The Valley Forge Military Academy Regimental Band
The Valley Forge Military Academy & College Regimental Band is world famous and has traveled to Europe many times in recent years to perform. The band will again be the lead group in the 2011 Lord Mayor's New Year's Day Parade in London.
Additionally, some students in the school's band perform regularly on and off-campus on the school's Coronation Heraldic Fanfare Trumpets. The Herald Fanfare Trumpets were brought to Valley Forge in 1953 by Colonel D. Keith Feltham, Valley Forge Military Academy & College, L.R.A.M., A.R.C.M. who served as Bandmaster and Director of Music from September 1949 to June 1976. (Bandmaster Dudley Keith Feltham served as Bandmaster of the 1st Battalion, the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry from 1938 to 1949. Colonel Feltham also introduced the British “Slow March” in approximately 1961.) The unique complement of trumpets are regularly used to perform at the Academy's weekly chapel services, and are frequently booked for off-campus events, both domestic and abroad. Today the collection consists of the full complement of voices, which consists of six B-flat soprano trumpets, six B-flat tenor trumpets, two G-bass trumpets, and two E-flat soprano trumpets. The original eight heraldic fanfare trumpets have been used on numerous ceremonial occasions associated with royalty: at Westminster Abbey to herald the Coronation of King George VI in 1937, at St. Paul's Cathedral to herald the Royal Silver Wedding Ceremony, at the wedding of then-Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, and at Westminster Abbey for the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.
In January 1970, the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy, and the Valley Forge Military Academy Band under the leadership of Colonel D. Keith Feltham, performed the "1812 Overture" (full title: Festival Overture "The Year 1812", op. 49); by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky live at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. The concert was attended by then United States President Richard M. Nixon. After the rousing performance, Ormandy heralded the cadets as the "Philadelphia Orchestra of Military Bands" and was inspired to produce an updated recording of the overture. In the fall of 1970, the VFMA recorded their tracks of the production in Columbia Studios in New York City. In addition to the VFMA Band, the recording prominently featured the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, directed by Richard P. Condie.
The current Bandmaster is Warrant Officer (II) Phil Evans, Royal Marines Band Service (Retired).
Read more about this topic: Valley Forge Military Academy And College, Songs
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