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Double Double Duo - Virtuosi of Entertainment

Double Double Duo will be in Creston on Sunday, February 24 at 2:00 p.m.
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Double Double Duo will be in Creston on Sunday.

An afternoon of fun and classical panache continues Creston Concert Society’s season with Double Double Duo on Sunday, February 24 at 2:00 p.m. Actively touring across Canada, DDD performs their all- original arrangements of classical showpieces, sensitive jazz ballads, and fiery folk music from around the globe. Their performances are hailed as “fresh, exciting and fun, dispelling any of the old preconceptions about classical music…” (Barrie Examiner)

Double Double Duo, (also known as Bridge + Wolak Duo) is about much more than coffee; each duo member is a ‘double threat’ on two instruments: Kornel Wolak (clarinet/piano) and Michael Bridge (accordions/piano). Classically trained international soloists, they use comedy, virtuosity, and musical sensitivity to bring their broad repertoire to life; “Double-Double Duo is the best of new, young ‘classical’ musicians… bringing their own style of intellect, expertise, and talent to a new 21st-century audience.” (Barrie Examiner)

A dynamic musical team, Kornel Wolak and Michael Bridge are globetrotting concert artists/educators/researchers/entrepreneurs — pushing the traditional boundaries of their instruments. They perform as a duo, or with full orchestra or string quartet – playing a uniquely orchestrated repertoire of baroque, classical, folk and contemporary music. As educators-researchers, they are guest lecturers at universities and conferences and conduct and publish original research related to their performance practices. Their serious musical goods coupled with an entertaining stage presence has led to critical acclaim in Europe, North and South America – “Watch and be amazed.” (CBC)

Of Polish origin, Dr. Kornel Wolak performs on clarinet and piano with “control and a smooth expressivity [which] make Wolak shine.” (Toronto Star) Dr. Wolak is an associate professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He is a pioneering collaborative researcher in oral articulators with the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto. His research led to the publication of his first book, Articulations Types on Clarinet, and collaborations with schools in China, the USA, Europe, and Canada. He is an internationally renowned soloist, teacher and touring chamber musician. His playing has been praised on three continents.

Originally from Alberta, Michael Bridge was named one of CBC’s “30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30” in 2016 and is a winner of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Medal and the Canadian Digital Accordion Championships. Michael Bridge is pursuing his doctorate in accordion performance at the University of Toronto. “A wizard of the accordion”(CBC), he is a leading performer in his generation on both acoustic and digital accordions. He teaches guest lectures on the Music Business for Students at various universities alongside lectures in writing for accordion. Active in new music, he has premiered over 50 works and performs more than 100 concerts per year.

Wolak and Bridge began their collaboration in 2011. They have since performed across Canada for arts organizations as diverse as the music they play – from the Ontario Philharmonic to the Calgary Stampede. On the occasion of an international music festival in Loja, Ecuador, they met their future collaborator, Professor Guillaume Tardif (violin) from the University of Alberta, with whom they toured Europe in summer 2016 as a trio. Cementing an international reputation, DDD returned to Poland in January 2017, for their second bi-annual tour.

Following their formative first album, Rock Bach (2015), their second album, Tales from the Dinarides (2017), featured classical and folk melodies from Central Europe performed with violinist Guillaume Tardif, commissioned by the University of Alberta’s Wirth Institute. Their recordings are heard regularly on CBC radio across Canada, and their lectures are available internationally on the Clarinet Podcast. They both consider themselves lucky to work and travel the world as great friends.

Double Double Duo performs at the Prince Charles Theatre on Sunday, February 24th at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $22 adult and $10 youth in advance from Black Bear Books, Kingfisher Books and Fly in the Fibre, or $25 adult and $12 youth at the door.