began to play together as the Hob-beats percussion duo in 2002, when they were still Stanisław Skoczyński’s students at the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. They both graduated with honours in 2006. They developed their artistic abilities with such teachers as Gert Mortensen (on a scholarship to the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen), Jean Geoffroy, William Moersch, Ricardo Flores and Daniel Berg. They also collaborated with John Beck, Emmanuel Séjourné, Steven Schick, Mathias Reumert and the ensemble Percussions Claviers de Lyon. They have won several competition prizes and scholarships in Poland and abroad, and have premiered many new works including Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska’s Passacaglia, Concertante Music for percussion duo and orchestra, Miłosz Bembinow’s Returning Sounds for Magda&Miłosz, Jarosław Kapuściński’s Enso.
Hob-beats duo’s repertoire includes transcriptions, 20thand 21st-century music for percussion, Polish compositions, works with orchestra and with two pianos.
In 2008, Hob-beats released their debut album Returning Sounds (DUX), featuring works by Polish composers (Anna IgnatowiczGlińska, Miłosz Bembinow, Marcin Błażewicz) written specially for this duo as well as foreign compositions (by Jacob ter Veldhuis and Rolf Wallin).
In 2005, they began performing with the Lutosławski Piano Duo (Emilia Sitarz, Bartłomiej Wąsik) as Kwadrofonik Quartet, appearing on many prestigious occasions in Europe, Israel, Brazil and the United States. In April 2006, they were granted the Grand Prix of TV Polonia, Mayor of Warsaw Award and the Storm of Applause audience award at the 9th New Tradition Festival, where their original programme (arrangements of Polish folk melodies) met with critical and popular acclaim and was appreciated by the jury headed by Zbigniew Namysłowski. In 2007, they received the Special Prize of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in the Svetozár Stračina Grand Prix Competition in Bratislava.
They have toured many Polish and European cities, as well as the Near East, South America and the United States, where they performed e.g. at Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Philharmonic and Madison University. In the spring of 2011, the Kwadrofonik Quartet made its debut at the Berlin Philharmonic, playing transcriptions of two ballets: Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Karol Szymanowski’s Harnasie. In 2012, they were invited to perform with NDR Bigband in Hamburg.
