11th Chopin in the City Festival

Antoni has won top prizes at numerous competitions, including the 19th International Chopin Competition in Hannover, the 53rd National Chopin Competition in Warsaw, the 8th International “Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam” Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz, the 68th International Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition in Washington DC, the 29th International Chopin Competition in Szafarnia, and the 6th International Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition in New York. He has also performed as a soloist with Washington DC’s National Philharmonic, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Płock Symphony, the West Bohemian Symphony, and the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra.

Antoni is currently studying at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the class of Prof. Piotr Paleczny. Before beginning his studies in Warsaw, he studied with Martin Labazevitch in Washington DC and took part in lessons and masterclasses with pianists such as Horacio Gutiérrez, Kirill Gerstein, Jeffrey Swann, Garrick Ohlsson, Kevin Kenner, Ewa Pobłocka, and Krzysztof Jabłoński. In 2026, he was awarded the “Młoda Polska” scholarship by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The group combines the capabilities of a string quartet with improvisation in its broad sense. Besides jazz, its music draws on Polish folk, music of various regions of the world, and contemporary and classical music.

The quartet was established in Warsaw in 2010 by violinists Dawid Lubowicz and Mateusz Smoczyński, violist Michał Zaborski and cellist Krzysztof Lenczowski. All four received a thorough classical education at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw; they all compose and lead their own projects. Since winning the Grand Prix of the 13th Bielska Zadymka Jazz Festival in 2011, the band has performed on the greatest Polish and international stages.

The group has recorded nine albums: FADE IN (2011), PLACES (2012), AtomSPHERE (2015), SEIFERT (2017), PENDERECKI (2019), ESSENCE (2022), UNIVERSUM (2024), CHRISTMAS WITH ATOM STRING QUARTET (2025) and ATOM GOES FUNKY (2026); FADE IN and PLACES received the Polish music award “Fryderyk”. In March 2021, together with pianist Hania Rani, the quartet performed Max Richter’s “Testament”, commissioned by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as a tribute to Krzysztof Penderecki; the premiere was recorded by Polish Television’s Kultura Channel. The musicians regularly record with and perform alongside leading Polish and international artists and orchestras.

Originally from the Chicago area and now based in Brooklyn, New York, he has developed a distinctive voice marked by lyrical melodies, rich harmonic textures, and imaginative ensemble writing. He holds degrees from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and from Columbia College Chicago, where he earned a master’s degree in music composition for the screen.

As a bandleader, Bedal has released six recordings: Chatter (2014), Mirrors (2018), In Reverse (2019), Cerulean Stars (2021), Unfolding (2023) and Silhouette (2025). He has performed and recorded with Grażyna Auguścik, Matt Ulery, Caroline Davis, Greg Ward, Marquis Hill, Nick Mazzarella, Charles Rumback, Quin Kirchner, Jean Caze and Dion Kerr, and has written music for numerous film projects.

A recipient of the Chicago Luminarts Fellowship Awards for both improvisation and composition and of a Chicago DCASE Artist Grant, Bedal continues to perform, compose, and teach in the United States and abroad.

His compositions leave room for the musicians to bring their own instincts and personalities to the music, and the same piece can take a different shape each time it’s played. His quartet with saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, bassist Ethan Philion and drummer Devin Drobka recorded a new album in February 2026 and will draw from that yet-to-be-released recording for this performance.

Reichert has released five albums as a leader, most recently Colours (Calligram Records, 2026) and Live in Chicago (Shifting Paradigm Records, 2026); earlier releases include Switch (2024), Deep Breath (2023) and Interpretations (2015). Downbeat Magazine described him as “a distinctive player and composer with wide-ranging idiomatic inklings,” while Textura called him a “triple threat” as a guitarist, bandleader and writer. He was named a Luminarts Jazz Improvisation Fellow in 2022, and his work has been supported by South Arts, the Illinois Arts Council and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.

The studio version is a double album, Deconstructions and Reworks, recorded with more than twenty-five international musicians and released by The Black Element Label (Warner Music Poland in Poland, Cleopatra Records worldwide).

The project has been performed live at Fridman Gallery in New York (November 2025) and BALC Gallery in Osaka (December 2025), both times alongside an intermedia installation, with its UK premiere at Cadogan Hall in London in September 2026. In Chicago, Mariusz Szypura is joined by Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), John Stanier (Battles) and David Pajo (Slint, Papa M).

He graduated from the Jazz Department of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where he studied vibraphone and marimba with Bernard Maseli, continued his education at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with Miro Herák, and completed the Doctoral School of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków.

He is a prizewinner of numerous national and international jazz and vibraphone competitions, including Grand Prix awards at Jazz Juniors, Jazz nad Odrą, Sibiu Jazz Festival, RCK Pro Jazz Festival and Jazz Fruit. In 2021 he received the Grand Prix Jazz Melomani in the Hope of Jazz Lovers category, and in 2022 the Marcin Pater Trio was named New Hope in the Jazz Forum Jazz Top poll.

With his trio he has released Nothing But Trouble (2019) and Between (2022), created with Leszek Możdżer and Jakub Mizeracki; a third album, Dżezgot, recorded at Polish Radio studios, is due in 2026. He has performed at festivals across Europe and Asia and has collaborated with artists including Leszek Możdżer, Grażyna Auguścik, Paulina Przybysz, Wojciech Myrczek, Piotr Schmidt and Paweł Kaczmarczyk. He is also developing a solo project for vibraphone, electronics and live looping.