Ryan Kisor was born on April 12, 1973, in Sioux City, Iowa and began playing trumpet at age four. In 1990, he won first prize at the Thelonious Monk Institute’s first annual Louis Armstrong Trumpet Competition. Mr. Kisor enrolled in The Manhattan School of Music in 1991, where he studied with trumpeter Lew Soloff. He has performed and/or recorded with the Mingus Big Band, the Gil Evans Orchestra, Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, Jim Hall, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Philip Morris Jazz All-Stars, and many others. As well as being an active sideman, Mr. Kisor has recorded several albums as a leader, including  Battle Cry (1997) and The Usual Suspects (1998). He has been a member of the LCJO since 1994.