Antonio Marchese, born in 1992, is a young master luthier specialised in the making of traditional classical guitars and the restoration of historical and contemporary plucked instruments. His initial training at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan lasted six years: the first four dedicated to the construction of plucked instruments, the study of organology and knowledge of the fundamentals of chemistry and acoustic physics, the next two years were devoted to specialising in the restoration of musical instruments. After finishing his school studies with a critical and rigorous spirit towards his work, he attended the workshop of the famous master luthier Enrico Bottelli in Voghera (Pavia), gradually moving from apprentice to collaborator. The master’s teachings aroused great interest in the instruments of the Spanish tradition, unequivocally guiding his ongoing research into sound and aesthetics. To this day, the collaboration with the Maestro is still active. During his years of learning the trade, he participated as a maker and restorer in some very important international exhibitions and events, including ‘Caravaggio e Monteverdi sonar stromenti e figurar la musica’ held at the Violin Museum in Cremona in 2017, the cultural project ‘Le Mani Sapienti’ promoted by the Antonio Carlo Monzino Foundation on the occasion of Expo 2016 at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan and later at the LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura in Lugano. In 2019, he opened his own workshop in Montafia (Asti), a small village in the picturesque hills of Monferrato in Piedmont. In his workshop, he passionately dedicates himself to building his own models and historical copies of classical guitars.
Particular attention is paid to the artistic and decorative aspect of the guitars he produces, refining for years the techniques of entirely hand-assembled wooden mosaic and shellac varnishing.

From 2020 to 2024 he taught at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan as a teacher of varnishing plucked instruments.
Since 2024 he has been teaching classical guitar making at the Accademia Liuteria Piemontese San Filippo in Turin.