Michael Drewes was born in Germany and moved with his family to Mexico City at age fourteen, where he lived for twenty-six years. His youthful interests centered on drawing, sculpting and designing buildings. He received his Bachelors degree in Architecture and his Masters in Art History from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and his Ph. D. in Architectural History from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Drewes became curious about music in his mid-teens and learned to play the cello in school at that time. It was his only formal music training. As he started college, his mild interest became more intense, and he studied music theory, harmony and composing on his own. Musical ideas began to come to him, and he would write them down, sometimes with the aid of a neighbor's piano, and sometimes right from his head to paper - even symphonies - which he never heard, since orchestral facilities were not within his reach. He started his career with Mexico's Monuments Office, supervising restoration of church organs. He continued to compose music, and filled notebooks of unplayed works.

A year ago he discovered a computer software system that writes and plays back music via synthesizer, and for the first time Drewes was able to hear the pieces he had composed decades before. Playing them for family and friends brought comments like, "That's beautiful, remarkable! That should - must! - be heard by the public!"