Nonet leader Jim Cifelli studied trumpet at NYU and jazz composition at Manhattan School of Music, where his teachers included Manny Albam and Ludmilla Ulehla. He has received commissions for original compositions at the high school, college and professional levels, and his sonata for trumpet and piano was debuted by Fred Mills of the Canadian Brass in May of 1996. For the past ten years, Cifelli has been active as a freelancer trumpeter in NY. He is a native of Yorktown Heights, New York.