Joe Scifo
Percussion Caption Head/Pit
Joe Scifo is a Percussionist, Conductor, and Clinician in the Pittsburgh area. He began playing in middle school, studying traditional American and Scottish Rudimental styles, and then moving on to modern Drum Corps and WGI Styles during his high school years. In 2015, he won his High Schools Drum Major audition and attended George N. Parks Drum major Academy. That year he began conducting small ensembles and teaching basic percussion technique classes. In 2016 He began attending the Mary Pappert School of music and studied Percussion, Conducting and Music Education methods. During this time He studied with various teachers, including Tom Went, Dennis Hoffman, Shawn Galvin, Lenny Rodgers, Elesao Rael, and Dr. Robert Cameron and began teaching clinics at schools in the Pittsburgh area, including several clinics at Duquesne University. He made his professional conducting debut at Carnegie Music Hall of Oakland with the Duquensne University Symphony Band in 2018. Later that year, he was accepted into the Studio of Ed Stephan, Principal Timpanist of the San Fransisco Symphony, and John Soroka, former principal Percussionist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn. Since then he has studied percussion styles from all over the world including Chamber music, Hand drumming, Jazz, Orchestral Playing, Solo Playing, and may more. He continues to actively learn and master his craft, both as a teacher and a student, and is very excited to make some music!
Battery Caption Head
Scott Kittrell is our Battery Caption Head, he has marched DCI with Dutch Boy 93 and Bluecoats 94. He also has marched DCA with the World Champion Westshoremen from 95 and 96. He has taught numerous percussion sections over the years including winning KIDA Championships in 95 and 96. He currently teaches Warren County HS percussion. Scott brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Mon Valley.
Tenor Instructor
Peter Laskoski is a 21-year-old quad drummer from the Pittsburgh area. Peter started his drum corps career here at Mon Valley Express in the summer of 2016. He went on to serve as the quad section leader at The Raiders Drum and Bugle Corps from New Jersey for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. In 2019, Peter was a part of the 2019 Jersey Surf quad line where helped push the corps back into semi-finals competition and was supposed to march again in 2020.
Peter is currently a junior at Penn State where he is studying applied math. Peter has also served as a battery tech at Greensburg Salem Highschool since 2018. In 2020, he was promoted to co-arranger and assistant caption head.
" I am super excited to be here and get after it with everyone! Mon Valley gave me the start to my DCI career and I am hoping we here can offer that same experience once again to a new generation of performers!