Renzo Staiano is a music performer, producer, educator, composer, creator of YouTube channel Now YOU Shred, and founder of the music education app Alpha Jams. At 17, he won first prize in a local guitar competition, an achievement that inspired him to pursue a Bachelor of Music degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston, followed by a Master of Arts in Latin American Ethnomusicology at UCSC.

Renzo is a versatile guitarist, performing professionally on six-string, eight-string, and Latin American guitars. His musical studies have taken him to Los Angeles, Boston, Peru, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and Cuba. As a performer, his career has spanned the globe, from New York to Djibouti, performing as a soloist, with large orchestras, and in diverse ensembles.

He has shared the stage with renowned artists and groups such as Funkadelic, The Dodos, Perú Negro, Dethklok, Savoy Brown, The Doobie Brothers, Spearhead, Santana, and The Santa Cruz Chamber Orchestra, among others.

Renzo has extensive teaching experience, offering instruction in guitar performance, music theory, and music history, both privately and as a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He spent nearly a decade writing and performing with the San Francisco indie-pop band Le VICE. Renzo has also worked as a music consultant with composer Bear McCreary and has composed original scores for documentaries, video games, and corporate projects.

His compositions have been licensed by companies including Levi’s, Intel, NPR, Urthecast, Jansport, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Dignity Health. Renzo is also the creator of the YouTube channel Now YOU Shred, which has amassed over 140,000 subscribers.

Since the global pandemic, Renzo has shifted his focus to tech entrepreneurship, founding Alpha Jams, a music education software company that originated as a spin-off of Now YOU Shred. Alpha Jams aspires to redefine internet-based music education through innovative technology.

Renzo currently divides his time between Oakland and Santa Cruz, California.