OVERVIEW

 

Polyhedral artist, versatile musician, he has been exploring different types of music, instruments and musical approaches since the beginning of his musical path.

Colors, voice, timbre, dynamics, the minutest details of sound and articulation: all of it is the subject of his continuous study and research of his artistic expression. 

Matteo's sensibilities find their expression in his own projects but also in collaboration with European artists, touching a conglomerate of styles like modern jazz, electronic, experimental, contemporary music, heavy grooves and fragile melodies.

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Matteo is currently active in the quintet of international jazz icon Enrico Rava (with the “Fearless Five”). He is active as an electronic music musician (and trombonist) with the international project Morgenbarn (together with Tilo Weber [DE] and Maria Faust [EE]) within the contemporary music scene; and diasilla (together with sound designer Matteo Stella) into the electronic ambient scene.

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His leading project is giraffe (winner of the I-Jazz 2025 prize) where he express all his experimental, free and electronic side together with his "well written" songs, and he is the inventor of the  WORDS method of improvisation and instant composing from which his lead project is named (best jazz in Bandcamp Feb 2024).

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In 2025 he won the Top Jazz by MusicaJazz in the "New Talent" category, and the "Fearless Five" of Enrico Rava won both the "Best Album" and "Best Band" of the year.

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He is classically trained, he graduated with top marks as a classical trombonist (in Italy) and then went on to complete a Master Degree in Trombone Jazz (in the Netherlands).​

He was named one of the 10 best students at the conservatory during his bachelor's degree in classical music (2016), won the Inner Wheel International Prize (2011), and perfected his skills in composition, chamber music and conducting at Stanford University and Marquette University in the USA in 2017.

In the same year he won the audition as principal trombonist in ONCI, the Italian National Orchestra of the Conservatories and, with his quartet “Bb Jazz Quartet”, he became official artist of the “Skyline Radio&Soul” radio. 

At the "Massimo Urbani International Prize 2022" he won the 3rd Jury Prize, Critics' Prize and Audience Prize.​​​

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He moved to Amsterdam in 2019 where he started important collaborations with musicians from all over the world who had a decisive influence, and completed his studies in the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. As his final research, he presented his new and innovative method of improvisation and instant composing. A method based on words that brings into play the three spheres of being a human: mental sphere, body sphere and spiritual sphere. From there, one of his leading projects was born: 'W O R D S'. Matteo released with this project his first album.

 

Also in Amsterdam, Matteo started to conceive the project GIRAFFE: he focused about the symbolic meaning of the animal, with its head (mind) far apart from its heart (passion), and began writing songs based on this concept. The project involved various musicians, it evolved and transformed a lot over time. The first album was released in 2025 and more will follow soon.

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In 2024-2025 he is been working with the theater company Oorkaan (Amsterdam) in the ‘In de Wijk’ project, performing the show ‘De dag dat papa viel’ directed by: Wieger Meulenbroek.
Together with saxophonist Aviv Noam, they perform a theatrical show of about 40 minutes in which they use their bodies and the surrounding space just like actors or mimes, but their instrument instead of their voice (playing original compositions, arrangements and free improvisations).​

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​‘FLECA', the first and only album of the trio “The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance” (not active anymore) was released in 2024, expressing the rock soul of this very particular project, one of Matteo's favourite albums: also includes a revisiting of Monteverdi's opera “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria” (The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland)

He was also, until 2025, very active all around Europe with the 20s-30s early jazz  group "The Fried Seven" (winner of the Kerel van Eerd Music Award 2021): they released the album "Late to the Party" with the American label "Rivermont".

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He now lives in Paris, finding inspiration from all the extraordinary musicians and artists who live in that vibrant city.

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Among the artists he shared the stage with (some in close contact, others in large productions such as big bands or similar):

Enrico Rava, Joe Lovano, Tony Coleman, Joe Hertenstein, Adam Rapa, Dianne Reeves, Peter Washington, Ethan Iverson, Dan Weiss, the Imperial Triumphant, Lewis Nash, Fabrizio Bosso, Giovanni Sollima, Don Farinacci, Veronica Swift.

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Some of the most important stages he has graced include: Umbria Jazz, Jazzaldia, Chamber of the Italian Senate, Dresdner Philarmonie, GrachtenFestival, Auditorium Ennio Morricone, Muziekgebouw, Controtempo Jazz&Wine, Jazz in Duketown, Bergamo Jazz, Bimhuis, De Doelen, Unerhoert Festival, Poppodium 013, North Sea Jazz, Paaspop Festival, Ziggo Dome, Blue Note Milano, Flux, Casa del Jazz, Pisa Jazz, Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, Jazz i Halmstad.

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