Canadian clarinettist Kornel Wolak joins forces with Norbert Palej and Charles T. Cozens for an album celebrating friendship, creativity, and contemporary classical music.
Three friends. Two brand new concertos. One clarinet.
Polish-Canadian clarinettist Kornel Wolak has released MESH, a new album featuring two world premiere clarinet concertos composed specifically for him by Norbert Palej and Charles T. Cozens.
Released October 30, 2026, through Slammin Media and distributed worldwide by Believe, the album brings together three celebrated figures in Canadian classical music. Cozens also conducts the Burlington New Millennium Orchestra on the recording.
Both concertos showcase Wolak’s expressive playing, surrounded by lush strings, vibraphone, harp, and percussion. The result is a collection that moves between peaceful reflection, playful rhythms, and powerful orchestral moments.
“Working on music composed by good friends is a reciprocal process,” Wolak shares. “I get to know the composer-friend better as a human being while studying their music. I also learn about them by trying to understand what they expect of me. After all, every musical gesture in such a composition was written with the intention that I would be the one expressing it.”
“It is also personal in the sense that I get to ‘live inside their head’ through analysing their work, guessing at the emotional states behind the notes, and then finding ways to express them through the clarinet. It is a journey from complexity to simplicity,” he adds. “Fortunately, in the case of the two concertos on MESH, when in doubt, I could always call the composer and ask for help. And that usually sparks great conversations!”
Kornel Wolak MESH – Two World Premiere Clarinet Concertos
The album opens with Palej’s Sursum, a three-movement concerto whose title translates from Latin as “upward.”
Rooted in minimalism, the composition uses repeating musical patterns that gradually evolve, creating an atmosphere of beauty and reflection.
The opening movement, “Sursum,” highlights the clarinet’s bright upper register, while “Amor” introduces warm harmonies. The final movement, “Simul,” brings the piece to an energetic conclusion.
“People often think contemporary classical music is difficult to listen to, harsh, and depressing. I don’t blame them: much of it in the 20th century was like this,” Palej explains. “But this is a new century! And I want beauty, and brightness, and mystery, and a music that draws in any open-minded listener who searches for new emotion.”
“I believe in luminous simplicity. Like looking into someone’s eyes: the eye is simple, yet infinitely deep, and infinitely complex. You sink into it,” he continues.
“I wrote Sursum for Kornel to perform and for Charles to conduct and produce; I knew they would both bring incredible artistic mastery, each in their field. But maybe even more importantly, I knew they would bring a kind of positive energy, which says: let’s make great things happen no matter the challenge!”
The album then shifts gears with Cozens’ Les Petites Danses Démoniques (The Little Demonic Dances), a theatrical and playful composition filled with contrasting moods.
Opening with “Les Vauriens” (The Rascals), the concerto features a cadenza written by Wolak himself, giving the clarinettist an opportunity to perform completely solo.
The second movement, “Prélude, La Trance et Un Appel à la Prière,” introduces a mystical atmosphere before “Les Danses et Célébration” closes the work with energetic dance rhythms.
“As a composer, what is most important to me is imagery, whether it be pictorial or emotional,” Cozens explains. “Then there is the challenge of capturing this in musical composition with the hope that it will affect a significant number of listeners in the same way.”
For Cozens, balancing the responsibilities of composer, conductor, and producer offered a unique creative experience.
“As a conductor in preparing Sursum, I had to enter the mind of composer Norbert Palej to understand the nature of his writing and translate that information to the orchestra and soloist,” he shares.
“But in Les Petites Danses Démoniques, because it is my own composition, I knew right away what I wanted to impart to the orchestra and clarinet soloist Kornel Wolak. Kornel was able to bring the music to life with his incredible lyricism, technique, and interpretation.”
MESH Celebrates Friendship and Canadian Classical Music
Although the two concertos explore different musical directions, they share a common foundation in friendship and collaboration.
“Charles’ Les Petites Danses Démoniques is a complex mosaic of restless, contrasting characters that one can almost join in a dance, while Norbert’s Sursum is more meditative and ‘vast’ in nature,” Wolak says.
“There are endless changes of colour, rhythm, and energy. Lots of contrasts. Lots of challenges for me. But—at the same time—a lot of fun!”
Palej agrees that the compositions complement one another.
“Charles’s work is just as uplifting – despite its ominous title – only in a different way. There is great humour and an amazing drive in his dances, where my Sursum is more melody centred.”
Recorded at Toronto’s Revolution Recording, MESH was produced by Cozens with tracking engineer Luke Schindler. Anthony Mancini handled editing and mixing, while Wreckhouse Mastering completed the mastering.
The album’s title was inspired by a sculpture created by UK artist Peter Berry. Artistic director Laura van Leest selected the name MESH to reflect the interconnected nature of the project.
The Artists Behind Kornel Wolak’s MESH Album
Each musician brings an impressive background to the collaboration.
Kornel Wolak is a two-time Fryderyk Award nominee and an internationally recognized clarinettist whose performances have been featured on CBC, Classical 96.3 FM, and NPR.
He has appeared as a soloist on more than ten albums, including the 2024 JUNO Award-winning Symphonie de la tempête de verglas.
Beyond performing, Wolak develops clarinet method books and conducts research into clarinet sound production with the University of Toronto’s Speech-Language Pathology Department. He has taught at Queen’s University since 2018 and performs internationally with the clarinet and accordion duo Bridge & Wolak.
Norbert Palej is an acclaimed composer whose music has been performed at Carnegie Hall and internationally.
His 2021 project Return from the Stars, created in collaboration with the European Space Agency, was introduced aboard the International Space Station and presented at Expo 2020 Dubai.
He currently serves as Professor of Composition and Artistic Director of the New Music Festival at the University of Toronto.
Charles T. Cozens is a JUNO-nominated composer, conductor, arranger, and producer with more than 3,000 orchestrations and compositions to his name.
His extensive career includes collaborations with Elton John, Randy Bachman, Janelle Monáe, The Nylons, and The Canadian Tenors.
He founded the Burlington New Millennium Orchestra and has been inducted into the Burlington Performing Arts Centre Hall of Fame.
What’s Next for Kornel Wolak?
With MESH, Wolak hopes to introduce listeners to the evolving possibilities of the classical concerto while offering something emotionally uplifting.
“MESH invokes (at least in me) a mixture of profound joy, lightness, and hope. It would be wonderful if these were everyone’s takeaways after hearing the album,” he shares.
“MESH also sends another message: one that says that the classical form of the concerto is very much alive and dynamically evolving. It gently plays with listeners’ expectations, showing them its relevance, freshness, and how universal this form can be.”
Cozens hopes listeners “feel emotionally sated after listening to both works; Sursum for its serenity and joy and Les Petites Danses Démoniques for its mischievous imagery and emotional depth.”
For Palej, the ultimate goal is simple.
“I hope that what stays with people when they have listened to MESH is a sense of being lifted up,” he says. “And yes, I hope my melodies stay with people and become earworms.”
