll know that no one can change the path that you must go.”

This year, the award was presented to Maya McBrayer, one of our Drum Majors, who began her Mandarins journey in 2022. In 2021, Maya told a college friend (who’d marched as a Field Assistant with another corps) that she was interested in trying out for DCI as a Drum Major. The friend had auditioned previously for Mandarins and had nothing but great things to say about the staff and the audition process. Long story short, Maya did her first-ever audition for the Mandarins and was contracted in December 2021!

Read the rest of the article here.