INSIDE THE MUSICIAN. Linsey Pollak: Improvising my way through Life
INSIDE THE MUSICIAN – Linsey Pollak (alternative link)
link to Linsey’s YouTube channel: SquealyD
listen to ABC Radio National “Conversation with Richard Fidler”
listen to ABC Radio National “Into the Music” portrait “In the Key of Carrot”
Read “Linsey Pollak (Music and Community)”…an interview by Tamsin Kerr
also visit http://www.thepuredrop.com.au/artists/linsey.htm
interview with Jacqui Burns http://www.4shared.com/audio/tkreF6PI/Linsey_Pollok.html
Linsey Pollak is well known all around Australia as a musician, instrument maker, composer, musical director and community music facilitator.
Some projects have been:
-Solo shows “Knocking on Kevin’s Door”, “Playpen”, “The Art of Food”, “Making Jam” and “Cycology”
Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Edinburgh, Seattle, Korea and Canada (1996 – 2004)
-designer, co-ordinator of: “Sound Forest” (QBFM 2001 & 2003)
“The Music Box” (Out of the Box Festival, 1996 ).
“The Big Marimba” (1995 Brisbane Biennial).
-Musical director/Composer: Brisbane Centenary of Federation River Parade (2001)
-Musical Director/Composer: Woodford Festival Fire Event (1995/96).
“Horse to Water” (Wataboshi Int Music Fest – 2003)
-composer/performer: “The Lab” (Syd Fest/Vancouver/Seattle 2004)
“Out of the Frying Pan” (Out of the Box 1994, Syd Fest 1996, Syd Opera House 1997).
“Bim…BamBoo!!” (Woodford Fest ‘97/’98 Brisbane Fest ‘98)
-co-ordinator/performer with National Cross-cultural Music Ensemble “Slivanje”.
The Dream of Zedkat Nabu (Woodford Fest ’13/’14)
His work as Community Music advocate has taken him all over the country for the last 20 years working as Musician-in-residence in communities from Hobart to Broome. He has worked as Musical Director & Composer for Companies such as Doppio Teatro and Dance North and performed with groups too numerous to mention.
He established The Multicultural Arts Centre of WA (KULCHA) in 1983 and has co-ordinated five Cross-cultural Music Ensembles in three different States. He has also performed at most major Festivals around Australia and recorded 21 albums with various groups.
He has worked as a musical instrument maker for over 30 years and has designed a number of new wind instruments as well as specialising in woodwind instruments from Eastern Europe (having studied Macedonian bagpipes in Macedonia). He has specialised in designing and making marimbas and other tuned percussion. His ongoing obsession combines much of this: Making music more accessible to the Community through musical instrument making and playing workshops.
Linsey has a reputation for making and playing instruments made from rubber gloves, carrots, watering cans, chairs, brooms, bins, and other found objects. First developed in his solo show “Bang it with a Fork” and further in the acclaimed children’s show “Out of the Frying Pan”, this line of musical inventiveness has ultimately led him to also encompass modern digital technology and develop his solo shows “Knocking on Kevin’s Door” , “Playpen”, “The Art of Food”, “Making Jam” and “Cycology” and the larger scale outdoor environmental performances “Bim…BamBoo!!” and “The Dream of Zedkat Nabu”. He has also devised a musical installation called “SQUIRT” where frog samples were triggered when large acrylic frogs are hit with a stream of water, and uses a midi wind controller to play and loop samples of endangered species in the project “Dangerous Song” .
Linsey’s current musical projects are his solo show “Paper, Scissors …Rock!” EcoMusic duo “Dangerous Song” with Lizzie O’Keefe, the world music duo “Dva” (with Tunji Beier), “The Balkanics” and he leads the Community Street Band “The Unusual Suspects”.
From the Press:
“Linsey Pollak is one of Australia’s most brilliant and under-rated composer/musicians. He is wildly innovative in the use of instruments but never lets his experimentation get in the way of the musicality of a work.”
The Courier Mail, Brisbane
“Knocking On Kevin’s Door …is a little gem.”
The Australian.
“He (Linsey) is famous Australia-wide and has the fantastic ability to capture people’s imagination.”
Music Live
“The unexpected is what Pollak…does so well.”
The Courier Mail, Brisbane
“Pollak’s creativity shines…combining comedy and music making.”
Hong Kong Standard
