Two Iola band students were able to work with the “major league of drum corps” during the Phantom Regiment drum major camp June 2-5 at Rockford University, Rockford, Ill.
Trilby Bannister, senior, and Yohon Sinclair, junior, will be drum majors for the Iola High School Band in the 2014-15 school year. Iola Band instructor, Matt Kleopfer, said conductors across the country teach the camp.
“Going to this camp is an experience of a lifetime,” Kleopfer said. “It is something I never got as a kid.”
The Phantom Regiment is a drum and bugle corps founded in 1956.
Bannister and Sinclair became involved in band in sixth grade. The camp gave them their first taste in conducting.
“We had our views of what a leader is changed,” Sinclair said. “It’s more than someone up front telling the band what to do.”
The students learned conducting methods and verbal commands.
Bannister said watching the Regiment was her favorite part of the camp. The students were able to not only watch the drum corps but also visit with them outside of practices.
“We’ll use everything we learned from them,” Bannister said. “We also got a book explaining how to do things.”
Sinclair said he enjoyed meeting other band students.
“I liked talking to the other kids,” he said. “They gave us ideas that we can use. It was an awesome experience.”
Both drum majors have goals for the Iola band in the upcoming year.
“We want to keep practices better structured,” Sinclair said. “The Regiment gets a lot done in a day.”
