Trumpet Player Nick Ciardelli of Philadelphia is originally from Long Beach Island, New Jersey. I'll defer to Nick ... "Well in fourth grade, the music teacher in my elementary school brought in all of the instruments that we could choose from, and after he demonstrated all of them, I really wanted to play the drums but since someone else in the class picked that, and since there were a limited number of spots, he made me play the trumpet instead. Once I got to middle school, I started taking lessons with a local trumpet player named John Dondero, also my middle school band director gave me a few CD's to listen too. I think they were; Miles "Kind of Blue," Maynard "Master of the Stratosphere," and Arturo's "Hot House." I think I played the Maynard and Arturo CD's until they stopped working, unfortunately it wasn't until later that I really took a liking to Miles. The High School that I went to had an excellent music program, the teachers were great and so were the students. The school had a very big marching band program, I think that's were I first started to build my chops up. I also took part in the a lot of the New Jersey Region/All State Jazz and Concert Bands. I also played in the Regional Grammy Band which was in Philadelphia, there I met one of Philly's great lead trumpet players, Matt Gallagher, I started studying with him and continued through the beginning of college.

I got my bachelors at The University of The Arts in Philadelphia. My freshman year I started playing Lead Trumpet in one of the Big Bands and the jazz trumpet ensemble, which was a "Chase" style band. From there I just tried to work my way into anything I could, and started subbing for guys in different ensembles around school. A friend from school played in a summer rehearsal band made up of college students from the area (The Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra) and they were looking for a lead trumpet player, so he gave them my phone number. I joined the band and rehearsed a few times a week with them and played at a local jazz club in Philly every other Tuesday night. Since UArts was primarily a jazz school, they didn't have too many opportunities to play classical music, so I also played in one of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra's while I was there (The Philadelphia Sinfonia). I started playing with a few other reading bands off and on during college, and also started playing in wedding bands and doing club dates in the Philadelphia and Atlantic City areas. I think the summer after my sophomore year I was working just about every Saturday night doing that kind of stuff.

TRUMPET PLAYER NICK CIARDELLI

To contact Nick Ciardelli ... you can visit Nick's website at NickCiardelli.com

As an active freelance musician in the Philadelphia and Atlantic City areas, Trumpet Player Nick Ciardelli can be heard locally as the Lead Trumpet Player with; The Jump City Jazz Orchestra, The Millennium Jazz Band and The Big City Band, as well as playing in the pit orchestra's of; The Media Theater - Media, PA, and with Our Gang Players - Manahawkin, NJ.

Professionally, Nick has played trumpet with; The Lars Halle Jazz Orchestra, The Jim Ward/Ed Vezinho Big Band, The Phil Giordano Big Band, The Brass Tacks Orchestra, Streaks of Blue Big Band, The John Roesch Big Band, The Peter Scott Ruben Orchestra, The Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra, The Clef Club Big Band, The Musical Tree Orchestra, The Eddie Bruce Band, Beru Revue, Chico�s Vibe, All About Me, The Hoppin Jon Orchestra, The John Hoey Orchestra and EBE: Entertainment Beyond Expectation.

At only twenty-one years of age, Nick has had the privilege to share the stage with notable performers, such as; Larry McKenna, Jimmy Bruno, Tim Haggans, John Swana, Grant Stewart, Bootsie Barnes, Bernie Dressel, Gregg Field, Tony Kadleck, Ron Kerber, John Fedchock, John Rielly, George Rabbai, and Chris Farr, just to name a few.

Nick can also be heard quite frequently performing with The Hickory Brass Band, The Broad Street Brass Quartet, and The Philadelphia Sinfonia Orchestra, Nick has done recording work with The University of The Arts Big Band at Larry Gold's "The Studio" and Vic Steven's "Giant Steps" recording studio, for The University of The Arts Big Band CD. He has also recorded on Jim Gallgher's "All About Love" and on Julie Charnet's debut album featuring Bootsie Barns, scheduled to be released in 2009. Nick has toured Europe with The Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra, performed on the Philly CBS-3 Half-Time Show, played at Yankee Stadium, Giants Stadium, marched in the Macy's Thanks Giving Day Parade, performed at the Awarding of the Doctorate of Fine Arts to internationally recognized bassist Stanley Clarke, and has performed at the 2006 International Trumpet Guild Conference at Rowan University, in Glassboro, NJ.

Trumpet Player Nick Ciardelli studied with Matt Gallagher, and George Rabbai - who toured with the Woody Herman Orchestra. As well as all of the trumpet faculty at UArts including Dennis Wasko, Bill Pussey, and John Swana. Nick was also going up to New York City to study with Tony Kadleck as often as possible. Relates Nick, "When I was in the UArts Big Band, we had many themed concerts, so I was exposed to all types of music, such as; Thad Jones, Maria Schneider, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Count Basie. I really tried to listen to as much music as possible, and in all different styles to familiarize myself with everything. I started playing some weddings and private parties with various cover bands in the Philly Area, and was also playing 5th trumpet/split lead with this big band in town - The Jump City Jazz Orchestra. The lead player ended up leaving, so I moved up to the first book, this put me on the spot and started giving me some exposure around town. I also would get hired by different high school's in the area to play in there pit orchestra's. Everything kind of snowballed from there, I started getting calls from more guys in town to sub for them on club dates or big band gigs, and then eventually I started to get calls to play along side of them. All of this turned into playing bigger and better things, like professional theater in the Philadelphia area, working at the casinos down in Atlantic City 3-4 nights a week and getting the split lead trumpet spot with the Glenn Miller Orchestra (I start with them May 2009).

Trumpet Player Nick Ciardelli talks about his trumpet teachers and trumpet methods ... "I think the most valuable thing I've learned from my trumpet teachers, is to come up with a daily routine for warm-up's and practicing. I think this helps with consistency in your playing and also from damaging your chops ... especially, if you are doing a lot of heavy playing in a short amount of time. In the beginning of my senior year at UArts, the lead trombone player in the big band and one of my best friends, gave me this practice routine that he put together. It involves every aspect of playing trumpet; stretching, breathing, long tones, lip slurs, tonging, etc. I try to utilize this every day. I put a lot of time into figuring out my breathing, Mike Jarosz, another great Philadelphia trumpet player, taught me the "Wedge Breath" that he learned when he was on the road with Maynard, I modified it a little but the basic concept is the same ... this helped me a lot. My trumpet teachers really hammered me on Arban's, Clarke, Schlossberg and Charlier. To build my chops I played a lot of exercises in the Colin Advanced Lip Flexibilities book and the Allen Vizzutti book #1 - the upper register and endurance section in the back.

Nick uses a Bb Trumpet "Bach 72 lightweight" Goldplated Bb trumpet; Bach 229 with a Najoom Leadpipe C trumpet; a Yamaha 6810S Piccolo trumpet and a Yamaha 631 Flugelhorn with Rose brass bell. Nick's choice in mouthpieces includes a Monette BL2; a Kanstul copy of a Bach Mount Vernon 1C (Kanstul BMV 1-1/2C); a GR 62 P-M with a #43 adapter (for piccolo) and a Bach 3FL (for flugel).

TRUMPET PLAYER NICK CIARDELLI