Matt Dwonszyk

Matt Dwonszyk is a Connecticut-born, New York-based, bassist, composer, arranger, bandleader and educator. He can regularly be found with drummer Jonathan Barber’s Vision Ahead, trios by pianist Jon Davis Trio and saxophonist Julieta Eugenio, and saxophonist Sarah Hanahan’s quartet. After graduating with a Bachelor’s of Music in Jazz Studies from UHart, Dwonszyk obtained a Master’s of Music at SUNY Purchase College in New York. He soon was performing at legendary jazz venues like Smalls, Smoke, Minton’s, Zinc Bar, Birdland, and the Jazz Standard. He went on to make many recorded appearances, including on tenor saxophonist Jovan Alexandre’s 2015 debut, Collective Consciousness. In 2018 — the year he released his debut album, Wonderful World, — Dwonszyk toured Russia as part of the Rainy Days Jazz Festival. In 2019, he toured through Canada with the Oleg Butman Trio and in 2020 with Jonathan Barber and Vision Ahead through the West Coast. In 2022, he released A Year and a Day, recorded with his versatile, namesake ensemble, the Dwonztet. That year, with the Julieta Eugenio Trio, Dwonszyk won the 2022 DC JazzPrix Competition at the Washington, DC Jazz Festival. True to his roots, Dwonszyk’s latest album was 2024’s Donny Time: The Music of Don DePalma, an album-length tribute to Hartford’s late, great pianist — with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the DePalma Roy Scholarship.