Matteo D'Amico was born in Rome in 1955 and studied music in his hometown with Barbara Giuranna, Guido Turchi, Irma Ravinale and Franco Donatoni. His compositions were performed in all the most important Italian contemporary music events and abroad in prestigious locations such as  Paris, Athens, Prague, Madrid, Hamburg, Kiel, Tokyo, etc. He won the following international awards: "Martin Codax" (Vigo, Spain), "Valentino Bucchi" (Rome), "MC2-Radio France" (Avignon, France) "Music Today Contest '89 " (Tokyo).

He received commissions from institutions such as the Rai Orchestra in Rome, the Arena of Verona, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the S. Cecilia Academy,  the Teatro Massimo of Palermo, the Museums-gesellschaft Orchester of Frankfurt, the Accademia Filarmonica Romana. His works were interpreted, among others, by Dorothy Dorow, Arturo Tamayo, Luisa Castellani, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Daniele Gatti, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Stephan Anton Reck, Paolo Carignani, Albert Dohmen, Mariella Devia, Marina Comparato, Karl Martin, Corrado Rovaris, the Bibiena Quintet, etc. His works are mostly based on the exploration of relations between music, poetry, theater and dance. Some of his most important pieces include compositions based on the works of  Stéphane Mallarmé (L'Azur, 1988, Monologue d'un phaune, 1989, Sonnets et rondels, 1993), Torquato Tasso (Rime notturne, 1994, Rime d'amore, 1998, directed by Giuseppe Sinopoli) and W.H.Auden (The Entertainment of the Senses, 2005; Auden Cabaret, marked at the Prix Italia 2006).

He composed the following works for musical theaters:  Gli Spiriti dell'aria (1990), Amin (1996), Farinelli, la voce perduta (1996), Il Cambio (1998), La finestra su Kensington Gardens (2000), Dalle due alle tre (2003), Dannata epicurea (2004), Lavinia fuggita (2004) L’albero di Ippolito (2006); as for dancing, he worked with choreographers such as Fabrizio Monteverde, Evgheni Polyakov  and Robert North, composing the ballets Mascherata Veneziana (1993), La Ronde (1995), Le Baccanti (1997), Animae Corpus (1999).

He also worked successfully in the field of sacred music, with two pieces Attende Domine and Jubilate Deo (1991), the Sanctus, as part of the Requiem per le vittime della mafia, a collective opera, (1993), and Stabat Mater based on sacred texts and texts by Vincenzo Consolo (1999, performed several times in Italy and abroad). Since 1984 he has been actively working on scene music, cooperating with some of the most important Italian directors (Squarzina, Costa, Cobelli, Missiroli, Guicciardini, Monicelli, Scaparro, Carriglio, Pier’Alli,  etc.).

From 1997 to 2000 he was artistic director of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, and from 2000 to 2002 the artistic director of the  Teatro Comunale in Bologna. He has been teaching Composition since  2006  at the  “S. Cecilia” Conservatory in Rome. He is also an Academician of the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia (2006).