Currently a resident of the Town of Hamburg, New York, Peter was born and raised in Niagara Falls, NY, where he studied music with Salvatore Paonessa and won first place in the Niagara Falls Jazz Ensemble Competition. At Adam State College in Alamosa, Colorado, where he studied for his music degree, he initiated a jazz program for the first time on campus. Recently, at his forty-year reunion, the school honored him for pioneering the curriculum that has since been studied by so many who have gone on to become professional musicians and music teachers themselves. Later, while at Fredonia State University graduate school, Herbie Harp, professor of trumpet, mentored the young Ciraolo.

His local professional credits include playing trumpet and flugelhorn with many of the area's finest musical groups, including The Lou Barone/Gus Broncato Orchestra, The Niagara Falls and Orchard Park Symphony Orchestras, Dr. Joe Baudo's Big Band, The Pyramid Swing Band, The Bill Bailey Marching Band, and his own Pete Ciraolo Jazz Quintet. At Artpark in Lewiston, NY, he performed in the pit orchestras for the musicals Godspell and The King and I.

While serving as Jazz Ensemble and Band Director at Lake Shore Central Schools, in Angola, NY, for 33 years - during which time he also spent many years a Chairman of the Music Department - his students accrued awards and honors too numerous to mention individually. Additionally, he served as the Conductor and Music Director for all thirty-three of Lake Shore's musical productions during his tenure there, winning the “Kenny” Award for “Best High School Student Orchestra” during one competition sponsored annually by Gibraltar Steel. His directing credits also include the realm of higher education where, as Conductor and Director of the Canisius College Jazz Ensemble, his musicians won the Villanova Jazz Festival in the category for Non-Music Majors when his group opened for a concert featuring world-renowned trumpeter Clark Terry.

Peter's own instrumental skills also earned him performances with other greats: Don “Red” Menza, Pearl Bailey with the Louie Bellson Orchestra, Randy Purcell - trombonist with Maynard Ferguson's Orchestra, and Kevin Stout - former guitarist/trombonist/vocalist with the jazz vocal group The Four Freshmen.