Music has surrounded, shaped and sustained Diane Michaels for as long as she can remember. Born in 1957, during the Folk Revival of the 50’s and 60’s, she grew up in a household bursting with music; her father studied opera, and her mother the piano. Diane grew up in Wisconsin, but spent part of her summers on her grandparent’s farm in Kentucky. She got her first guitar when she was about 13, and learned to play folk music from a course on Public Television.
Diane began performing at the age of 18, when she was a participant in a 4,300 mile Trans-America bicycle tour. While a bicycle and a guitar seemed an unlikely combination to inspire a future career, they were inexorably intertwined. Diane’s red Schwinn, was a vehicle for both geographical, and self-discovery. By the time she was 21, she had logged nearly 10,000 miles on the saddle of a ten-speed, and performed for people across the U.S. and part of Canada. Between cycling tours, Diane lived briefly in Southern California, where she was part of a folk trio that played in the Los Angeles area.
In 1978, Diane married fellow cyclist, Michael Lasceski. They settled in East Texas, where Diane started playing professionally in a variety of public venues. Eventually they moved back to Wisconsin, where Diane began writing songs in earnest, and collecting instruments from all over the world. She continued to expand her performing career, working as both an entertainer in diverse public venues as well as developing educational programs for schools and libraries. Diane’s daughter and only child, Carmen, began taking violin lessons at the age of three, and soon after became a part of Diane’s shows. The mother/daughter duo they called, Side By Side, toured together for more than 20 years.
Today, after more than 30 years of performing, Diane continues to play for audiences of all ages, and is best known for her multi-generational and multi-cultural programs.