Kenny Cifone Trumpet Brandon, Vermont

Kenny Cifone grew up in South Philadelphia, where he attended the Girard Academic Music Program, a performing arts magnet school. Although he was raised in a musical family—his dad played trumpet and trombone in rock and roll and wedding bands—he felt the need to rebel against his parents’ love of disco and become a classical musician. In his senior year of high school, he made first chair in the Philadelphia All City Orchestra. He moved to New York in 1985 to study classical trumpet at the Manhattan School of Music. At MSM, he studied with Mel Broiles, William Vacchiano and Robert Nagel. He studied privately with Vince Penzarella and Steven Burns.

After graduating, Kenny decided that the life of a freelance musician was too difficult and scary, so he quit and chose to pursue a career in trying to find a career to pursue. He spent the next ten years “finding himself” and learning how to enjoy music again. He played in several original bands and community orchestras and began composing and arranging. At 30 he went back to school to become a music teacher to share his renewed love for the art with younger generations. He taught for seven years in the Byram Hills school district in Armonk, New York. Kenny moved to Vermont in 2006 with his wife and two kids and now teaches at the Dorset School and enjoys creating, performing and teaching music more than ever.