As part of the XY Walk, Štefan Szabó will present improvised guitar deconstructions of Hungarian folk songs.

Štefan Szabó is a Slovak guitarist, composer, improviser, and curator working at the intersection of free improvisation, experimental music, and contemporary composition. He studied jazz performance at the Faculty of Music of the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno under the guidance of David Dorůžka. He is a co-founder of the Bratislava Improvisation Orchestra, founder of the n:ear festival of experimental and improvised music in Banská Štiavnica, and co-founder of the educational project OZVUK. Alongside his solo work, he collaborates with artists including Daniel Kordík and Jozef Krupa, and is a member of the project KIN as well as the duo Ranjevš & Óbasz with improviser Jakub Švejnar. In 2024, he released the album clouds and pulses, inspired by the sound of historical pipe organs, which was nominated for a Radio_Head Award.