Phantom Regiment
Drum and Bugle Corps
LocationRockford, Illinois
DivisionWorld Class
Founded1956
DirectorDwight Emmert
CEOAmanda Hamaker
Championship titles
  • 1996 (tie)
  • 2008

Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps (commonly referred to as "Phantom") is a World Class competitive junior drum and bugle corps based in Rockford, Illinois, USA. The corps is a long-standing member of Drum Corps International (DCI), having been a DCI World Championship Top Twelve Finalist every year since 1974 and DCI World Champions in 1996 (tie) and 2008.[1]

History

The corps was founded in 1956 by Alex Haddad, a member of the Col. Thomas G. Lawler VFW Post 342. Under his direction, the corps was named the Rockford Rangers, with all-male drum and bugle sections and an all-female color guard to named the Rangerettes. However, when many of the charter members were impressed by the recording of the Syracuse Brigadiers performing the Leroy Anderson composition The Phantom Regiment, the corps' name was changed before the unit made its debut, with the color guard renamed the Phantomettes.[2][3]

In the corps' early years, the Phantomettes and a corps-sponsored all-boy color guard called the Raiders were competitively successful. The drum and bugle corps, however, struggled. In 1962, the corps bought a set of high quality bugles that had belonged to the Commonwealth Edison Knights of Light Drum and Bugle Corps which had folded two years earlier. With the new instruments and a new brass arranger, the corps began to improve. The old set of bugles went to the newly formed Phantom Regiment Cadets.

Despite the Phantomettes having placed second at the 1962 color guard national championships, in 1963, Phantom Regiment fielded an all-male corps, including the color guard. When scores fell behind those of the previous season, the Phantomettes returned to the corps for 1964. With the girls back in the corps, successful recruitment, and new uniforms, the corps had its best season until that time, including a finish of 15th among 45 corps at the VFW National Championship preliminaries in Cleveland. The Phantomettes were honored in the graphic on the City of Rockford's 1964 vehicle registration stickers. But on August 21, 1964 Regimental Hall, the corps' home base, was badly damaged by a fire. The organization was forced to sell its instruments and uniforms to pay off its debts.

Financially unable to field a corps in 1965 through 1967, alumni and former staff members reorganized and officially incorporated on September 11, 1967. At the first meeting of the newly restructured corps in January, there were 28 members. The Regiment's 1968 drum and horn lines dressed in black pants and a red windbreaker with a black and white vertical stripe on the left side; the guard wore the same windbreaker, black Bermuda shorts and an "Aussie" style hat. The season consisted mostly of parades, with few field contests. The corps owned one vehicle; a red step van to carry the equipment. In that first year of the corps' return, perhaps the corps' greatest asset was its new musical arranger, Phantom Regiment alumnus and future DCI Hall of Fame member, Jim Wren, who would go on to arrange the unit's brass music for the next 32 years.

By 1970, Phantom was able to outfit the corps in new uniforms; a cadet-style jacket with a red diagonal sash dividing the black right side from the white left side, black pants with a white stripe, white buck shoes, and a shako with a 12-inch plume. The corps had grown to 89 members with 40 horns, 14 drums, 24 flags, 12 rifles, and a drum major.

In 1971, Wren started adding the classical music pieces that would become Phantom's trademark along with the usual pop music that most corps were playing. On a Friday the 13th in that year, so the legend goes, all of the corps' buses ran out of fuel; the equipment truck caught fire, not just once, but twice; yet the corps went out and won that night's contest.

Prior to the founding of DCI in 1972, the Phantom Regiment, like most corps of the time, was strictly a local organization. The members and the staff came from Rockford and its surrounding suburbs. Travel to contests was limited to perhaps a few hours of driving. The only "National" competition the corps had ever entered had been the 1964 VFW championships in Cleveland. The corps attended the first DCI competition, in Whitewater, Wisconsin, placing 23rd of 39 corps in prelims. In 1973, The corps returned to Whitewater and moved up to 14th place among 48 corps.[4]

In 1974, Phantom presented its first full program of all-classical musical selections. The corps had grown to DCI's maximum of 128 members, and it took its first extended tour, travelling to Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts en route to the DCI Championships in Ithaca, New York. The corps was beating many of the activity's traditional powers and earning a reputation as a power in its own right. At DCI, the Regiment earned its first Top Twelve Finalist placement, beginning a string that has held through 2019. In prelims, the corps shocked many by placing 8th, although they fell back to 11th at Finals.

Once the corps became a DCI Finalist, it also became become a consistent contender, placing 10th in 1975, 4th in 1976, and having a frustrating run of second-place finishes in 1977, 1978 and 1979 with the corps scoring within tenths of a point from the title.

A fall to a 10th-place finish in 1986 led the corps to take a new approach. Three years of improvement, culminated in 1989 with another second-place finish, with Phantom's score of 98.400 tying the previous DCI highest score ever.

From 1975, Phantom Regiment's field shows had been designed by future DCI Hall of Fame member John Brazale to maximize the musical impact while often amazing the audience. Returning home after the 1992 DCI Championships, Brazale had complained of having severe headaches during the last few weeks, and was soon diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and died within months.

In 1996, Phantom Regiment tied the Blue Devils of Concord, California for its first DCI World Championship. Jim Wren arranged for the corps from 1967 through the 1999 season, and then retired as the corps' musical arranger. Michael Klesch took over arranging duties in 2000 and 2001, and was then followed by alumnus J.D. Shaw, who arranged the corps' music from the 2002 season through the 2011 season. After spending the 2012–2019 seasons with the Santa Clara Vanguard, J.D. Shaw returned to Phantom Regiment after the 2019 season.

In 2008, with its performance of "Spartacus", Phantom Regiment defeated the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps by a margin of 0.025 to win its second (and first outright) DCI World Championship.

Through 2019, Phantom Regiment has continued to be a DCI Finalist with the streak extending through 45 consecutive top-12 finishes. In 2022, the first year of competition since the COVID-19 Pandemic, Phantom Regiment returned with their highest placement since 2016, and highest score since 2014.

Show summary (1972–2023)

Source:[5]

Key
Pale blue background indicates DCI World Class Finalist[lower-alpha 1]
Dark gold background indicates DCI World Class Champion[lower-alpha 1]
  1. 1 2 From 1972-1991, Phantom Regiment competed in Open Class; from 1992-2007 in Division I, and since 2008 in World Class. These are the same tier, just renamed.
Year Repertoire World Championships
Score Placement
1972 March (from La damnation de Faust) by Hector Berlioz / The Phantom Regiment by Leroy Anderson / America the Beautiful by Katherine Lee Bates & Samuel A. Ward / Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod / Poet & Peasant Overture by Franz von Suppé / Shot in the Dark by Henry Mancini / Spellbound Concerto by Miklós Rózsa 64.400 23rd Place
Open Class
1973 Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky / The Lord's Prayer (from King of Kings) by Miklós Rózsa / MacArthur Park by Jimmy Webb / Poet and Peasant Overture & Light Cavalry Overture by Franz von Suppé / Jubilance by James Swearingen 74.700 14th Place
Open Class
1974 Festive Overture & Fifth Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich / Poet and Peasant Overture by Franz von Suppé / Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky / Romeo and Juliet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky / Les Préludes by Franz Liszt 76.250 11th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1975 American Overture by Joseph Willcox Jenkins / Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms / Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini / An American in Paris by George Gershwin / Pilgrim's Chorus (from Tannhäuser) by Richard Wagner 81.30 10th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1976 Finale (from Symphony No. 7) by Gustav Mahler / Symphony No. 6 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky / Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach / An American in Paris by George Gershwin / Pilgrim's Chorus (from Tannhäuser) by Richard Wagner 87.75 4th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1977 New World Symphony by Antonín Dvořák / Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky / Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo / Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov / Ode to Joy (from Symphony No. 9) by Ludwig van Beethoven 90.300 2nd Place
Open Class
Finalist
1978 Firebird, Rite Of Spring, Petrouchka, Dance Infernale & Sherzo A La Russe by Igor Stravinsky / Piano Concerto in A Minor by Edvard Grieg / Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov / Ode to Joy (from Symphony No. 9) by Ludwig van Beethoven 91.450 2nd Place
Open Class
Finalist
1979 Third Symphony by Camille Saint-Saëns / Malambo (from Estancia) by Alberto Ginastera / Morning Mood (from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1), Piano Concerto in A Minor, Hall of the Mountain King (from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1) & March of the Dwarfs (from Lyric Suite) by Edvard Grieg / Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral (from Lohengrin) by Richard Wagner 92.750 2nd Place
Open Class
Finalist
1980 Russian Easter Overture by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov / Romany Life (from The Fortune Teller) by Victor Herbert / Polovetsian Dances (from Prince Igor) by Alexander Borodin / Masquerade Suite by Carl Nielsen / Carmen Suite by Georges Bizet, adapted by Ernest Guiraud 88.450 5th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1981 Spartacus
Triumph of Rome, Gladiator Fight, Dance of the Rebels, Prelude to Battle, Battle, Sunrise & Apotheosis
All from Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian
90.850 5th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1982 Spartacus
Triumph of Rome, Slave Dance, Gladiator Fight, Mourning and Uprising, Prelude to Battle, Battle, Sunrise & Apotheosis
All from Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian
92.150 4th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1983 Serenade for Strings, Cossack Dance, Dance Neapolitan & 1812 Overture
All by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
91.450 4th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1984 Scythian Suite by Sergei Prokofiev / Armenian Dances by Alfred Reed / Trypitch by Anthony J. Cirone / 1812 Overture by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 95.600 4th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1985 Symphony Fantastique
Symphony Fantastique by Hector Berlioz
90.100 8th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1986 Carnival Overture by Antonín Dvořák / Alborada Del Gracioso by Maurice Ravel / Sir Lancelot and the Black Knight & Merlin The Magician by Rick Wakeman / Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler 85.000 10th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1987 Songs from the Winter Palace
Selections from Swan Lake & The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
94.300 5th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1988 Romeo and Juliet
Selections from Romeo and Juliet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
93.500 6th Place
Open Class
Finalist
1989 From The New World... Into A New Age
Symphony No. 9, Mvts. 1 & 2; Slavonic Dances No. 1; Symphony No. 9, Mvt. 4
All by Antonín Dvořák
98.400 2nd Place
Open Class
Finalist
1990 Dreams of Desire
Symphony No. 3, "Organ Symphony", Mvt. 4; The Elephant & Finale (from The Carnival of the Animals) & Bacchanale (from Samson and Delilah)
All by Camille Saint-Saëns
95.300 4th Place
Open Class
Finalist
(tie)[lower-alpha 1]
1991 Phantom Voices
Nessun Dorma (from Turandot) by Giacomo Puccini / Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo / Bacchanale (from Samson and Delilah) by Camille Saint-Saëns
95.400 3rd Place
Open Class
Finalist
1992 War and Peace
Marche Slav by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky / La Marseillaise by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle / 1812 Overture by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
91.500 8th Place
Division I
Finalist
1993 The Modern Imagination
The Landworkers, The Wheat Dance & Danza Final (from Estancia) by Alberto Ginastera / The Fire of Eternal Glory (Novorossik Chimes) by Dmitri Shostakovich / Death Hunt (from On Dangerous Ground) by Bernard Herrmann
96.200 3rd Place
Division I
Finalist
1994 Songs for a Summer Night
Ritual Fire Dance (from El amor brujo) by Manuel de Falla / Claire De Lune by Claude Debussy / Talking Drums (from White Witch Doctor), Theme from North by Northwest & Death Hunt (from On Dangerous Ground) by Bernard Herrmann
96.200 3rd Place
Division I
Finalist
1995 Adventures Under a Darkened Sky
Symphonic Dances, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Variation 18), Piano Concerto No. 2 & Capriccio Bohemian
All by Sergei Rachmaninoff
94.100 5th Place
Division I
Finalist
1996 A Defiant Heart: The Music of Dmitri Shostakovich
Ballet Suite No. 4; Symphony No. 1, Mvt. 2 & Symphony No. 5, Mvt. 4
All by Dmitri Shostakovich
97.40 1st Place
Division I
Champion
(tie)[lower-alpha 2]
1997 The Ring
Hagen's Call to the Clan (from Götterdämmerung), Magic Fire Music (from Die Walküre), Hammering of the Ring (from Das Rheingold) & Die Götterdämmerung (from Götterdämmerung)
All from Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner
94.200 4th Place
Division I
Finalist
1998 Songs from the Eternal City: The Music of Rome
Roman Carnival Overture by Hector Berlioz / Un Bel Di (from Madama Butterfly) by Giacomo Puccini / Pines of the Villa Borghese & Pines of the Appian Way by Ottorino Respighi
90.400 8th Place
Division I
Finalist
1999 Tragedy and Triumph
Symphony No. 4, Symphony No. 5, Mvt. 2 & Symphony No. 6
All by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
91.200 8th Place
Division I
Finalist
2000 The Masters of Mystique: The Dawn of Modern Music
Jeux by Claude Debussy / Petrouchka by Igor Stravinsky / Transfigured Night by Arnold Schoenberg / Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
90.650 7th Place
Division I
Finalist
2001 Virtuoso
Finale & Game of Pairs (from Concerto for Orchestra) by Béla Bartók / Festive Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich
91.900 6th Place
Division I
Finalist
2002 Heroic Sketches: The Passion of Shostakovich
Symphony No. 10, Mvt. 2; Piano Concerto No. 2, Mvt. 2; Piano Concerto No. 2, Mvt. 1 & Symphony No. 7, Mvt. 4
All by Dmitri Shostakovich
92.400 5th Place
Division I
Finalist
(tie)[lower-alpha 3]
2003 Harmonic Journey
Sanctus (Canon in D) by Johann Pachelbel / Wild Nights (from Harmonium) by John Adams / The Lord's Prayer (from King of Kings) by Miklós Rózsa / Ostinato (from Mikrokosmos) by Béla Bartók
94.750 4th Place
Division I
Finalist
2004 Apasionada 874
Buenos Aires Hora Cero, La Muerte del Angel, Oblivion, Imagines 676, Adios Nonino & Tres Minutos con la Realidad
All by Ástor Piazzolla
93.575 5th Place
Division I
Finalist
2005 Rhapsody
An American in Paris & Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin
96.825 3rd Place
Division I
Finalist
2006 Faust
Scythian Suite by Sergei Prokofiev / Ave Maria by Franz Biebl / Piano Concerto by John Corigliano / Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler
96.850 2nd Place
Division I
Finalist
2007 On Air
Vespertine Formations by Christopher Deane / 1000 Airplanes on the Roof by Philip Glass / Flower Duet (from Lakmé) by Léo Delibes / Suggestion Diabolique by Sergei Prokofiev / Finale (from The Firebird) by Igor Stravinsky
94.850 4th Place
Division I
Finalist
2008 Spartacus
Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss / Toccata (from Piano Concerto No. 1) by Alberto Ginastera / Dance of Ecstasy (from Danses Fantastiques) by Loris Tjeknavorian / Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian / Battlefield (from ) by René Dupéré
98.125 1st Place
World Class
Champion
2009 The Red Violin
Theme from The Red Violin by John Corigliano / Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Nicolo Paganini by James Barnes / Paganini Variations by Witold Lutoslawski / Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff / Caprice XXIV by Benny Goodman / Paganini Variations by Philip Wilby
89.900 9th Place
World Class
Finalist
2010 Into the Light
The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arms by Michael Kamen
93.150 6th Place
World Class
Finalist
2011 Juliet
East of Eden by Lee Holdridge / Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi / Lacrimosa dies illa & Confutatis maledictis (from Requiem) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet by Nino Rota / Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Prokofiev / Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral (from Lohengrin) by Richard Wagner
95.050 5th Place
World Class
Finalist
2012 Turandot
Popolo di Pechino!; Indietro, cani; Gira la cote!... Perche tarda la luna?; O mondo, o mondo... O tigre, o tigre!; Gravi, enormi ed imponenti; Gloria, gloria; Tre enigmi m'hai & Nessun dorma!
All from Turandot by Giacomo Puccini
96.550 3rd Place
World Class
Finalist
2013 Triumphant Journey
Music from Elizabeth: The Golden Age by A. R. Rahman & Craig Armstrong / Cape Fear by Bernard Herrmann / Four Sea Interludes by Benjamin Britten / Enigma Variations: Nimrod by Edward Elgar / Symphony No. 11 by Dmitri Shostakovich
93.250 6th Place
World Class
Finalist
2014 Swan Lake
Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky / La Péri by Paul Dukas / Dracula (Act III) by Philip Feeny / A Fateful Meeting, Beauty Killed the Beast, & Tooth and Claw (from King Kong) by James Newton Howard / Mother and Child (from Flightplan) by James Horner
91.425 7th Place
World Class
Finalist
2015 City of Light
I Love Paris by Cole Porter / Horoscope by Constant Lambert / Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy / Piano Concerto in C# Minor by Francis Poulenc / An American in Paris by George Gershwin / Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony) by Camille Saint-Saens
90.325 7th Place
World Class
Finalist
2016 Voice of Promise
Preludes for Piano Op. 34, No. 14 by Dmitri Shostakovich / The Chairman Dances by John Adams / Ave Verum Corpus by Colin Mawby / The Darkest Moment by Rob Ferguson & Bret Kuhn / Hymne Des Fraternises: I'm Dreaming of Home by Phillipe Rombi / Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten
89.963 8th Place
World Class
Finalist
2017 Phantasm
Finlandia by Jean Sibelius / Symphony No. 12 by Dmitri Shostakovich / Entering the Nightmare (from Dreamscape) by Maurice Jarre / Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff / Symphony No. 3 by Aram Khachaturian
88.125 9th Place
World Class
Finalist
2018 This New World
Finale (from Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium) by Aaron Zigman & Alexandre Desplat / Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev / A Child's Garden of Dreams by David Maslanka / Picture Studies by Adam Schoenberg / New World Symphony by Antonín Dvořák
86.95011th Place
World Class
Finalist
2019 I Am Joan
Carmina Burana by Carl Orff / Audivi Media Nocte by Oliver Waespi / Zohar by Jonathan Leshnoff / Fire of Eternal Glory & Lady McBeth of Mtsensk by Dmitri Shostakovich / Vox Populi by Jared Leto (30 Seconds to Mars) / Unleashed by Thomas Bergersen (Two Steps from Hell)
87.23812th Place
World Class
Finalist
2020 Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021 Harmonic Journey
Sanctus (Canon in D) by Johann Pachelbel / Wild Nights (from Harmonium) by John Adams / The Lord's Prayer (from King of Kings) by Miklós Rózsa / Ostinato (from Mikrokosmos) by Béla Bartók
No scored competitions
2022 No Walk Too Far
Before Time by Thomas Bergersen / Godspeed! & The Chosen by Stephen Melillo / Eli's Theme (from Let the Right One In) by Johan Söderqvist / Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler
90.6758th Place
World Class
Finalist
2023 Exogenesis
The 2nd Law: Isolated System & Supremacy by Muse / As If A Voice Were In Them by Oliver Waespi / to wALk Or ruN in wEst harlem by Andy Akiho / Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff / For I Have Fought the Good Fight by Stephen Melillo
92.988 7th Place
World Class
Finalist
  1. In 1990, Phantom Regiment and the Blue Devils tied for 4th place.
  2. In 1996, Phantom Regiment and the Blue Devils tied for 1st place.
  3. In 2002, Phantom Regiment and the Boston Crusaders tied for 5th place.

Caption awards

At the annual World Championship Finals, Drum Corps International (DCI) presents awards to the corps with the high average scores from prelims, semifinals, and finals in five captions. Phantom Regiment has won these caption awards.[6]

Don Angelica Best General Effect Award

  • 2008

Fred Sanford Best Percussion Performance Award

  • 2006, 2008, 2010

Prior to 2000 and the adoption of the current scoring format, Phantom Regiment won these captions:

High General Effect Award

  • 1991 (tie), 1996

High Visual Award

  • 1979, 1980, 1989, 1990 (tie)

High Color Guard Award

  • 1977, 1979, 1988

High Brass Award

  • 1978, 1989, 1996

References

  1. "Corps". Drum Corps International. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  2. "History of the Phantom Regiment". Archived from the original on 2012-06-22. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  3. A History of Drum & Bugle Corps, Vol. 1; Steve Vickers, ed.; Drum Corps World, 2002
  4. "corpsreps.com - The Drum Corps Repertoire Database". corpsreps.com.
  5. "Phantom Regiment\Repertoire". DCX: The Drum Corps Xperience. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  6. "Caption Winners". fromthepressbox.com. Retrieved 2022-08-14.
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