Matteo Mancuso is an Italian jazz and rock guitarist and composer from Palermo, Sicily. Born in 1996, he was a musical prodigy from an early age, mentored by his father Vincenzo, a well-known guitarist and producer. Matteo played at local festivals at just 11 years old and enrolled in a music high school as a teen, specializing in classical guitar. He was awarded a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston and in 2022 graduated with honours in jazz guitar from the Palermo Conservatory of Music. Mancuso is known for adapting a quasi-flamenco right-hand technique to the electric guitar and improvised solos without the use of a pick. Some of the most renowned current guitar heroes, including Al Di Meola, Joe Bonamassa, and Steve Vai, have praised him – with the latter even calling him “the evolution of fusion guitar”. In 2023 Mancuso released his first studio album,
The Journey.
