COTTER HIGH SCHOOL- Mr. Rick Peters is a Minnesota man at heart. Cotter’s new band director has spent the last twenty years teaching at Mount St. Joseph high school in Baltimore, but has returned to his roots.
Mr. Peters grew up in St. Paul. As the middle of three boys in his family, nothing came easy for Rick. He claims his family offered him no musical background, but the rock & roll era pushed him closer and closer to music. Once he discovered the saxophone he was hooked. Mr. Peters is not only skilled at saxophone, but he also plays the clarinet, guitar, and flute.

After attending Hill-Murray High school and earning his Bachelors degree at Hamline University, Mr. Peters finally had to leave the twin cities. He enrolled at the University of Connecticut where he received his Masters degree, but it wasn’t long after graduation he found himself back in Minnesota teaching at various high schools including his alma mater, Hill-Murray, and Spring Grove. After moving to Baltimore to teach at Mount St. Joseph, an all boys school, after two decades he found himself yearning for that Minnesota air. He wanted a Catholic, coed school with an active band program and found his answer in Cotter. When asked what music has taught you, he proclaims “work ethic, and practice makes perfect.”

Music is no doubt one of the biggest parts of his life, but he also enjoys other hobbies including cycling and exercising with his two springer spaniels. His 29 year old son works for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center and when asked what his son does, Rick laughed, “ It must be rocket science or something.”
Although Mr. Peters has not been involved in marching band for a number of years, the fall marching band season was a huge success. “I’m also very proud of the band because in each competition we participated in the band won the award for the best hornline. Essentially that means our band played the music and sounded better than any other band in our class.” Mr. Peters stated. For future goals for the band, Peters plans on tightening up the drill the band performs and seeing the whole group continue to grow as a band. Mr. Peters fell right into place at Cotter and says the kids have been marvelous. The hardest part for him has been learning all the new names and making it through the long marching days. Senior, saxophone first chair, Ceejay Schaffner described the new director this way, “He’s a great man, full of energy and enthusiasm for his job.”