Michael Montgomery founded Newington Music to provide quality music education to the Greater Hartford community, and via Skype or Facetime Lessons. He studied Percussion and Piano at The Hartt School / University of Hartford while enrolled in the BA in Applied Music degree program as a Classical Percussion Performance major, with an emphasis on Snare Drum, Timpani, 2 & 4 Mallet Keyboard Percussion, and Drum Set.
Michael has been playing piano & percussion for over 40 years and is currently playing professionally in the Hartford CT area.
While at Hartt, Michael studied classical percussion, ear training & jazz drumming with renowned timpanist and educator Alexander Lepak, co-author of the world-famous Friese-Lepak Timpani Method. He studied classical, jazz and rock percussion with Gene Bozzi, Principal Timpanist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Michael also studied classical percussion with Michael LaRosa and studied Snare Drum Technique & Rudiments with Dr. Will Rapp. He studied jazz piano and theory with Ray Cassarino, onetime member of Woody Herman’s band.
His professional teaching & performance experience includes a variety of musical genres. Michael was Orchestra Director for musicals at Mercy High School in Middletown CT & Music Assistant at Hartford Stage Company Youth Theater. He has many years of experience teaching percussion and piano in the Greater Hartford Area including at Morey Music in Vernon CT, and The Music Barn in East Windsor CT. Michael has also composed music for various Musicals, radio commercials, websites, videos, Facebook games, and more. He has been a Festival Judge with the Connecticut Music Educators Association. Throughout his musical career, Michael was the recipient of many honors including the Randy Ramondetta Musical Scholarship, as well as the John Philip Sousa Award for superior musicianship. Michael was a founding member and drummer for the popular Hartford band The Commuters. Additionally, he has performed in numerous classical, jazz, musical theatre, and rock groups in the area, including The Hartt Symphony Orchestra, The Manchester Symphony Orchestra, Willimantic Orchestra, IRN, Mark Twain Masquers, Avon Music Makers, Connecticut Theatre Company, Valley Swing Shift Big Band, The Core, Fazz Junk, Blue Moon, Signature, Babyshake, Xstatic, Kings Highway, Cinister, For The Record, and currently with Afterglow - modern rock band.