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 and Donny McCaslin.
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 (Hammond) 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, Enrico Mianulli, Gege Munari and Peter Bernstein and toured around Italy with the Tony Monaco Trio. Since 2015 he started playing with the quintet of the young and talented Norwegian clarinetist Felix Peikli, with pianist Takeshi Ohbayashi, upright bassist Alexander L. J. Toth and drummer Anthony Alan Toth.
Other world famous musicians Matteo had the opportunity of sharing the stage with are: Sam Yahel, Peter Slavov, Leo Genovese, Francisco Mela, Felix Peikli, Jure Pukl, Esperanza Spalding, Pablo Menares, Ben Williams, Jason Palmer, Stacy Dillard, Uri Gurvich, Aaron Burnett among others.
Matteo Prefumo is familiar with many musical genres and styles, because of his love for music and his extensive experience on stage. His musical focus is in the broad field of jazz and improvised music and the creation of music with positive energy and expressiveness within the collective is always at the forefront.