About Lessons

Mike offers lessons in guitar covering the classical, folk and jazz styles. He also teaches beginning piano and encourages piano study in conjunction with guitar as an aid to understanding general music theory and harmony. As a teacher Mike is interested in encouraging and guiding each student's growth while recognizing his or her own strengths and weaknesses. The development of knowledge and ability in technique, theory, memorization and improvisation are all part of a mix which has at it's center the student's own personality and musical goals.

Mike has taught classical guitar at:
New York University, City College of New York, Jersey City State College, Third Street Music School

He is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music (majoring in classical guitar) and has performed frequently in the New York City area. His debut performance at Carnegie Recital Hall was reviewed by the New York Times (see below).

Mike's development as a classical, folk and jazz guitarist began at an early age and led to studies with some of the world's most reknowned teachers including: Leonard Gitano, Stanley Solow, Alexander Bellow, Aaron Shearer, Manuel Barrueco, Alan Hanlon, Barry Galbraith, Tim Kirkpatrick

New York Times review of Mike's classical guitar recital:

Michael Soloway Offers Wide-Ranging Guitar Bill
A young guitarist, Michael Soloway, made an impressive debut at Carnegie Recital Hall last Sunday. Debut concerts such as these tend often to be lonely affairs; but on this occasion, the hall was virtually packed with friends and admirers, and indeed there was much for them to admire. Mr. Soloway, to be specific, enjoys an exceptional command of his instrument, and at no point in this reasonably taxing program was there any sense of strain or struggle over the technical difficulties. His musical personality ranged from the somewhat passive and abstract in a Prelude, Fugue and Allegro by Bach to amorously evocative in the Torroba Sonatina that ended the evening. But whatever the temperature of Mr. Soloway's passions at any given moment, graceful and fluent good sense was never far away. BachÕs sequential patterns had a hypnotic quality, and Lennox Berkeley's Sonatina was amiability itself.
Mr. Soloway seemed to bring technique and musicality most perfectly into balance when he played Scott Joplin's "Solace," a piece whose mournful yet delicate chromatic beauties will remain with us long after the ragtime vogue has faded away. Joplin wrote "Solace" for the piano, and the transcription here was by the performer himself.
Bernard Holland