Michael Boitz is the Chair of the Saratoga High School Performing and Visual Arts Department, Saratoga, CA, where he lives and has been teaching instrumental music for 9 years. 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 responsibilities include overseeing all aspects of the instrumental music department, involving over 25% of the 1,300 students enrolled at Saratoga High. The instrumental ensembles at SHS include 3 concert bands, 2 jazz bands, 2 string orchestras, a 115-member symphony orchestra, and the 190-member marching band.

In addition to his daily duties at Saratoga High School, Michael Boitz is actively involved in music education. 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 serving as an adjudicator for CMEA Bay Section. Mr. Boitz is also currently serving as Past-President of the Santa Clara County Band Directors Association. In the California Music Educators Association, Bay Section, Mr. Boitz has served as Area V representative and Orchestra Representative

Michael Boitz has been invited on numerous occasions to guest conduct middle school honor bands, most recently the Marin County Middle School Honor Band, as well as invitations to serve as a conductor and clinician at summer music camps. In 2000 Mr. Boitz was awarded Teacher-of-the-Year by the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District. Most recently, CMEA Bay Section at the 2003 Winter Conference awarded the Gilbert T. Freitas Award to Mr. Boitz. Michael Boitz has been listed annually in the Who’s Who Among American Teachers.

Michael Boitz is a magna cum laud graduate of Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. He has completed his MA in Music Education from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, where he continues to further his studies in music education and conducting. His teachers of greatest influence have included Mallory Thompson, Russell Pesola, J. Robert Hanson, Frank Bencriscutto, Ed Huttlin, John Lace, and Peter Dahlstrom. Michael Boitz was born and raised in Anoka, MN, and is a proud graduate of Anoka High School