CLARINETIST WOLAK CALLS HIS OWN TUNE- John Terauds,
Toronto Star, The mix of old and hip in the (Toronto) Junction fills Kornel Wolak with pride. As he walks along the west-end neighbourhood's main artery, Dundas St. W., he points out how the new arrivals to this gentrifying district strive for handmade-style authenticity. Fair-trade coffee? There are several tasty options. Artisanal cheeses? No problem. Each new business is boldly going somewhere the big-chain brands can't take us. It's a metaphor for the clarinetist himself. Since arriving in Toronto about six years ago, he has resolutely charted his own course. Now in his early 30s, the Polish-born woodwind player has worked as a classical soloist. He is on the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's list of regular clarinet fill-ins during the music season. He spent two seasons working with Toronto-based crossover group Quartetto Gelato.But, despite the security it may offer, Wolak is not interested in a full-time job with any organization right now. “I'm totally devoted to my own projects,” he insists. Here is a mixture of classical training and a curious spirit that has guided him into a number of fascinating collaborations. “My landlord and the phone company are my biggest inspirations,” says the smiling freelancer, who has a number of projects in the works. One of these is coming up this weekend. In what they are calling a “Reed Blowout in the Music Garden,” Wolak and Toronto accordion master Joseph Macerollo pair up for an afternoon concert at the western fringe of Harbourfront on Sunday afternoon. Wolak says there will be classical pieces by Mozart and Rossini on the program — alongside arrangements by big-band legend Benny Goodman “to lighten the atmosphere.” Also in keeping with Wolak's desire to nurture a living music tradition, the Music Garden centrepiece is the world premiere of Quai Quodlibet, a new piece for accordion and clarinet by Toronto composer Norbert Palej. The 4 p.m. free Music Garden concert is a prelude to a hectic close to 2011. |
Kornel Wolak
Biography
Highly praised on two continents for his glorious tone, precise technical control and musical imagination, Kornel Wolak is well on his way to a major career as a soloist and chamber musician in both classical and cross-over repertoire. Critics have hailed him for his playing that showed “admirable calm and patience in shaping beautiful sonorities…full of energy,” (Andrzej Chylewski, Glos Wielkopolski); “beautiful [playing] in the lyric selections…a lot of imaginative colors, dynamics, and rubato,” (Jolanta Brozda, Gazeta Wyborcza), and “control and a smooth, elegant expressivity are what make Wolak shine,” (John Terauds, Toronto Star).
As a member of Quartetto Gelato from 2007 to 2009, Wolak performed on its 2009 recording, Musica Latina. He also appears as soloist on a 2007 CD of Karol Kurpinski’s Clarinet Concerto, released by Channel II of Polish Radio – a CD that was nominated for Poland’s highest recording award, the “Fryderyk”. His most recent recording is the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and Weber Concertino with the Slovak Sinfonietta for Artists’ Choice Records in Toronto.
Wolak appears regularly on radio and TV programs, including CBC Radio 2, Classical 96.3 FM, Public Radio International, and in the US, on National Public Radio.
As a soloist, he has performed with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Sinfonietta, Poland’s Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra’s opening 60th season gala concert, the Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra, and Charleston (North Carolina) Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. He has a return engagement with the Poznan Philharmonic later in 2011. He will appear as soloist on tour in Southern Ontario with the Toronto Concert Orchestra in 2012-13.
As a chamber musician, he has appeared with the Wieniawski String Quartet, the Glenn Gould String Quartet, the Tokai Quartet and the Lodos Wind Quintet. As a member of ..*ensemble?.... he appeared at the International Festival “Chopin and his Europe” in Warsaw in August.
Highlights of the 2011-12 season are residencies in Ecuador and Brazil including recitals and orchestra concerts in the fall, as well as a tour of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and Southern Ontario with pianist Chris Donnelly, Performances at the Four Seasons Opera House, the Little Night Music series in Toronto, Prairie Showcase, in Regina, and a recording in Budapest of the Francaix clarinet concerto.
Intent on increasing the clarinet repertoire, Wolak has performed the Toronto premiere of John Adams’ “Gnarly Buttons” Clarinet Concerto, broadcast on CBC Radio 2, and Marc Neikrug’s Through Roses at the Glenn Gould Studio. A double clarinet concerto by composer Norbert Palej, will be premiered in the 2012-13 season.
Also devoted to music education, Wolak established Music Mind Canada (MMC), an initiative that designs, promotes, and produces educational programs for schools, local communities, and other groups interested in learning about music. Well-structured “theme recitals” are one of many ways that he introduces music to wide audiences. The Włocławek Tribune noted that: “Mr. Wolak’s natural way of connecting with the audience made his educational series of recitals entitled From B(ach) to Z(emlinsky) an unexpected learning through the art experience for everyone….with his excellent balance of playing, lecturing, and demonstrating made the music accessible…. The audience was moved by the music, properly informed by the artist, and thoroughly entertained.”
Born in Bialystok, Poland in 1979 into a musical family (his father was a trumpeter and his mother a violist), After early studies at the Music Academy of Poznan and subsequently, at the Musical Lyceum, in 2001, he was a scholarship student at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he earned his performance certificate and Master of Music degree while studying with Eli Eban, and later pursued advanced orchestral studies under Joaquin Valdepeñas at the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto.
Mr. Wolak’s interests include art history, religion, philosophy, and poetry. In Poland, his poetry – focused on human existence and spirituality – has been published in many young Polish poets’ magazines and compilations.
Visit Kornel Wolak online at www.KornelWolak.com for more information.
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