PR honored with RAMI award

PR honored with RAMI award

The Rockford Area Music Industry has once again honored Phantom Regiment with a coveted RAMI award.

Phantom Regiment was presented the award for Music Outreach Organization at the annual RAMI awards event April 30, 2009. Phantom Regiment also was honored for Outstanding Achievement in 2001, 2003, 2007 and 2008. The award was accepted by Executive Director Rick Valenzuela.

Other nominees in the Music Outreach Organization category were Crossroads Blue Society, Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center, Reggae Jackson Productions, and Rockford Salvation Army Band.

Besides being honored with this award, the Regiment was also honored to have its longtime brass arranger, Jim Wren, receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the RAMI. (Read more about Wren’s award here)

Phantom Regiment, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006, is a youth arts organization with a world-renowned drum and bugle corps as its crown jewel. The organization also sponsors a Fall Marching Band Festival for area high schools, a Drum Major Camp for aspiring high school drum majors and leaders and a Snare Drum Camp for high school students.

The drum and bugle corps was crowned World Champion at the Drum Corps International World Championships in August 2008.

Phantom Regiment’s Show of Shows, which features the Rockford Register Star as its title sponsor, annually draws more than 3,000 fans to Boylan Stadium. The date of the this year’s event is Friday, June 19. The corps also sponsors Drums Across the Tri-State, a show in Charleston, W.Va., which attracts many high school bands as spectators who use the event as a learning tool.

The Fall Marching Band Festival, which has been held at both Rockford College and Harlem High School, is open to all area bands. It provides high-quality adjudicators as well as a hands-on clinic for the entire band immediately following the band’s performance. This year the event is Saturday, September 26.

Phantom Regiment, which is endorsed by some of the top musical instrument and uniform manufacturers in the world, assists many area bands by loaning its equipment during the school year. Some of the groups to use Phantom Regiment’s equipment include Winnebago, Beloit Memorial, Stillman Valley and United Township high schools as well as Northern Illinois University’s marching band.

For more information about Phantom Regiment, contact executive director Rick Valenzuela at 815-226-2835.