Formal study began at 16 at the Alfredo Casella Conservatory (L’Aquila, Italy) in classical piano, classical percussion, music theory and composition.

But jazz quickly became his passion. He would undertake a decade-long journey studying with Europe’s jazz masters, beginning with jazz piano studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory. De Gregorio then won a full scholarship to the Academy of Music and Drama (Sweden) for advanced studies in improvisation, and achieved his diploma in Musical Studies in Jazz at the National Conservatoire in Perpignan, France.

Eight years later he would again refine his craft via a full scholarship to New York City’s New School, where he was selected to play with the Coltrane Ensemble. An additional scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College of Music further refined his study in jazz piano.

In 2020, DeGregorio formalized his groundbreaking teaching method, Developing Jazz Variations. This original pedagogical approach bridges the classical tradition of theme and variations, and Arnold Schoenberg’s concept of musical analysis, with key principles from the jazz piano pedagogy of master educator Barry Harris.