At the end of the 2011-2012 school year, Dr. Susan Nicholson announced her departure from Pine Crest School. Shortly after, a series of new music teachers from all over the U.S. sent in their applications and interviewed on campus. A handful of prospective band teachers got to showcase their skills and conduct the prestigious Pine Crest Band, fresh off its straight superior rating at the FBA music performance assessment. Dr. Cicconi graduated from Youngstown State University with a major in music education. He went on to get his master’s degree from Arizona State and  his PhD from the University of Miami. Dr. Cicconi conducts for many local orchestras including the Broward Symphony Orchestra and the Ars Flores Orchestra. He conducts overseas as well in countries such as China and Argentina. And, if he feels like it, he plays tuba sometimes. With his charming personality, incredible looks, and outrageous fifth place standing in the international Angry Birds rankings, Chris Cicconi stood above the rest.

The basics about Dr. Cicconi are simple. He is, and always will be, a tuba player; although, he possesses a mastery of most wind instruments. His passions, aside from music, include a losing Pittsburgh Steelers football team, movies (unfortunately, he’s a horror buff), and Angry Birds. Seriously, Angry Birds is a really big part of his life. He’s fifth in the whole world and even has videos on Youtube. Look up RovioMobile and Angry Birds Nest to find him. In high school, Dr. Cicconi participated in all the sports he could possibly try out for. He played soccer, baseball, football, basketball, and he ran track. On top of his crazy time investment into sports and music, he was also an artist. In fact, his drawings were so good that his art teacher stole one of them to submit to a competition. There was some pretty loud yelling after he found out that his teacher stole his drawing, but Dr. Cicconi went on to win first prize in the adult competition. Dr. Cicconi also shared a wonderfully heart-touching story about how he stepped up to play Goldilocks in the school play when no one else would. Apparently his golden locks were magnificent. Some may think Dr. Cicconi was one of those cool guys in high school– the tuba playing sprinter who got cut from the fifth string basketball team and doodled in class. Well, if there are any doubts about his grandeur, he was also a devoted member of the Dungeons and Dragons club in high school. He told me: “I bridged the gap,” meaning he did both sports and the really geeky stuff.

Students should stop in and talk with Dr. Chris Cicconi.  And, if they get him to play something on the tuba–they won’t be disappointed.