Mateusz Smoczynski / Sebastian Kuchczynski Quartet

Mateusz Smoczynski Quartet featuring:
Mateusz Smoczynski – violin,
Max Holm – piano,
Sean Pentland – bass,
Sebastian Kuchczynski – drums

Two sets: 8:00 pm; 10:00 pm

Drummer, Sebastian Kuchczynski, originally from Brodnica in Poland, is a 2018 graduate of the Global Jazz Master’s Program at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. The genres of music that he practises are Contemporary, R&B, Jazz, and Neo-Soul. He is the member of soul-hip hop band called „Radiostatik”, led by pianist Michał Wróblewski. Kuchczynski is a 3-time nominee for „Fryderyk” award (a Polish equivalent for I+US Grammy) in debut album category. Ola Trzaska „All Around” 2013; Przemysław Florczak „Image Of My Personality” 2011; Biotone „Another Space” 2011.
In 2017 he moved to the US where he worked with many great musicians including George Garzone, Marco Pignataro, Danilo Perez and Joe Lovano.

Mateusz Smoczyński, an internationally-acclaimed Polish jazz violinist, winner of Grand Prix of the Zbigniew Seifert Jazz Competition or 2017 Best Jazz Violinist award of the Jazz Forum European Magazine. A sought-after soloist and ensemble leader, considered one of the most multi-faceted Polish contemporary music composers. Co-founder of Atom String Quartet, leader of MS Quintet featuring pianist Jan Smoczyński, guitarist Konrad Zemler, double-bassist Wojciech Pulcyn with Michał Miśkiewicz on drums. He has collaborated with many renowned artists, Branford Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin, Gil Goldstein, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Tomasz Stańko, Urszula Dudziak, Władysław “Adzik” Sendecki, Leszek Możdżer, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Anna Maria Jopek, and many others. In 2012–16 principal violinist of the Grammy Award-winning Turtle Island Quartet, with whom he recorded a Grammy-nominated album „After Blue” by Tierney Sutton. 2020 marks the release of the first album of Mateusz Smoczyński recorded in collaboration with the German pianist Joachim Kühn under the label of ACT Music.

Max Holm, pianist. 2019 Downbeat Magazine Outstanding Piano Performance winner, 2018 Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition winner for Jazz. He received a rare Honorable Mention in the combined classical, contemporary and jazz piano categories.
Max is credited on NIMA Jazz Album of the Year (2016) The Inside of the Outside with multi-Grammy winners Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), Victor Wooten, Randy Brecker, Branford Marsalis, Rashawn Ross, Trombone Shorty, and others. The album was released in December 2015 and within 24 hours was the #4 most downloaded jazz album on iTunes behind Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga and Miles Davis. Pianist Max Holm has played with Wynton Marsalis, Kirk Whalum, Robin Eubanks, Stefon Harris, Marvin Stamm, Bill Mays, Ed Simon, Jim Snidero, and The Late Show’s Jon Batiste & Stay Human, among many other well-known artists.

Bassist, Sean Pentland, an experienced collaborator and sideman, has worked extensively with musicians from around the globe, having toured in Europe and the U.K. with saxophonists Jerry Bergonzi, Jim Snidero and Don Braden, European masters, Johannes Enders, Tine Schneider or Malcolm Braff. In 2017 Sean toured England with Damon Brown’s Quartet and later toured Egypt with the Julie Michels/Don Braden Project as part of the American University of Cairo’s Jazz Tales Festival, performing at the AUC, Tahrir Square and Alexandria’s Great Hall at Biblioteca Alexandrina. In 2014-’17, while resident bass professor in South Korea, he performed across the peninsula with visiting artists such as Danny Grissett, Jim Snidero or Sullivan Fortner. In 2015 he appeared at the Jarasum International Jazz Festival with Berlin-based saxophonist Peter Ehwald. After a decade out of the country Sean is currently earning a master’s at Berklee’s Global Jazz institute, where he will further develop this project in the musical and social context of his former home and share the harvest with those who have watered his roots. Sean holds a B.M. from New England Conservatory, 2007.