Michel David Rondeau was born in 1948 and began playing the trumpet at the age of 12 in a small fanfare in his hometown of Rockland, Ontario, 13 miles east of Ottawa, the capital of Canada. At the age of 18 he formed a dance band called The Music Mates and produced his first record. At twenty he entered the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec and studied the trumpet with Jean Louis Chatel (Montreal Symphony Orchestra).