Guitarist, Violinist, Mandolinist, Composer, Teacher, Clinician May 5th 1964

(Pronounced: Me-kel-ay), was born Michele Pugliese-Ramo in the Italian Mediterranean fishing town of Mazara Del Vallo, Italy – on the coast of Sicily. He grew up in a small village of 300. His playgrounds were vast grape-vineyards, rocky hillsides and olive orchards… sheep & rock-lizards. He played guitar with the barbers in the little town square and hid his school books in the fields of ancient volcanic caves because he only wanted to ‘play music’ – not go to school! At age 13 he entered music conservatory where he took up violin studies. By 17 he had his first professional contract with the Italian State Opera House “Teatro Massimo” in Palermo. After five years in various Italian state symphony orchestras at age 23, Michéle, always the ‘independent doer’, made musical shock waves within his circles by quitting and moving to the United States to pursue his work as a composer and instrumentalist in jazz. His first stop: New York City. Unable to speak English and soon out of money he went to Detroit where he knew a friend from his town. For the next twelve years Detroit was his home where he was befriended by Jazz greats such as trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, pianists Harold Mckinney, Ken Cox and Teddy Harris Jr., drummers Roy Brooks and Lawrence G. Williams … It was here he continued on the guitar and put the violin away for ten years. He met singer Heidi Hepler who had been living and performing in Rome, Italy… She heard the violin one day… Well, it is out of the case now!