Director Profile: Michael Boitz
Michael Boitz is the Performing Arts Department Chair at Saratoga High School, Saratoga, CA, where he is in his 13th year of teaching instrumental music. The Saratoga High School instrumental music ensembles have developed a reputation for excellence at the state, national, and international level under the leadership of Mr. Boitz. Mr. Boitz’s musical responsibilities at Saratoga High School include overseeing all aspects of the music department, involving over 40% of the 1,300 students enrolled at Saratoga High. The instrumental ensembles at SHS include three concert bands, two jazz bands, a percussion ensemble class, three string orchestras, two 100-member symphony orchestras, and a 220-member competitive marching band.
Mr. Boitz has presented sessions for new music educators at the local and state level of the California Music Educators Association (CMEA), as well as serves as an adjudicator for CMEA Bay Section, NCBA, and several other organizations on the West Coast. Mr. Boitz is currently serving as the state CMEA Orchestra Representative, Orchestra Representative for the California Band Directors Association, and is a Member-At-Large of the California Orchestra Directors Association. Mr. Boitz has been honored to guest conduct high school and middle school honor bands and orchestras in California, Nevada, and Illinois, and is also invited annually to conduct at renowned summer music camps.
In 2000 Mr. Boitz was presented with the Teacher-of-the-Year Award by the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District. At the 2003 California Music Educators Association Bay Section Conference Mr. Boitz was awarded the Gilbert T. Freitas Award for Excellence in Music Education. In 2005 Mr. Boitz was honored by the Saratoga City Council by receiving an honorary commendation by the Mayor. Most recently in 2007, Mr. Boitz was awarded the Richard L. Levin Orchestra Educator of the Year Award at the annual California Music Educators Association State Conference. Michael Boitz has also been listed annually in the Who’s Who among America's Teachers.
Michael Boitz is a magna cum laud graduate of Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. He has completed his MA in Music Education with a conducting emphasis from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, where he continues to further his studies. His teachers of greatest influence have included Mallory Thompson, Russell Pesola, J. Robert Hanson, Frank Bencriscutto, Ed Huttlin, John Lace, Gordon Nilsen, and Peter Dahlstrom. Michael Boitz was born and raised in Anoka, MN, and is a proud graduate of Anoka High School.
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