Phantom Regiment

Established in 1956 as a part of the rockford vfw post 342, Phantom Regiment, Inc. is a youth organization dedicated to the development of self-esteem and self-reliance. It encourages teamwork, sportsmanship, civic pride and contributions of one's personal best to a group effort. These lessons are learned through a musical and marching activity in which there is a blending of the arts and athletics. Phantom Regiment prides itself on providing a life-changing experience for the youth that participate in any of our programs. We want to offer a conduit through which they succeed not only within the music education world, which is one of our primary focuses, but also providing lessons they can apply to other areas of their life. We provide youth activities that enhance the personal growth and development of its participants through excellence in education, entertainment and the performing arts. It's activities make a lasting impact on our students, many of whom continue their education and become music educators throughout the country while others become professional musicians and dancers. We find that many of our activities have a life-long impact on the students due to the skills and friendships they develop while participating in our programs. Our programs include: Phantom Regiment drum and bugle corps - this is a performing group of 165 students that range in age from 16 to 21. We have between 600 and 750 students audition to be part of the corps that requires that they attend practices one weekend a month from december through april and move to rockford in may to learn that year's program for three weeks before embarking on a two month tour of the united states to participate in competitions and practice. The competitive season ends in mid-august in indianapolis where the drum corps international world championships are held. The drum corps has the 2nd longest active streak of appearing in dci's top 12 and has won the championship in 1996 and 2008. Public school outreach - the organization provides assistance in the form of lending instruments and introducing students to music. Budget cuts in many of our local school districts have resulted in the reduction or elimination of music programs. Phantom Regiment has also provided clinicians and conductors for the city of rockford's all-star and honor band concerts. We feel that music education is essential to a well-rounded student and many studies have documented the positive relationship between being involved in music and math and science scores. High & middle school concert band festival - produced in conjunction with the northern Illinois university music department, this festival allows schools the opportunity to perform in the beautiful boutell memorial concert hall, on the campus of northern Illinois university. The festival is a noncompetitive, educational event in a welcoming environment where students perform on stage and receive feedback and state of the art audio and video recordings of their concert, as well as take part in a clinic with one of the festival's clinicians following their performance. These programs were slightly limited due to the covid-19 pandemic during the summer of 2021, but our mission was still fulfilled.

The rockford rhythm was formed in the summer of 2016 in cooperation with the rockford symphony orchestra and the rockford public schools. The program is a community drumline that strives to extend our experience in the arts education to all youth and especially the underserved youth community in the city of rockford. The group is made up of members (in numbers ranging from 12-20) and 4 volunteers. Participants range in age from six grade to twelfth grade. The group performs at local community events and parades.

Educational camps - Phantom Regiment has been producing summer educational camps since 2003. We hold camps for drum major, brass, percussion and color guard. These 3 or 4-day camps are held throughout the united states and are attended by high school students that want to improve their skills. The educational camp staff is made up of some of the best high school and college band directors from around the country, most of whom are current or former members of the Phantom Regiment instructional staff. Our educational camp students get an intense, hands-on experience that generally includes interactive session with the drum corps. Surveys of the camp students have shown that the education and experience they've gained at one of our camps have helped them become better performers and leaders back at their high school programs.

Phantom Regiment academy offers both in-person and virtual training opportunities with some of the best marching arts educators in the world.