Hashtag Ensemble is a music cooperative specialising in contemporary music, improvisation and musical education, established by flutist Ania Karpowicz in 2013. Consisting of 18 musicians, it is coordinated by a creative group and specialises in contemporary music performance, improvisation, and artistic education. The ensemble frequently performs at festivals of new music in Poland and abroad. It has given several dozen concerts, both of composed and improvised music, as well as staging chamber operas and recording seven studio albums. Collaborating actively with composers at home and abroad, Hashtag Ensemble dedicates much of its work to women’s artistic achievements. 

The ensemble’s concerts are set in clear, mostly extramusical contexts. Narrative programming tends to involve audiences and appeals to a wide range of listeners, rather than only to connoisseurs and music lovers. The search for new ways of presenting modern music has brought the ensemble to many unusual venues in which the concert situation is just as important as the repertoire itself. 

Since its inception, the ensemble has been involved in cultural and artistic education, implementing original musical projects for children and teenagers, providing courses and mentoring programmes for outstanding performers, as well as presenting music by the youngest generation of composers at national and international competitions. 

With the support of Warsaw’s municipal authorities, in 2023 Hashtag Ensemble opened Poland’s first and only permanent venue for new music: Hashtag Lab – Contemporary Music Space. Housed in a modernist villa at 29 Barska Street, Warsaw, the Lab presents concerts, spectacles, performances, music composition workshops, educational programmes, exhibitions, and installations. It is a meeting place for artists and composers, a space for debates, seminars, and conferences. 

For many years Hashtag Ensemble has supported the integration of contemporary music circles by, among others, organising the #GrajFair campaign, sharing its experience of running a cooperative and cultural institution based on democratic principles with partners in Poland and other European countries. The creative group members establish cooperations with new music ensembles abroad, take part in conferences, discussion panels, and social actions. Hashtag Ensemble also initiated the Polish Guild of New Music.