Saxophonist and composer Jeff
Antoniuk was born in Edmonton, Canada in 1965. He lived in Benin City,
Nigeria as a child, and began his musical education there studying classical
piano. Since 1986, however, he has spent most of his professional time in
the USA. Jeff, his wife Terry, and their son Aidan, live in Annapolis, MD.
After
graduating from Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton, Canada, Jeff
attended the renowned University of North Texas, where he earned two
degrees, culminating in a Master of Music in Jazz Performance and West
African ethnomusicology. He composed for and played with the famed One
O'Clock Lab Band for three years, recording as many CD's with the group.
Further, he directed one of the school's big bands and taught saxophone and
improvisation in the UNT jazz department.
Upon graduation, Mr. Antoniuk
co-founded the Unified Jazz Ensemble, a quintet that became the flagship of
the National Endowment for the Arts “Rural Residency” artist-in-residence
program. For four years, he taught, composed and performed full-time under
the auspices of the NEA. During this time, the Unified Jazz Ensemble also
toured Canada, the United States, Korea, Japan and Okinawa. Jeff and the UJE
played before the National Arts Council, performed for the IAJE
(International Association of Jazz Educators), and were adjunct faculty at
Luther College in Decorah, Iowa for two years.
Jeff,
during his 12 years with the band, composed for and performed on all five
CD's produced by the UJE, including New Slant, released internationally on
IGMOD Records in 1997. In May of 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. Aside
from the UJE, Jeff has performed and toured with talents as diverse as
Freddie Hubbard and Doc Severinsen to Ray Charles, Kenny Rogers and Natalie
Cole. For his composition “Borrowed Time,” Jeff won the 1999 “Sammy Nestico
International Big Band Composition Contest” sponsored by the U.S.A.F. Airmen
of Note. He was then commissioned by the USAF to write the band an
arrangement of Duke Ellington’s classic “Come Sunday.”
A dedicated
educator, Jeff has worked for many years as a Teaching Artist with the
Washington Performing Arts Society. With
his two professional groups, The Jazz
Update and "Groove Nation," Jeff brings traditional jazz into the
elementary classrooms of the DC-Virginia-Maryland metro area. Each year his
quartet plays Monk, Ellington, Jobim and Coltrane for more than 12,000
school age students. Currently a faculty member in the jazz department at
Towson State University near Baltimore, MD, Jeff teaches undergraduate and
graduate jazz saxophone, as well as performing numerous yearly concerts as a
member and composer for the Towson Faculty Jazz Ensemble.
Jeff is the owner of Jazz Band
Masterclass, an adult jazz education coaching company. He is also
founder and Director of Maryland
Summer Jazz, one of the few adult/amateur jazz camps in the country. He
is a longtime member of the rock/funk show band
Sound Connection, a
ten-piece group that travels internationally for clients such as Donald
Trump and Bellagio in Las Vegas. Jeff works with his own jazz quartet "Jeff
Antoniuk and the Jazz Update," a band comprising some of the best
musicians in the area (Tony Martucci, Tom Baldwin, and Wade Beach). A
dedicated freelance musician and recording artist, Jeff can be heard
throughout the DC/VA/MD metro area.
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