Matteo Mela was born in 1971 in Imperia, Italy. He was a student of Renzo Doria Miglieta in his hometown but moved to Cremona to pursue his studies of musicology at the University of Cremona. There he met Giovanni Puddu, who played a major role in his musical education; at the same time, he had the chance of attending master classes of such distinguished guitarists such as: Angelo Gilardino, Alirio Diaz, Oscar Ghiglia, David Russell, the Assad brothers. He continued his studies of chamber music at the Accademia Pianistica di Imola with Dario De Rosa, Alexander Lonquich, and Pier Narciso Masi.

As a member of the Mela-Bandini duo Matteo won – between 1991 and 1998 – the first pr...