Hornet Quartet
Founded in 2012, the Hornet Quartet is currently one of the most active brass ensembles in Poland. It consists of four horn players – soloists of leading symphony orchestras in Poland: Gabriel Czopka (Warsaw Philharmonic), Michał Szczerba (Polish Baltic Philharmonic), Łukasz Łacny (NFM Wrocław Philharmonic) and Piotr Kowalski (Polish Baltic Philharmonic). The musicians won a silver medal at the 7th SVIRÉL International Music Competition in Slovenia (2015) and first prize at the French Horn Quartet Competition organised by the International Horn Society in Natal, Brazil (2017).
They perform in the most important music centres in Poland, including Warsaw Philharmonic and the National Forum of Music in Wrocław. They are invited to participate in many important festivals in Poland and abroad. They have performed at the 49th International Horn Symposium in Natal, Brazil, the 51st International Horn Symposium in Ghent, Belgium (accompanied by the Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides), and the Solidarity of Arts festival in Gdańsk.
The Hornet Quartet collaborates with composers such as Kazimierz Machala, Paweł Pudło, Marc Papeghin, Paweł Tomaszewski and Jan Stokłosa, who has dedicated three compositions to the ensemble. In 2025, the musicians took part in the recording of Paweł Tomaszewski’s innovative composition for piano, electronics and horn quartet (2024). They also perform in an expanded line-up, inviting outstanding artists such as Kerry Turner and Kristina Mascher-Turner to participate. Together with Paweł Pudło, they organised the international educational and musical platform War Horns, combining historical narrative (a lecture on pre-war and post-war Warsaw) with musical narrative (a concert for ten horns, written in tribute to the victims of World War II).
The ensemble’s repertoire mainly includes contemporary classical, popular and film music. The artists most often perform pieces originally composed for horn quartet, including compositions by Polish composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Hornet Quartet is the resident ensemble of the CORNO Brass Music Festival in Zielona Góra, the largest brass music festival in Poland. In 2018, they recorded their first album.
[2025]