Mike Monaghan

If you like mainstream jazz and the Great American Songbook, you will love The Mike Monaghan Jazz Quintet. A freelance musician, Monaghan is a jazz player, a woodwind specialist, and a saxophone soloist in both the jazz and classical worlds. Joining him at MAC will be Marshall Wood on bass, Ben Cook on piano, Gary Johnson on drums, and John Wilkins on guitar.

A graduate of the Boston Conservatory, with graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts and the Eastman School of Music, Monaghan’s work includes numerous performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and he has been a regular player and soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra for almost 40 years.

As a sideman, he has played for many popular entertainers from Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, and Ray Charles, to Cyndi Lauper, Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, and Elvis Costello. As a jazz player, Mike has performed with Buddy Rich, Anita O’Day, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, and Chick Corea.

Monaghan’s Boston Pops experience includes playing on the long-running PBS television series “Evening at Pops.” He has recorded with legendary film composer John Williams, and has played on many of Keith Lockhart’s Boston Pops recordings, including “The Latin Album” on which he is a featured saxophone soloist. In addition, his playing has been heard on many network television programs (“Friends,” “Rescue Me,” “Walker, Texas Ranger”) and movie soundtracks. With the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he is the saxophone soloist on the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood’s highly acclaimed film “Mystic River.”