KenNigro.com - welcome

above: Ken's octet with Mark Beaubriand and Steve Moran

Ken is a Yamaha Performing Artist/Clinician

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Ken Nigro - saxophone, flute, clarinet and EWI - is based in Austin, TX. Ken is a Yamaha Performing Woodwind Artist performing mostly in the Austin & San Antonio areas. He moved to Austin from the northeast in 2021. Ken Nigro plays lead tenor saxophone and is a featured soloist on the jazz band CD: Jens Wendelboe's “Against All Odds” released fall 2021 on Losen Records. He began working with Jens in 2015. Kenny has played or recorded with artists including Harvey Swartz, Bill Mays, Luis Conte, Doc Severinsen, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Manhattan Transfer, Sammy Davis Jr, John Pizzarelli, Nelson Riddle Orchestra, Marvin Stamm, Ernie Watts and Chris Botti.


He performed regularly (prior to the pandemic) with the Waterbury Symphony, Orchestra New England and Ridgefield Symphony (most recently solo alto and soprano saxophones in February 2020 for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue).


Over the past few years Ken has performed as a woodwind musician (saxophones, flutes & clarinets) for national touring companies including Book of Mormon, Phantom of the Opera, the Sound of Music, Newsies and Chicago. He also played the premier run of  Paul Williams' Happy Days at the Goodspeed Theater in Chester, CT  for John McDaniel in 2007.


Ken's taught applied music and ensembles at the University of Miami, UConn, and most recently at Southern Connecticut State University. Kenneth Nigro has performed at venues including Newport Jazz Festival in Saratoga, NY, the 53rd Presidential Inaugural at the Kennedy Performing Arts Center (with Aretha Franklin), White Nights Jazz Festival in Russia, Freihofer's Hartford Jazz Festival (with the Ken Nigro Band), B.B. King Blues Club in NYC & Daryl's House in Pawling, NY.