Charles Postlewate began studying the guitar at age 12 with Lloyd Hazelbaker but received his first college education as a cooperative engineering student for Buick Motor Division at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint, Michigan. During his final years of engineering studies at GMI, he studied jazz with Bob Brown and played electric guitar in jazz bands in the Flint and Detroit areas. He graduated with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree in 1964 and continued to work for Buick for two more years to save up enough money to study music at Wayne State University, in Detroit, Michigan. He was a theory/composition major who switched to classical guitar performance and received the first Bachelor and Master of Music degrees (1969 and 1973) in guitar performance in the school's history, studying with Joseph Fava. His further studies on classical guitar include masterclass performances for Michael Lorimer and Oscar Ghiglia as well as occasional private lessons with Lorimer. As part of his graduate studies at WSU, Postlewate developed and taught classes in ensemble, literature, pedagogy, harmony and improvisation for the guitar. He has performed solo, chamber music, and concertos with orchestra in concerts across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru and the Caribbean while his recordings for the Prism label have brought critical acclaim from the Associated Press, National Public Radio and guitar publications in the United States, England and Germany. His latest CD, HOMAGE TO VILLA-LOBOS, is the result of a 16-year research project to incorporate the little finger into the right hand technique of the classical guitar.

Postlewate is a founding member of the Guitar Foundation of America and has published feature articles in their quarterly journal, Soundboard, as well as in Guitar International, American String Teacher and Guitar Player Magazine. Professor Postlewate retired from The University of Texas at Arlington in 2006.