Born in upstate New York, Michael Civisca began working as a professional singer in 1995, at the age of 31.  Michael always had an interest in the music of the great American songwriters.  He took trumpet lessons as a youngster.  He listened to the likes of Herb Alpert, Louis Armstrong, and any big band records he could smuggle from his parents’ music collection. 

Armstrong influenced Michael more as a singer rather than as a trumpeter.  By the age of 15, Civisca had memorized the lyrics of hundreds of songs he heard on those multitude of records. He was also guided by other singers representing a wide variety of styles, including Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles.  

As he privately expanded his singing parameters, he began searching for vocalists and arrangers that interested him in order to study style and interpretation.  Michael discovered the importance of the musical arrangement as an essential ingredient for telling a song’s story.  Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, as he continued his interest in the crooners and jazz singers of the past, Civisca found intrigue in the many of the pop contemporary voices he was hearing like Billy Joel, Sting, and Carly Simon.  Michael discovered how to further expand his own interpretative skills by learning what made their voices interesting.  

Michael Civisca never planned on becoming a singer.  As he finished high school, he naturally went to college for graphic art.  He was always talented as an artist from a young age.  His interests focused on becoming an animator for Disney or Warner Brothers.  He was a serious study.  “Rather than just read the Sunday comics, I would study the work of the cartoonists I liked.  Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobbs) is one of my favorites… I liked his technique and he has a great eye for composition…”  “Luckily, my art skills stayed with me through the years.  I now use them to design some of my CD covers and artwork.  It is fun for me to work with designers during the conceptual stages.  It interests me to discuss ideas and then see what people come back to the table with.” 

After college, Michael decided to develop his interests in various professions that interested him before focusing on a career.  He wanted to exhaust his choices so not to have doubts later in life.  “I always felt music was more of a dream job for me.  I knew I would have my own business, but never thought it would be as a recording artist.”  

As he tested various ideas, Michael got involved working as a graphic designer and trainer for a computer business he and a friend help start in 1990.  The internet was still young and Michael found interest in the computer program he was marketing.  He taught himself how to write software and began to discover the graphic-design programs being used by artists.  This too would become helpful to Michael later in life.  Michael moved back to Buffalo once the software business venture completed.  He was developing an idea to further his work with programming software.  But fate stepped in. 

While a friend was visiting him one day, they began talking about Michael’s ability to sing.  Friends were familiar with Michael belting out a few lines from old standards.  More so for laughs.  But everyone thought he had a voice…except Michael…  “I just loved all these songs from the American Songbook, and after a few drinks, you usually couldn’t shut me up.” 

His friend talked him into visiting her vocal coach for a lesson.  Michael remembers thinking that if the coach thought he had a voice, he would seriously consider becoming a singer.  After one lesson, it was apparent Michael could sing.  He was introduced to a musician that wrote radio commercials.  From that connection, Michael became friendly with some of the jazz musicians around town and was allowed to sit in on rehearsals.  Within a year, Michael was already developing his own songbook and a following of fans around the Buffalo jazz clubs.

He continued taking lessons with the vocal coach.  It appears Michael had developed his singing voice from all of those early records for so many years, and his breathing was advanced due to the trumpet lessons he took as a child.  To develop and sharpen this new found skill, Michael took several more lessons and began reading books on vocal training.  He supplemented his homework with increasing his exposure in the Buffalo music scene.  Michael would also offer to create the posters and ads for the venues to publize his performances.  He wanted everything associated with him to be well done.  Thankfully, his art and computer background helped immensely.   

During Michael’s second year of singing, he met an ex-radio promoter who was opening a new club.  The club’s music would evolve around the music of the Great American Songbook.  The club owner hired Michael to be one of club singers. 

Within months, it was obvious Michael was building a following.  So much so, the club owner decided to jump back into the music business, after being retired for several years, and start a new record label.  Michael would be its first artist. 

Michael’s debut CD came out March 17, 1997 and was picked up on national radio by May of that year.  He was immediately pitched to a few major record labels.  MJJ Music and Sony stepped up to the task of redistributing Michael’s CD to a national market.  With this, Michael found a new career.