Matteo Prefumo

Biography
Influencers

Guitarist and composer Matteo Prefumo was born on April 8th, 1991 in Genoa. At age of three, he discovered his love for guitar thanks to his father.

He started playing guitar at the age of 8 as self – taught, watching videos of Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker and Jimi Hendrix. At age 15 he took private jazz guitar lessons with Alessio Menconi, and later on had the opportunity to study with world famous musicians, such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Antonio Sanchez, Peter Bernstein, Kevin Hays, Aaron Goldberg, Francisco Mela, Scott Colley.

In 2012 he won the international jazz competition Tiberio Nicola Award as Best Jazz Guitarist during the International Jazz Festival of La Spezia.

He started leading his own trio and quartet, and took part of the Tony Monaco Trio with drummer Dario Panza. During the summer of 2013 he played with singer Elisabetta Antonini at the International Jazz Festival of La Spezia, with Leonardo Corradi on Hammond and Dario Panza on drums. In the same time period, during the Tuscia in Jazz Festival, he played live shows with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Aaron Parks, Justin Faulkner.

In 2013 he won the international jazz competition Jimmy Woode Award as Best Jazz Guitar Player during the Tuscia in Jazz Festival. In July 2014 he played with great tenor saxophonist George Garzone, Paolo Recchia, Gege Munari and Peter Bernstein and toured around Italy with the Tony Monaco. Since 2015 he started playing with the quintet of the young and talented Norwegian clarinetist Felix Peikli, with Takeshi Ohbayashi, Alexander L. J. Toth and Anthony Alan Toth.

Other world famous musicians Matteo had the opportunity of sharing the stage with are: Kurt Rosenwinkel, Leo Genovese, Francisco Mela, Dado Moroni, Jeff Berlin, George Garzone, Francesco Cafiso, Johnny O’ Neal, Peter Bernstein, Felix Peikli, Jure Pukl, Pablo Menares, Uri Gurvich, Aaron Burnett among others.

He has performed in some of the most important venues around the world like Jacksonville Jazz Festival, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, Gregory’s Jazz Club in Rome, Mezzrow Jazz Club in New York City, International Jazz Festival Of La Spezia and many others.