10th Edition | June 17–21, 2026 | Manhattan
Presented by the National Forum of Music in Wrocław in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York
“Illuminating intersections between jazz, contemporary classical, electronic and other music without borders, Poland’s Jazztopad Festival returns to New York for the seventh time with sets from genre-expanding artists…” – Alan Scherstuhl, The New York Times
“…Jazztopad stands as an internationally renowned festival with a clearly defined ethos, one that combines a strong respect for the traditions and roots of the music with a progressive vision that provides a platform for the contemporary and innovative.” – Ian Patterson, AllAboutJazz.com
“Jazztopad Festival meets the high standards set by its predecessors and invites healthy debate on key issues in arts programming.” – Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise
“A model for what a jazz festival can be, Jazztopad is fertile soil for commissioned works and adventure-minded programming.” – Joe Woodard, Down Beat
“The Jazztopad Festival, a leading event of its kind in Poland…” – Nate Chinen, The New York Times
Lineup includes:
Tomasz Dąbrowski NYC Quartet feat. Marta Sánchez, Luke Stewart and Kweku Sumbry (world premiere), SutariNova with special guest Shahzad Ismaily (premiere), DoYeon Kim with John Hébert, Satoshi Takeishi, and special guest Matylda Gerber (world premiere), house concert at Maqam Studio, closing night at Close Up
Concerts to take place at Dizzy’s at Jazz at Lincoln Center, David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Maqam Studio, and Close Up (Lower East Side)
New York, NY — Poland’s paradigm-shifting Jazztopad Festival returns to New York City for its tenth edition, June 17–21, 2026, marking a milestone for one of Europe’s most forward-thinking jazz festivals and its longest-running international satellite. From its founding home at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, Jazztopad has spent a decade building a New York presence defined by adventurous programming, world premieres, and an ethos of genuine cross-cultural exchange. The 2026 edition upholds that standard with a five-day run spanning three Manhattan venues and for the first time, the emergent downtown jazz club Close Up on the Lower East Side, a breeding ground for New York’s young visionaries.
Presented in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, this year’s edition is organized by NFM Director Olga Humeńczuk and Artistic Director Piotr Turkiewicz, who has shaped each New York edition around the idea that the best improvised music happens when artists from different traditions meet without a predetermined common language — and find one anyway.
The 2026 program brings together Polish and American musicians alongside an internationally assembled ensemble for a world premiere commission, while continuing the festival’s tradition of intimate house concerts alongside its higher-profile Lincoln Center engagements. The closing night at Close Up, a Lower East Side venue that opened in 2024 and has quickly become a gathering point for New York’s emerging jazz community, signals a deliberate expansion of the festival’s footprint into the city’s newer performance ecosystem.
A new transnational ensemble led by acclaimed Korean gayageum virtuoso DoYeon Kim brings together an extraordinary grouping of improvisers for a world premiere performance at the David Rubenstein Atrium. Kim — the first gayageum player admitted to the master’s programs at New England Conservatory and the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, a Korean Grammy nominee (2018), Van Lier Fellow (2023), and Next Jazz Legacy awardee (2025) — released her debut album Wellspring on the TAO Forms label in May 2026. Her collaborators include Mark Dresser, Kris Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Webber, and Peter Evans. For this commission, she is joined by two deeply responsive collaborators: bassist John Hébert, born in New Orleans and based in New York since 1995, whose associations include long-term work with pianist Andrew Hill and Fred Hersch, and whose distinctive voice has been recognized in the DownBeat Critics Poll as Rising Star Acoustic Bassist across multiple years; and Japanese-American drummer and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi, a native of Mito, Japan who studied at Berklee, lived four years in Colombia, and has been based in New York since 1991, performing across world music, jazz, contemporary classical, and experimental electronic contexts with artists including Anthony Braxton, Ray Barretto, Dhafer Youssef, and Lalo Schifrin. Polish saxophonist Matylda Gerber joins as special guest, bringing a searching tone and instinct for collective interplay to a set built on new compositions by Kim — pieces designed to move fluidly between written material and open improvisation, foregrounding each performer’s voice while building toward a shared listening.
The tenth edition of Jazztopad NYC closes at Close Up, the artist-driven jazz club at 154 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side that opened in 2024 and has rapidly emerged as a focal point for New York’s new generation of jazz performers and listeners. Founded with an explicit commitment to showcasing both the musician and the listener, Close Up represents a natural extension of Jazztopad’s own values — intimate, community-rooted, aesthetically open. The partnership marks the festival’s first appearance at the venue, extending its downtown presence and connecting its Polish-American programming mission with a room built around the same ethos of risk and discovery. Lineup to be announced.
PROGRAM
Wednesday, June 17 at 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM
Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center
10 Columbus Circle, New York, NY
Tomasz Dąbrowski NYC Quartet feat. Marta Sánchez, Luke Stewart & Kweku Sumbry – World Premiere
Performance lineup:
Tomasz Dąbrowski – trumpet
Marta Sánchez – piano
Kweku Sumbry – drums
Luke Stewart – double bass
Thursday, June 18 at 7:30 PM
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
61 W 62nd St, New York, NY 10023
SutariNova with Special Guest Shahzad Ismaily – Premiere
Performance lineup:
SutariNova:
Basia Songin – vocal, electro-folk bass, Polish frame drum
Kasia Kapela – vocal, violin, Polish frame drum
Filip Zakrzewski – dub, FX, electronics
Shahzad Ismaily – double bass, guitar
Saturday, June 20 at 7:30 PM
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
61 W 62nd St, New York, NY 10023
DoYeon Kim Quartet with Matylda Gerber, John Hébert & Satoshi Takeishi – World Premiere
Performance lineup:
DoYeon Kim – gayageum
Matylda Gerber – saxophone
John Hébert – double bass
Satoshi Takeishi – drums
Presented in partnership with the Japan Foundation.
Sunday, June 21, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Close Up
154 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002
Festival Closing Night — Lineup TBC
ARTISTS
Polish-born trumpeter and composer Tomasz Dąbrowski is an internationally recognized jazz artist active throughout Europe and the United States. His work has been noted by DownBeat Magazine, which praised him as one of Europe’s most versatile and curious players. Based in Scandinavia, Dąbrowski has built a distinguished international profile through performances, recordings, and collaborations with leading figures in contemporary jazz.
In the United States, he has performed in New York with saxophonist Tim Berne, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, and drummer Kate Gentile. His recording credits include Steps with Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, as well as Vermillion Tree with pianist Kris Davis and drummer Andrew Drury.
Since 2018, Dąbrowski has been a member of the historic Globe Unity Orchestra, founded by pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, an ensemble widely recognized as one of the foundational groups of European free jazz. He has also performed with the internationally touring Fire! Orchestra and collaborated with prominent American saxophonists David Murray and Joe Lovano, including a performance at the Jazz Autumn Festival in 2025.
In recognition of his artistic achievements, Dąbrowski received two Fryderyk Awards in 2025—Poland’s highest music honors—for Musician of the Year and Album of the Year for Better, recorded with his ensemble Tomasz Dąbrowski & The Individual Beings.
Through sustained international collaborations, participation in historically significant ensembles, and recognition through major national awards, Tomasz Dąbrowski has established a distinguished reputation as a contemporary jazz artist with international recognition.
SutariNova is a new electronic and dub-inflected configuration of the acclaimed Polish vocal trio Sutari, whose name derives from the Lithuanian word for “in concordance” — a reference to the ancient polyphonic sutartinės tradition at the core of their practice. Founding members Basia Songin and Kasia Kapela have long woven Polish and Lithuanian folk material through dense vocal harmony and traditional instruments; here, joined by producer Filip Zakrzewski, they push that vocabulary into electronic and dub-inflected territory. Their special guest, Shahzad Ismaily, is one of New York’s most essential multi-instrumentalists — a musician of Pakistani descent who has performed on nearly 400 records and collaborated with artists ranging from Marc Ribot and Lou Reed to Arooj Aftab and Vijay Iyer. His 2023 album Love in Exile, made with Aftab and Iyer, received a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Jazz Album. Ismaily’s instrument for the performance is to be confirmed — which, for an artist who commands bass, guitar, synthesizer, accordion, flute, and drum kit with equal fluency, leaves considerable range.
DoYeon Kim (b. 1991, Seoul) is an internationally acclaimed artist known for introducing the gayageum, an ancient Korean zither, into contemporary music. She channels history, literature, and the evolving human spirit into a musical language entirely her own, expressed through original compositions, powerful solo performances, and collaborations worldwide. The first gayageum player admitted to the master’s programs at New England Conservatory and the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, Kim has been nominated for a Korean Grammy Award (2018), received the Van Lier Fellowship (2023), and was a Next Jazz Legacy awardee (2025). In May 2026, she released her debut album, Wellspring the TAO Forms label. She has served on the faculties of NEC and The New School and leads projects ranging from solo concerts to intercontinental collaborations and ensembles including ACC X Music Festival and the Gyeonggi Sinawi Orchestra. Her collaborators include Mark Dresser, Kris Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Webber, and Peter Evans.
Born and raised in Madrid, Spain, pianist and composer Marta Sánchez is actively working in the contemporary creative music scene in New York City and around the globe. Charting a significant path through her innovative and original music, she has reached an international audience, gaining significant global recognition. Marta’s main project, her quintet, was created soon after she moved to New York, and since then has released four albums: “Partenika” (2015), “Danza Imposible” (2017), and “El Rayo de Luz” (2019) with the Spanish label Fresh Sound and SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) with Whirlwind Recordings. She has toured the United States, Europe, South America, and Central America, performing as a leader or as a sideman at prestigious venues and prominent festivals such as North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, Eurojazz in Mexico City, Eurojazz in Athens, Jazz Festival Vitoria Gasteiz, Winter Jazz Festival in New York, and Madrid among many others. In the United States she has performed at some of the most prestigious clubs including the Blue Note, Birdland, Roulette, Jazz Gallery, 55 Bar, The Cell Theater, Cornelia Street Cafe, or Blue Whale.
John Hébert has solidified his position as one of the most inventive and respected bassists in the contemporary jazz landscape. From his leader dates to his sideman gigs, he has proven an indispensable figure in the modern landscape of creative music. Hailing originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Hebert established himself in New York City in the mid-1990s. He gained widespread recognition for his collaboration with the legendary pianist Andrew Hill, serving in Hill’s final groups and recording Time Lines (Blue Note Records). His versatility is reflected in his long list of high-profile associations across the spectrum of creative music including a long stint in Fred Hersch’s acclaimed trio, Paul Bley, Tim Berne, Lee Konitz, David Liebman, Paul Motian, John Abercrombie, Kenny Wheeler, Mary Halvorson, Kris Davis, and Ingrid Laubrock. As a leader and composer, Hébert has released multiple critically acclaimed albums including Byzantine Monkey (Firehouse 12), Spiritual Lover (Clean Feed, 2010), Rambling Confessions (Sunnyside) and Sounds of Love (Sunnyside Records), a reimagining and tribute to the music of Charles Mingus with Tim Berne, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Ches Smith. His contributions have earned him multiple showings as “Rising Star Acoustic Bassist” in the annual DownBeat International Critics Poll.
Japanese-born musician and improviser Satoshi Takeishi explores connection beyond genre, integrating contrasting elements in pursuit of musical essence. Working with drum set, hybrid percussion, and electronics, he draws from over 40 years of global performance and recording experience across jazz, contemporary classical, experimental, and world music. Rather than specializing in a single style, he continually integrates his broad musical experiences, allowing intuition, texture, and rhythmic form to guide his artistic choices. After studying at Berklee College of Music, Takeishi lived in Colombia and Miami before settling in New York City, where he has been based since 1991. In NYC, he remains deeply engaged in new projects by composers and performers across genres, as well as in his own solo work. From fully notated compositions to open
improvisation, his evolving toolkit reflects a lifelong exploration of sound, pattern, and the expressive possibilities of rhythm.
Matylda Gerber is a saxophonist and composer active in Poland’s improvised music scene. She co-creates projects such as sneaky jesus, Ślina, and the Warsaw Improvisers Orchestra.
Recognized as a rising star of Polish jazz, she has been named one of the eight most promising artists on the European jazz scene by leading music magazines. Alongside her artistic work, she also conducts research focused on the role of intuition.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Founded in 2004 and held annually at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, Jazztopad has grown into one of Europe’s leading festivals for improvised music. Since Artistic Director Piotr Turkiewicz took the reins in 2008, the festival has distinguished itself through long-term creative partnerships, high-profile commissions, and its embrace of the unknown—favoring artistic process and experimentation over familiar formats.
Jazztopad has organized satellite editions around the world—from Tokyo and Seoul to Vancouver and Istanbul—in partnership with such prestigious festivals as the Jarasum International Jazz Festival, Tokyo Jazz Festival, Akbank Jazz Festival, and Monterey Jazz Festival. In New York, the festival has become known for its mix of marquee premieres and underground energy, capturing the spirit of Poland’s music scene while embedding itself in the cultural life of the city.
What sets Jazztopad apart is its commitment to commissioning original works, with over 50 pieces premiered since 2008. These include orchestral works, string quartet commissions, and solo chamber projects by such luminaries as Wayne Shorter, Wadada Leo Smith, Charles Lloyd, Craig Taborn, Joëlle Léandre, Jason Moran, William Parker, Nicole Mitchell, and James Brandon Lewis. These pieces often explore new compositional terrain, with a particular interest in placing improvising soloists into dynamic relationships with classically trained ensembles, including the in-house Lutosławski Quartet and Wrocław’s full symphony orchestra.
Turkiewicz has also placed a special focus on bringing together musicians from disparate traditions—uniting improvisers, contemporary classical composers, folk musicians, and artists working in electronic and experimental formats. The result is a curatorial vision that thrives on dialogue, surprise, and transformation.
The American edition of the Jazztopad Festival is organized by the National Forum of Music in Wrocław in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York and Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
