He began his career working for the Red Garter banjo night club in San Francisco, New York and Florence, Italy.  He later became a band leader at Your Father's Mustache banjo night club in New York.  It was at these venues that he learned a large number of American standard songs. 

While working at Your Father's Mustache he began studying guitar with several New York studio musicians.  This enabled him to garner work in the club date (casual) scene in the New York area.  In the course of that work he played with a number of society orchestras including Lester Lanin, Bill Harrington, Peter Duchin, and Meyer Davis.  This experience added greatly to his repertoire.  At roughly the same time he began studying voice with Bill Hess, a respected teacher and tenor whose resume included work at the Metropolitan Opera and premieres for, among others, Igor Stravinsky.  This training eventually prepared Mike for jingle singing and other studio work.

In the course of Mike's years in New York he has been fortunate to travel extensively and play in some very exciting venues.  Probably the most memorable was the wedding reception in London on the occasion of the marriage of HRH Charles Prince Of Wales to Diana Spencer.  Less prestigious but no less exotic were stints at Mamma Leone's restaurant in New York where he acquired a substantial Italian repertoire.  There were also many years spent playing Jewish simchas which resulted in learning many songs in both Hebrew and Yiddish.

Now that he has returned to California, the state of his upbringing, Mike looks forward to much music making on the glorious Central Coast.