#ensemble Hashtag Ensemble
Lilianna Krych has been a permanent member of Hashtag Ensemble since October 2017, is part of its creative group and co-runs the Hashtag Lab Contemporary Music Space.
Hashtag Ensemble is a music cooperative founded in 2013, which consists of eighteen musicians and is led by a creative group. Hashtag Ensemble specializes in contemporary music performance, improvisation and art education.
The Hashtag Ensemble regularly performs at Polish and international new music festivals, and has produced dozens of repertory and improvised concerts, chamber operas and seven studio albums. The ensemble actively collaborates with composers in Poland and abroad, dedicating much of its activity to the artistic achievements of women.
The Hashtag Ensemble designs concerts set in accessible, usually non-musical contexts. Narrative programming engages audiences and reaches a wide range of listeners, going far beyond music amateurs and experts. The search for new forms of presenting new music leads the ensemble to non-obvious places, where the concert situation becomes as important as the artistic interpretation of the chosen repertoire.
The Hashtag Ensemble has been committed to cultural and artistic education since its founding: it carries out original music projects for children and young people, conducts courses and mentoring programs for outstanding performers, and presents works by the youngest generation of composers at national and international composition competitions.
In 2023, thanks to the support of the City of Warsaw, the group opened the first and only permanent stage for new music in Poland: Hashtag Lab Contemporary Music Space. In a modernist villa at 29 Barska Street in Warsaw, Hashtag Ensemble performs concerts, plays, performances, as well as composition workshops, educational programs, exhibitions and installations. Hashtag Lab is a meeting place for artists and composers, a space for debates, seminars and conferences.
For years, Hashtag Ensemble has been supporting the deepening of relationships in the contemporary music community, organizing, among others, the #PlayFair campaign. The ensemble is eager to share its experience in running cooperatives and cultural institutions on a democratic basis with partners in Poland and Europe. Members of the creative group establish collaborations with new music ensembles abroad, participate in conferences, panel discussions and social actions. Hashtag Ensemble is the initiator of the New Music Guild in Poland.
Ensemble description: hashtag-ensemble.org
What can surely be written without worrying about any spoilers is that Hashtag Ensemble has, once again, proven itself to be not only a collective of remarkable performers, but also a band with a certain concept of itself; a band who wants to experiment far beyond conventional concerts.
Although each of the mentioned pieces is freely available on the Internet, a virtual listening experience is evidently inferior to a live concert by Hashtag Ensemble. There was truly a mastery to their performance.
Video
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Play video: Agnieszka Stulgińska – Trzy kobiety (Three Women), Experimental Tuesdays at Sinfonia Varsovia, 17 August 2020
Play video: Rafał Ryterski – Sea of Prism (Cod’s Lullaby), Experimental Tuesdays at Sinfonia Varsovia, 17 August 2020
Play video: Bartosz Witkowski – Hidden moves, final of the Young Musicians for a Young City 2.1 competition, 3 October 2021