Rehearsals labs provide observers an opportunity to watch and listen to well-known educator-conductors working with various types of ensembles in an open rehearsal setting. Attendees engage in a meaningful learning experience by observing rehearsal technicians prepare multiple styles of music. An important goal of these sessions is for directors to gain insight and develop pragmatic pedagogical skills that can be put into immediate applications at home with their own ensembles.
Michael Boitz
- Biographical Information
Michael Boitz is the Performing Arts Department Chair at Saratoga High School, Saratoga, CA, where he is serving in his 20th 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 nearly 40% of the 1,300 students enrolled at Saratoga High.
Mr. Boitz has led concert tours of Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Australia, performing at notable halls such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Sydney Opera House, the Paulau de la Musica in both Valencia and Barcelona, the Peniscola Castle, the Kursaal in San Sebastian, and Carnegie Hall in New York. Along with Regional and State Conferences in California throughout the past 20 years, the Saratoga Strings were honored to perform at the Midwest Clinic in December, 2014. As part of a concert tour during the summer of 2017, the Saratoga High School Ensembles were invited to perform at the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Utrecht, the Netherlands, as well as the World Music Contest in Kerkrade, the Netherlands.
Mr. Boitz has been awarded the Teacher-of-the-Year by the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District, California Music Educators Association Bay Section Gilbert T. Freitas Award for Excellence in Music Education, the California Music Educators Association Richard L. Levin Orchestra Educator of the Year Award, the California Music Educators Association Band Educator of the Year award, the California Music Educators Association Bay Section Educator of the Year award, and most recently has been inducted into the John Phillip Sousa Legion of Honor. He has conducted multiple High School and Junior High Honor Bands and Orchestra’s on the West Coast, presented Clinic Sessions for the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Hungary, served as Adjudicator and Clinician for multiple associations throughout the U.S., and has been honored to conduct All-State Orchestra’s and Bands in California and Indiana. Mr. Boitz has twice been awarded Honorary Commendations from the City of Saratoga.
Mr. Boitz completed undergraduate and graduate studies at Concordia College in Moorhead Minnesota and Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, respectively. His teachers of greatest influence have included Mallory Thompson, Russell Pesola, J. Robert Hanson, Frank Bencriscutto, Ed Huttlin, John Lace, Mike Hiatt, Gordon Nilsen, and Peter Dahlstrom. Michael Boitz was born and raised in Anoka, MN, and is a proud graduate of Anoka High School.