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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. He also leads his namesake ensemble, the Dwonztet.

 

Dwonszyk began playing the electric bass at age eleven. At the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School, he switched to upright bass.

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Dwonszyk then continued his studies at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford. There, Dwonszyk developed a profound rapport with trombonist Steve Davis and bassist Nat Reeves, whose insight led to a career as a top-call bassist in his native Connecticut.

 

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.

 

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. 

 

In 2023, the Dwonztet performed at the Hartford Baby Grand Jazz Series, The Northampton Jazz Strut, Smalls Jazz Club, The Side Door Jazz Club, and the Poli Club. The following year, they performed at the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Hartford Jazz Festival, and Springfield Jazz and Roots 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.

 

Since 2020, he has taught jazz bass at Manchester Community College and Central Connecticut State College; at the latter, Dwonszyk also teaches jazz history. In 2024 Dwonszyk he taught jazz bass at the University of Hartford and in 2025 at UMass Amherst. He also teaches privately.

This year Dwonszyk's performed and recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina; His next album "Live at the Side Door" is scheduled to release in the fall of 2025.