If you give this man a carrot, you’ll end up with a serenade

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If you give this man a carrot, you’ll end up with a serenade

Some say that food is art. Linsey Pollak takes food even further, making it into music.
In his hands, carrots become clarinets. Food isn’t his only material: rubber gloves become bagpipes; watering cans, chairs and brooms become other instruments.
“Linsey offers new possibilities to people who don’t know or even dream that such possibilities exist,” says journalist Tansin Kerr in an interview in “Music and Community.”
A native of Australia, Mr. Pollak travels around the world performing for people of all ages. He will hold his third concert series in Korea from Wednesday to Sept. 28 at the Hakchun Blue Theater in Daehangno, organized in part by the Korean Culture and Art Foundation.
For his first two performances in Korea, he brought the show “The Art of Food.” This time, he will be performing a new solo work, “Making Jam.” In an e-mail interview, he writes, “This is a totally new show, so I am very keen to see it in front of an audience.”
“Making Jam” is, in a way, a “best of” that brings together some of Mr. Pollak’s previous musical inventions. When he takes the stage, all props become potential instruments, and with “Making Jam,” audience members are encouraged to participate. Acts bear such titles as “Frog Bagpipe,” “Egg & Nucleus” and “Skewer & Wailing Glove.”
Mr. Linsey got his start while living in a group house in Redfern, Australia. At that time, he says, he was a hotel porter and “dead poor.” He and several friends started entertaining and educating children about music. They would rent out an old chicken farm on the edge of Sydney and hold shows. Out of their work grew a collective that would go on to develop community arts in Australia.
About 20 years ago, Mr. Pollak made a flute. He was, at the time, dissatisfied with classical instruments: “After 10 years of studying clarinet, I became disillusioned with the repertoire for that instrument,” he writes. The material used to make his flute? A broom.
Since then, he’s invented countless instruments, established the Multicultural Arts Center of Western Australia and recorded 19 albums with various groups. But behind the consummate musician is a comedian who creates music with the flourish of a magician.
“I hope to have shown many people that they can play music as a real and vital part of their lives and not be just passive consumers. I dream of a society that doesn’t have a word for musician, because everyone plays music.”


by Joe Yong-hee

Tickets are 15,000 won ($13). Call (02) 760-4638 or visit www.ticketlink. co.kr.
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