BIOGRAPHY
Following in his dad's musical footsteps, Mike has been performing professionally for the past forty years, playing guitar, tenor banjo, and mandolin. His experience includes playing banjo, guitar and mandolin for "Porgy and Bess", "Rhapsody in Blue", and "West Side Story", with the Northeast Philharmonic. He performed in a variety of Broadway shows, including several performances with Cab Calloway. In addition, he played banjo for many years with the All American Orchestra, the Banjo-Aires, and the Bobby Baird Dixieland Band. Mike went on to study advanced banjo techniques for several years with Roy Smeck, a popular vaudeville star. In the early seventies, Mike joined the Long Island Banjo Society, and eventually became one of their soloists. Mike now resides in southwest Florida and remains very active on the banjo, giving private lessons, performing with local dixieland groups, and enjoying weekly sessions with the Gulf Coast Banjo Society in Venice, Florida
At age seven, Mike began taking lessons on the tenor banjo, from his father, Charles Currao. His father was an extraordinary musician who played with such notables as Paul Whitman, Bing Crosby and Jimmy Durante.
He was a 2007 nominee for the National Four String Banjo Hall of Fame and was also on the teaching faculty of the Banjo Museum in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
