Sabian Dom Famularo SEN Mentorship Award: Anthony Cracchiolo Named Finalist in 2024 and 2025

Sabian HHX cymbal

Recognition for a unique and powerful approach to percussion instruction

In the world of professional drumming, few forms of recognition carry more weight than being selected as a finalist for the Dom Famularo Mentorship Award—one of the percussion industry's most prestigious annual honors. Anthony Cracchiolo earned that distinction not once, but in two consecutive award cycles: 2024 and 2025.

About Sabian: A name synonymous with cymbal excellence

Sabian is one of the world's foremost cymbal manufacturers, trusted by professional drummers across every genre of music for decades. From concert halls to recording studios to arena stages, Sabian cymbals are played by some of the most respected percussionists on the planet. Beyond manufacturing, Sabian has long been a champion of music education—investing in programs, partnerships, and initiatives that develop the next generation of drummers worldwide.

For Sabian to recognize a drummer by name—as a finalist for its most prominent educational award—is a meaningful endorsement from one of the most authoritative voices in the percussion industry.

Who was Dom Famularo?

To understand the weight of this award, you have to understand who Dom Famularo was. Known throughout the drumming world as "Drumming's Global Ambassador," Dom spent more than four decades traveling to over 60 countries, performing clinics, teaching students, and inspiring audiences everywhere he went. He was a Sabian artist from 1985 onward—synonymous with the brand, its values, and its educational mission.

Dom was not primarily known as a performer, though he was a gifted one. He was known as a teacher, a motivator, and a mentor — someone who believed deeply that the purpose of mastering drumming was to use that mastery to lift others. He authored books, gave clinics at music schools and universities worldwide, and dedicated his career to the idea that a drummer's greatest contribution is not what they play, but who they inspire.

In his own words about this award, Dom wrote: "We are looking for wave makers. Someone to really want to offer their passion to inspire people to aspire." That sentence is a precise description of what Anthony Cracchiolo has spent thirty-plus years doing in southeastern Pennsylvania.

The SABIAN Dom Famularo SEN Mentorship Award

Each year, Sabian selects one drummer to receive the Dom Famularo SEN Mentorship Award—a grant of $2,500 and a series of exclusive one-on-one mentorship sessions with accomplished judges drawn from across the professional drumming industry. The award is highly competitive and open to drummers anywhere in the world.

Applicants are evaluated on a demanding set of criteria: technique, groove, musicality, sound, communication skills, and—critically—the quality and ambition of their goals for how they would use the grant to further music education and inspire others. This is not a performance contest. It is a search for educators, mentors, and community builders who embody the spirit Dom Famularo spent his life demonstrating.

The application process requires applicants to submit both a performance video and a personal video explaining their vision. Being selected as a finalist means clearing a rigorous review by Sabian's judging panel — a meaningful distinction in a field of competitors from around the world.

Learn more about the Sabian Dom Famularo SEN Mentorship Award on Sabian's official site.

Anthony as a finalist: What it means

Anthony Cracchiolo was named a finalist for the Sabian Dom Famularo SEN Mentorship Award in both the 2024 and 2025 award cycles—a consecutive recognition that reflects both the consistency of his approach and the strength of the story he brings to the application.

The "SEN" in the award's name stands for Sabian Education Network—Sabian's broader commitment to supporting music educators and advancing drum instruction at every level. That context makes Anthony's back-to-back nominations all the more meaningful: this is an award specifically rooted in the education community, and Anthony has spent over three decades building one of the most compelling teaching records in the greater Philadelphia region. His long-term relationships with students, his philosophy of meeting every learner exactly where they are, and his community-focused work through the VA Hospital donation drive all speak directly to the values the Sabian Education Network was built around.

Being named a finalist twice is not a near-miss. It is a formal acknowledgment by one of the percussion world's most respected institutions that Anthony's work—his teaching, his community involvement, and his vision for what drumming can do in people's lives—is worthy of the highest recognition the industry offers educators.

Recognition rooted in a lifetime of teaching

Dom Famularo's defining belief was that the best drummers are the ones who give the most back. Anthony has built his entire career on that same conviction. From students who have gone on to perform with the U.S. Navy Band and the U.S. Army Band, to students earning seats in the NJ Symphony Orchestra, to a young man with autism who now performs live in a band and has received a personal letter from the Governor of Pennsylvania—the results of Anthony's teaching speak directly to what the Dom Famularo Award was created to honor.

Sabian's recognition of Anthony as a finalist is, in many ways, the percussion industry putting its name behind something his students and their families have known for thirty years.

Experience the teaching that earned this recognition

If you're considering drum lessons for yourself or your student—in person across Berks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties in Pennsylvania, or online anywhere in the world—this is the teaching philosophy and track record behind every lesson Anthony gives. The first lesson is always free!

Questions? Contact Anthony directly at pregodrums@gmail.com