Today we’d like to introduce you to Alessio Ammendola.
Hi Alessio, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Alessio Ammendola, and I am a musician. I was born and raised in the south of Italy, and two years ago, I moved to the United States to pursue my love of music and playing the guitar.
My love for the guitar began when I was 14 years old, and I took my first lessons with a local teacher, Alessandro Giglioli. He was the one who saw potential in me and recognized my passion, and he suggested that I attend the Lizard Accademie Musicali, or Lizard Academy, to continue my studies. So that is what I did. I moved to Florence and spent four years studying with talented instructors like Luca Gelli and Matteo Giannetti, who helped me unlock my true potential and blossom as an artist. From there, I moved to Milan, where I was hired as the guitar chair at my alma mater, the Lizard School in Milan. The following year, I was appointed guitar chair at the academy in Lecco City, and then I was appointed the director of Lizard Milano, thus becoming the youngest musician to ever manage a Lizard school.
After establishing myself as the Director at Lizard, I played for more than 4 years for Valentina Parisse (Universal Music Group). This led to me becoming the first guitar in a symphonic orchestra for the theater company Operà Populaire. And I became an official Italian endorser for the brands Suhr and Klotz Cables.
I am proud of these accomplishments, but after seven years of a prolific and professional career in music in Italy, I honestly got so bored that I decided to leave everything and move to Los Angeles, California, to attend the Musicians Institute. With help from three different scholarships, I have continued my pursuit of musical excellence, studying with the greats Dan Gilbert, Al Bonhomme, and Tom Kolb. While in Hollywood I’ve had the honor to accomplish more and more. I joined my friend Tyson Manker to form the band called NEONMOMS, and we played at the Whiskey A Go-Go, The Viper Room, and more. I played at the 2024 NAMM show representing MI and Donner Musical Instruments. At this point, I am just getting started.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Quite frankly, nothing has been completely smooth, even though I surely tried to enjoy every single moment. When I decided that I wanted to leave Italy for the United States, I had to work and save money for more than 4 years because my mother wasn’t able to financially support me, and my father was never around. I am happy to say that since I’ve been in LA, I have been blessed to meet wonderful people who appreciated my guitar skills and ultimately wanted to play and work with me, and they’re surely making my journey way smoother than what I expected. I am living my American dream.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
One difference that I have noticed about myself from other guitar players is my ability to fully focus on a task until it’s done. I continuously set goals for myself that are realistic and do not look like an impossible mountain’s peak to reach. I’m very proud of my passion for music and guitar because it has always been true and honest. Thinking of this guy from a small town in the south of Italy becoming the youngest music director in Italy, then playing in front of thousands of people as the main guitar for a theater company and a successful Pop Artist, and then moving to LA and being recognized as a top guitar student of the institution while also stepping onto legendary stages like Whiskey a GoGo is definitely the cherry on top of the cake. I’m making quite an amazing journey and like all things, during my path, I’m sacrificing time for family and friends, but I know that one day everything will make final sense. I close my eyes happily, knowing that I lived a life keeping my virtues and the best people in the world and, most importantly, that I contributed to the music in a substantial way.
What were you like growing up?
As I tell my friends, I’ve never thought that I was born for music but in the end, I made sure that music was the reason why I’m here. I’ve never been an athlete, and I wasn’t the best school student, so I was a bit scared to find my pathway in this fast and crazy world where people are always there judging you and your choices. But one day, I saw a live band playing, and I was completely captured by the performance of their guitarist — that was the moment in which I said to myself, “That is what I want to be.” Since that day the guitar became my safest bubble, a way to escape from the negative forces in my life, like the pain of my father leaving my family and I, never to return. It was the ultimate drama and trauma for me as a teenager. Because I had to live without a paternal figure, I looked for and found that in my heroes: Slash, Steve Vai, and Marty Friedman. All those people were my fathers. Even though the reality became clear to me very soon, music played an important role in keeping my demons away, and even today, music and guitar are still some of my best allies to fight them and feel free and happy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://neonmoms.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alessio_ammendola/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NEONMOMS
