Occupation: I’m a musician/teacher. I just started teaching music last year at Kennedy High School in Waterbury. I’ve been a professional saxophone player for my entire life. I play a lot with a group called New York City Swing. We do corporate events all around the area and up and down the East Coast.

Family: My wife, Donna, works as a special education aide at Newtown Middle School. Our son Matthew is 16 and a junior at Newtown High School. He plays football and basketball. Our son David, 14, is a freshman at Newtown High School. He’s in the wind ensemble playing bass clarinet, and in the NHS Marching Band, and he’s a budding artist.

Pets: We have two pugs, Xanare and Puggles. Xanare is 5 years old, and Puggles is 4 years old.

How long have you lived in Newtown? We’ve been here for eight years. We moved here from Fairfield, because of the Newtown schools, found an unfinished house and spent three years finishing it. There have been lots of projects.

What do you like to do in your free time? I like photography, and I golf. I like to read and hike, play basketball with my son, and watch movies with the family.

Do you have a favorite book? Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig. I read it the first time when I was in college, and then again much later. It gives you a different perspective the second time.

Do you have a favorite movie? As a family, we like Ben Hur. For myself, my favorite movie is Dances With Wolves.

Do you have a favorite travel destination? We go to Denver a lot, where my folks are. It’s beautiful there. We’d like to go to England, and we plan to revisit Block Island.

What is the best thing about Newtown? The friendliness of the people. It’s still a small-town atmosphere. My favorite spot is the Newtown Hardware. They’re friendly, helpful, and you can get everything you need there.

If you could spend a day with a figure from history, who would you choose? I’d like to spend a day with Lincoln. I think that was a focal point in history that changed the whole history of the United States.

Do you have a personal philosophy? Treat others as you would have others treat you. I believe that everything you throw out there comes back to you.

What is the most dangerous thing you have done? Climbing Long’s Peak in Colorado, about ten years ago. It’s 14, 259 feet high, one of several 14,000 high peaks in Colorado. We hiked up one day to the base camp at about 6,000 feet, got up really early the next morning and hiked the rest of the way and came all the way back down. There are a couple of technical points that are really something else. My dad went with me, and that was great.