Marek Napiórkowski is a leading Polish guitarist and composer. Since the beginning of his career, he has consistently appeared at the top of various Polish musician rankings. Since 2012, he has been continuously voted Jazz Guitarist of the Year by readers of Jazz Forum magazine. He has been nominated for the Fryderyk Music Award sixteen times, winning in 2019, and received the Mateusze Trójki 2018 Award for the album WAW-NYC. In 2023, he was nominated for The Polish Film Award (Eagle) for the soundtrack of Andrzej Saramonowicz’s film Bejbis, and won the Audience Award at The Krakow Film Music Festival. He was also nominated for the Coryphaeus Of Polish Music 2023 award in the “Personality of the Year” category. Napiórkowski has recorded over 150 albums, including solo works featuring artists such as Chris Potter, Clarence Penn, Grégoire Maret, Mino Cinelu, Manuel Valera, Anna Maria Jopek, Leszek Możdżer, and Adam Pierończyk. He has also played and recorded with notable musicians like Tomasz Stańko, Adam Holzman, Marcus Miller, Hadrien Feraud, Sugar Blue, Henryk Miśkiewicz, Janusz Muniak, Tomasz Szukalski, Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, Pat Metheny, Richard Bona, Ivan Lins, Dhafer Youssef, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.From 2017 to 2019, he hosted the radio program “Dźwięki nieoczywiste” on Chilli Zet and currently hosts “Napiór w eterze” on Nowy Świat radio. He holds the title of Professor of Musical Arts and teaches at the Chopin University of Music. String Theory is a multi-part suite written for improvising guitar, rhythm section, and the Aukso orchestra. Released by AGORA Music in November 2022, the album received acclaim from both critics and the public, earning Napiórkowski the Onet Kultura O!śnienia award and a nomination for the 2022 FRYDERYK award.“The String Theory project is the fulfillment of my musical dream – the desire to create music that combines the world of jazz improvisation with the beautiful sound of string instruments. From the beginning, I wanted to create music where the string orchestra is not an element added to our jazz escapades, but an equal partner, both conceptually and sonorously.”