fonema

Luca de Matteis (stage name: Fonema) is an Italian composer, sound designer and performer specialising in music for images, theatre, installations and live context. As a member of the Bestand theatre collective He has collaborated, working on both music and sound design, on the creation of original plays presented at events such as the Biennale Teatro College in Venezia and the Campania Teatro Festival, for two consecutive years. He took part as composer and sound designer in several short film projects, some of which were presented at festivals such as 48h Italia and Afrodite Shorts.

His academic path started in Rome at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory where he obtained his bachelor diploma in composition for music applied to images in March 2023 with the highest rate. His studies took place under the guidance of maestros such as Stefano Mainetti, Pasquale Citera, Giuseppe Silvi and Enrico Cosimi, who gave him the tools he needed to fully understand and assimilate contemporary musical languages, stimulating him to find his own stylistic signature. In 2022 and 2023, he had the opportunity to attend summer courses in Orchestration and Arrangement taught by Conrad Pope and Nan Schwatrz and the Conducting course taught by Maestra Amy Andersson that have made priceless contributions to his professional training.

He is currently attending the final year of the International Master's in Music for Screen (InMICS) at the KASK and Conservatorium in Gent, after having attended the first year of the same master's course at the Giovan Battista Martini Conservatory in Bologna. His approach to composition is based on sound research and experimentation, which he has developed in the various projects he is involved in, including installations, soundtracks and performances. Starting with raw material derived from modified musical instruments or unconventional sound production methods, he seeks to explore the transformative power of sound in time, space and the sound spectrum itself, inviting the listener to immerse in a musical narrative.