Mike Wilkens began his musical education at Northern Illinois University in 1993. He transferred to Berklee College of Music and received his Bachelor's degree in jazz saxophone performance in 1998.

Mike Wilkens performed under the direction of Quincy Jones at Q's 50 Years in Music celebration at the 1996 Montreaux Jazz Festival. He has also performed with Phil Collins, Chaka Khan, Toots Thielemans, David Sanborn, Paquito D'Rivera, and Tito Puente.

From 1998 until 2001, Mike Wilkens was a faculty member of Istanbul Bilgi University's music department. While in Turkey he led his own trios and played regularly with Butch Morris, Ricky Ford, Selen Gulun, and Donovan Mixon. His playing can be heard on Akihiro Yamamoto's the Archi-tet, Selen Gulun's

Just About Jazz Live,Oguz

Buyukberbers' Velvele and Canli and Tolga Tuzun's Nix.

In 2009 Mike Wilkens received his Master's degree in jazz arranging/composition from William Paterson University, where he studied with Rich Perry & Jim McNeely. In 2011 he founded Midawi Music, a company dedicated to providing private music lessons throughout northern New Jersey.

Currently, Mike lives in Roselle Park, NJ and performs regularly in the New York City area.