Leandro Pellegrino

Leandro Pellegrino is a Brazilian guitarist based in New York, known for playing jazz through the harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary of his native Brazil. In 2013 he became the first South American guitarist to take first prize at the Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition, awarded by Lee Ritenour, and he returned to the festival in 2014 to open for Ritenour. A native of São Paulo, he studied composition and jazz improvisation as a teenager before a full scholarship brought him to Berklee College of Music in 2011. He has worked alongside Dave Liebman, John Patitucci, Bob Cranshaw, Romero Lubambo, Eric Harland, Gerald Clayton and Erik Truffaz, and played guitar on Dianne Reeves' Grammy-winning album Beautiful Life. He is an endorsing artist for Benedetto Guitars, playing their Bravo model.