Ken Nigro is a professor of saxophone and clarinet at Southern Connecticut State University and has over 25 years of experience teaching saxophone, clarinet and flute at the college level at the University of Miami, CCSU, UCONN and NVCC. In addition to teaching sax, flute and clarinet in a university setting, he Ken has also taught jazz ensemble, combo, improvisation, saxophone ensemble and woodwind methods. He performs with orchestras, ensembles and shows such as A Chorus Line (national touring company), Happy Days (2007 premier performance at Goodspeed in Chester, CT), Chicago (national company), Phantom of the Opera (2017 national company) and The Book of Mormon (2019 national company). Ken has worked with artists including Aretha Franklin, John Pizzarelli, The Temptations and Manhattan Transfer. The Ken Nigro Band is an octet featuring music from Supersax and his own compositions as well as unique arrangements of jazz styles with vocals from the '50s through the present. Two of his better known compositions are "Big Schleps" for jazz quintet and "Wednesday Night at the Red Door" for five saxophones and rhythm section. Ken performs regularly with Jens Wendelboe and other artists.
Ken is an adjunct woodwind lecturer at the Taft School in Watertown, CT. His performance highlights include venues such as the Newport Jazz Festival (Saratoga), Friehofer's Jazz Festival (Hartford) and the White Nights Jazz Festival (Russia). He has written the text, The Complete Saxophone. Ken is featured as a soloist on the New Millennium Jazz Ensemble's CD which also features Harvie Swartz and Bill Mays. He is very active adjudicating, conducting and presenting clinics as a Yamaha Performing Artist. Ken uses AMT clip-on microphones and has been playing Yamaha instruments for more than 25 years.
