Mr. Michael A. LaMonica

Email: Click Here
Phone: (480) 472-4976

I have taught in Mesa Public Schools since 1992 at Madison, Salk, and Edison.  I have been here at Brinton since the schools opened - home sweet home!  I have a son in high school and a daughter in junior high, and they are the joy of my life.  I also have a small cockapoo named Scooby; he helps lowe my blood pressure!   I have played saxophone for thirty-eight years.  I attended high school in the valley and was a member of the jazz band Young Sounds of Arizona for two years.  I attended two years at Mesa Community College under the tutelage of Grant Wolf, a brilliant music eductator.  I completed my Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Education at Arizona State University in 1982, and my Master of Music in Performance, also at ASU in 1984, where I studied saxophone with Dr. Joseph R. Wytko.  I did post graduate study at Indiana University, studying under Dr. Eugene Rousseau, where I majored in saxophone performance, pedagogy, and literature, with minors in music history and music theory pedagogy, and was admitted to candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Music in 1989.  I have taught as adjunct and visiting faculty/associate at Mesa Community, ASU, and Indiana University.  I have been tenor saxophonist to the Joseph Wytko Saxophone Quartet for twenty-six years and have recorded three CDs with this ensemble.  I have also appeared as orchestral saxophonist with the Tempe, Mesa, Phoenix, Symphony of the Southwest, and the ASU and Indiana University Symphonies.  I am active as an arranger of music for chamber groups, band, and orchestra, with an interest in the music of the Renaissance, Baroque, as well as music by American composers such as Scott Joplin and Cole Porter.  I also maintain an interest in historical instruments of music, making copies of them when I may, and performing when I can.

My main hobby is reading and collecting books (often really scary!) and old movies (also scary).  I also collect science fiction, Roman, Greek, English medieval and Renaissance history, and classic literature of all kinds.  

I encourage all parents to join with me in in the effort to combat the degrading effects of so-called  'pop culture'  on our children and society in general.