In December of 2004, Mike worked as the horn section leader and trumpet player for the house band at “TSOP” in the Tropicana, Atlantic City, NJ. In 2006, Mike was hired to perform for rapper LL Cool J at the Essence Festival in Texas and an Oxygen Custom Concert in New York City. That same year he was hired as the lead trumpet player, horn arranger and string arranger for the Sony release of “Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia Live In Concert”, filmed at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, NJ. It was during this DVD video taping that Mike got the opportunity to share the stage with The O’Jays, Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes, The Delfonics, Jerry Butler, Three Degrees, The Soul Survivors and G.C. Cameron. Later that year Mike contracted a horn section and performed with Los Lonely Boys and Willie Nelson at the 2006 Farm Aid concert in Camden, NJ. In 2007 Mike started working at the “Studio” in Philadelphia as a studio trumpet player, copyist and music arranger. Mike arranged horns and strings on four tracks of LL Cool J’s album “Exit 13”. He also performed trumpet on eight tracks for this album. In addition, Mike contracted musicians from his horn band to perform on this album. Mike orchestrated and arranged “My Man” for Jennifer Lopez to use as a backing track for Lopez to sing along to, as a surprise for Marc Anthony’s 40th birthday party. His other credits at The Studio include playing trumpet on Celine Dion’s “That’s Just The Woman In Me” on the album “Taking Chances”. Additional credits include playing trumpet on Beyonce’s “A Woman Like Me” from the 2006 Pink Panther Soundtrack; R. Kelly’s “Weatherman” and “If I” tracks from the album “Happy People”; Will Smith’s “Here He Comes” from the album “Lost & Found”; Patti Labelle’s “The Truth Will Set You Free” from the album “Back to Now”; Ricky Fante’s “Shine” from the “Robots” movie soundtrack. Mike co-arranged music for Justin Timberlake’s “Dead & Gone” live performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards; John Legend’s song “Wake Up” on the album “Evolver” and Kayne West’s song “Flashing Lights” on the album “Graduation”.
In 2009 Mike had the honor to perform at Aretha Franklin’s 67th birthday party at Seldom Blues in Detroit. He was then hired by the music director for Franki Valli & The Four Seasons, where he continues to perform as a sideman at venues in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. Mike’s exposure to Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons led to Mike joining “The Midtown Men”, the original cast of Jersey Boys, to tour the US and Canada.