Jona Patitò was born in Palermo in 1997.

He began his musical journey by learning to play the mandolin and guitar, thanks to the passion passed on to him by his family, and especially by his grandfather, with whom he performed from a very young age at dance evenings featuring popular and traditional music.

At the age of 10, he learned to play the alto and baritone flugelhorn, joining the “Alessandro Scarlatti” Musical Band of Palazzo Adriano, the town where he lives. For a long time, he has collaborated with the folk group Paradiso Arbereshe and with other local and neighboring ensembles, with the aim of preserving traditions and promoting the origins of his homeland, both in Sicily and throughout Italy.

At 16, he enrolled in the three-year mandolin program at the “A. Scarlatti” Conservatory in Palermo, under the guidance of Maestro Emanuele Buzi, where he graduated with top marks and honors.

He has played in various ensemble masterclasses held by important Maestros such as Carlo Aonzo and Arturo Tallini, as well as performing in many recitals of various kinds. He has also attended seminars by Kees Boeke (medieval music), Maria Ausilia di Falco (the importance of words in music to convey emotions), and the mandolin workshop by Raffaele la Ragione held in London in 2024.

He is committed to concert-lessons held in many Sicilian schools, in order to promote the importance of the mandolin in the Italian musical landscape.

He is the principal mandolinist of the Palermo plucked orchestra, the Taormina plucked orchestra, and other orchestras with which he performs in important theaters and venues in Sicily and the rest of Italy.

Together with fellow students, he founded the “Tetra Kordes” plucked quartet, a group dedicated to the dissemination and re-evaluation of the mandolin repertoire, with which he has won numerous awards and competitions throughout Italy. He is also very active musically in private villas, cultural associations, clubs, parties, and various concert seasons.

He works as a tutor at the Palermo Conservatory, supporting students with disabilities, in order to experiment with new musical paths and to create a project that combines the timbral and sonic potential of the mandolin with music therapy.

Thanks to winning the Erasmus+ scholarship, he studied at the Cologne Conservatory and was accepted into the mandolin class of Caterina Lichtenberg, one of the largest and most prestigious classes in the world. During his studies abroad, he played in the Wuppertal Conservatory plucked orchestra and in a duet with the renowned Maestro Mike Marshall.

During this period, he performed at various events throughout Europe and took lessons from important teachers such as Florentino Calvo, Juan Carlos Munoz, and Annika Hinsche.

Upon his return, he was invited to collaborate with the “Arbaria Nuova folk” company and with the “Made in Sud” orchestra, with which he studied new repertoires of traditional Sicilian and Neapolitan music.
He performs at events organized in Northern Italy and abroad, promoted by the Sicilian Region, to spread Sicilian culture (thanks also to the support of important associations such as Palermo Classica and Wunderkammer).

He has recorded for various albums in collaboration with several musical groups, including “Otras Tierras”, the “Imbesi-Zangarà” duo, and the Taormina city plucked orchestra.

His passion for traditional and folk music has never waned; in fact, his work to promote the mandolin extends to various areas of Europe, particularly with the groups “Sicilia Bedda” and “Bivona Folk”, with whom he performs at international festivals, major national events, and the renowned 77th Almond Blossom Festival in Agrigento (capital of culture).

Recently, he worked at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo as a mandolin orchestra professor and member of the Teatro Massimo orchestra, on the occasion of the performance “Il mio Amico Amadè” and the staging of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Otello”.

He performed concerts at Expo 2025 in Osaka (Japan) as the mandolinist of the Scarlatti Quintet.