Michael Furstner started playing contract bridge from age 12, when his father taught him in 1949.
He immediately passed on his newly acquired skills and knowledge to his school friends and neighbours.

Michael happily bridged his way through High school, eight years at Leiden University and through two years of Dutch National Service, playing with fellow Field Artillery officers in the Officers Mess.

In 1965 BHP sponsored Michael to come to Australia (with his wife and 2 years old daughter) to work as a geologist with the Company.
For the following 14 years Michael worked for a variety of companies as a geologist, later geotechnical consultant, on major mining and civil engineering projects in Papua New Guinea and Australia.

In 1980 Michael left his profession and, after a brief stint running and selling the family business Martinshof, he enrolled at the Jazz College in Adelaide studying Improvisation and majoring on baritone saxophone.
Michael studied in Adelaide from 1984 until 1990, lecturing during his final year at the Adelaide Conservatory on piano technique.
He then moved to the Sunshine Coast, working as a private music teacher and occasional Jazz performer until his retirement in 2002.

Michael started running regular Bridge classes for Beginners and Intermediates from the mid 1970s and over the following decades set up 6 private bridge clubs in PNG and in Australia. His latest venture being the present Social Bridge Club in Darwin which he started in April 2013.

In 1996 Michael started his website on Music Education and Improvisation which soon won numerous awards and established itself as one of the prime music education sites online, attracting in excess of one million visitors every year.

From 2006 Michael started to add Bridge lessons to his website. This immediately caught the attention of the ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) who recommended the website to all its affiliated Bridge Clubs in the USA.

Michael extended his online Bridge instruction over the years. He regularly advises and helps private bridge clubs around the globe on how to organize, run and score their regular bridge sessions.
Michael's online bridge lessons now attract 3,000-4,000 bridge enthusiasts every week. His lessons are considered by many (according to their comments) the best online contract bridge instruction in the world today.