Jeff Antoniuk

Internationally respected jazz saxophonist and composer Jeff Antoniuk has received numerous awards and commissions, appeared on many albums and toured extensively.

Currently based in the Washington, DC area, Antoniuk can be found fronting both The MARS 4-tet and Jeff Antoniuk and The Jazz Update. He is a solid contributor to many activities in the nation’s most cherished cultural institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center and Washington Performing Arts Society. He draws many jazz artists to the region to perform and teach at his side.

In the U.S. Antoniuk has performed and recorded with diverse hit makers such as Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Bobby McFerrin, Freddie Hubbard, Marcus Miller and Najee. He has collaborated with fellow saxophonists Jeff Coffin and Walt Weiskopf, guitarists Steve Herberman and Steve Rochiniski, percussionists Sherrie Maricle and Joe McCarthy, bassist Gary Grainger and young Latin Jazz pianist Zaccai Curtis.

He's worked with Canadian greats such as Ralph Bowen, PJ Perry, Senator Tommy Banks, big band leader Rob McConnell, the iconic David Foster and trumpet sensation Ingrid Jensen.

His concerts and recordings with the Unified Jazz Ensemble, the Jazz Update and other ensembles have been consistently well received by critics.

Jeff Antoniuk was born in Edmonton, Canada in 1965, to a large Ukrainian family. They lived in Benin City, Nigeria for a time and the colorful sights and sounds of that experience have never left him. He began his musical education there, studying classical piano. Back in Canada in his teens, he took up the saxophone relishing any opportunity to play.

After attending Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton, Canada Antoniuk swept into the United States like an Alberta Clipper. From the University of North Texas, he earned a master’s degree in jazz performance and West African ethnomusicology. He began making his mark as an artist and educator early in his career: touring, teaching and composing before he even graduated.

He then co-founded the Unified Jazz Ensemble, enjoying numerous accomplishments with that group in his 12-year tenure. The quintet toured North America and Asia and were adjunct faculty at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa for two years. A grant from the Canada Council and studies with Tim Hagans helped Antoniuk mature as a performer and composer before he became a bandleader - the next step in his career. In 2004 he formed the Jazz Update quartet, featuring some of the most in-demand jazz artists on the East Coast of the United States.

The Jazz Update’s 2007 CD, Here Today earned considerable praise, rapidly climbing the jazz radio charts in the US and Canada and capturing a No. 2 position for jazz in the vast Music Choice Network. Said Jazz Review: “ The fact that Antoniuk and his quartet are an actively-gigging, road-tested unit is no small factor in their artistic success.”

The group’s second CD, Brotherhood, is a rich offering of progressive straight ahead jazz, released in May 2010 on the Indy label JAJU Records. The five originals contributed by Antoniuk convey a life of rich experience and travel. The album’s global theme is carried over intricate charts and complex arrangements that are playfully executed by peerless performers. Educator


A dedicated teaching artist, Antoniuk has been featured at the Edmonton International Jazz Festival, the Vic Lewis International Band Festival and MacEwan Summer Jazz. He is artistic director and co- founder of Maryland Summer Jazz, a top rated festival of workshops, jams and concerts for adults held near the nation's capital.

Antoniuk is a master teaching artist with Washington Performing Arts Society and the Capitol Jazz Project, in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center and Wynton Marsalis. His programs introduce Monk, Ellington and Coltrane to thousands of Washington, DC area students. He also taught undergraduate and graduate students at Towson University for seven years.

He directs two other prominent educational programs for gifted amateurs and semi-pro jazz musicians and vocalists: Jazz Band Masterclass and InDepth Jazz Clinics & Concerts. Publications, Articles and Awards

Antoniuk composed jazz solos for Swingin' Now, a jazz play- along book and CD published in 2009 as part of the Alfred Jazz Play Along Series edited by Pete BarenBragge. He is currently working on a new play- along book for Alfred Publications, to be released in 2010. He wrote a “Guest Clinician” article published in the June 2007 issue of Jazzed Magazine about the language of jazz. In 1998 his composition “Hypothesis” won the Billboard Songwriting Contest for “Best Performance,” and he was a winner of the 1996 Jazziz Magazine “Woodwinds on Fire” saxophone talent search

Since 1986, Antoniuk has primarily resided in the USA. He lives with his wife and son in Annapolis, Maryland.