Tony Pietricola
Long-time educator and musician, Tony Pietricola taught in public schools for 40 years in New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont. He has been an adjunct faculty member at St. Michael’s College and the University of Vermont. Frequently found in pit orchestras for Lyric Theatre and St. Michael’s college, Tony has also performed in concert bands, orchestras, and jazz ensembles. He lives in Grand Isle with his wife Susan where he enjoys gardening, fishing, and cutting wood.
Mr. Pietricola served as chair of the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education, president of the Vermont Music Educators’ Association and, presently, is dean of the Island Arts Academy in the Champlain Islands, a part of Island Arts. He participated as a member of the Vermont Arts Assessment Design Team, helped write the original Vermont Framework of Learning Expectations, the Vermont Grade Cluster Expectations, and was a member of the State Collaboratives on Assessment and Student Standards — a national organization in Washington, D.C. He has presented workshops locally, statewide, and nationally and was voted the 2003 Vermont Music Educator of the Year by the Vermont Music Educators’ Association and a Vermont Outstanding Teacher by the University of Vermont in 1992. Wynton Marsalis also presented Tony with an award for Outstanding Contribution to Jazz Education on behalf of the Flynn Theater of the Performing Arts in 2005.
Over the years, Tony has kept in touch with the Vermont Arts Council, partnering in many projects. “I have always seen the Vermont Arts Council as an organization in the vanguard of advocacy for a strong arts education and arts presence in Vermont and am thrilled to now be part of the Council Board.”