Matteo Mancuso

Matteo Mancuso (born 22 November 1996) is an Italian guitarist and composer from Palermo, Sicily. Mancuso is known for adapting a quasi-flamenco/classical right-hand technique to the electric guitar and improvised solos without the use of a pick. Steve Vai, Al Di Meola, Joe Bonamassa, Jason Becker, and others have publicly praised him, with Vai calling him "the future" of electric guitar.

Mancuso was born in 1996 in Palermo. He started playing the guitar at the age of 10 with his father, Vincenzo, an experienced professional guitarist and music producer who performed with many well-known Italian artists. Mancuso began performing live on stage at the age of 11.

In 2017, following his performance at the Umbria Jazz Festival, he was awarded a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

After obtaining a diploma from the music high school, where he studied classical guitar and transverse flute, in June 2022, he graduated with honours in jazz guitar from the Palermo Conservatory of Music.

In 2009, at the age of 12, Mancuso performed at the Castelbuono Jazz Festival in Sicily and in 2017 at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.