The Rockford Area Music Industry has once again honored Phantom Regiment with a coveted RAMI award (for more info go to RAMI’s website).
Phantom Regiment was presented the award for Music Outreach Organization at the 19th annual RAMI awards event held April 29, 2010. Phantom Regiment has also been honored for Outstanding Achievement in 2001, 2003.
The award for Music Outreach Organization has been presented to the Regiment four years in a row now – from 2007 to 2010. 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, and Rockford Salvation Army Band. The Regiment is privileged to be in such company as these organizations, and would like to thank and congratulate them all. Especially the Mendelssohn who is celebrating their 125th anniversary this year.
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 Drum Camp for high school students.
The drum and bugle corps was crowned World Champion at the Drum Corps International World Championships in 1996 and 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 Sunday, July 18. 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. This year, it will take place at NIU’s Huskie Stadium as we’ve partnered with the Huskie Marching Band. The band show provides high-quality adjudicators as well as the option to have a hands-on clinic before the show or immediately following the band’s performance. This year the event is Saturday, September 25.
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.
