People walk up and say, ‘I have an accordion in my dungeon’

Michael Bridge’s accordion and Kornel Wolak’s clarinet appear in Bach to Benny Goodman at Yellowknife’s NACC on Friday evening.

Tickets are available on NACC’s website.

Ahead of the show, Bridge and Wolak stopped in to visit Afternoons at the Cabin.

This interview was recorded on February 27, 2025. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ollie Williams: I’ve just seen you dragging a case through the snow in downtown Yellowknife. That looked like quite an ordeal.

Michael Bridge: Anyone who’s seen me around town with this big black bag? That’s my digital accordion, which you can hear tonight.

Hello also to Kornel Wolak, how are you?

Kornel Wolak: I’m happy to be here. It’s my first time in Yellowknife and I hope it’s the first time of many because the people, the atmosphere, the food, everything is spectacular, and I’m looking forward to the show tonight and entertaining everybody.

He’s dragging a digital accordion across town. What are you dragging around?

Kornel Wolak: I’m dragging around my huge personality. I’m trying for it not to hit anybody.

And musically, what might we expect?

Kornel Wolak: There’s going to be a very healthy fusion between classical music and everything else. Michael, would you like to expand?

Before Michael expands, I’m going to bring in Yellowknife composer and performer Carmen Braden, who is helping to put all this together. Carmen is frantically miming a clarinet in the general direction of Kornel, because Carmen understands that what I was really going for is: “What instrument do you play there, Kornel?” Carmen, how did this performance come to be?

Carmen Braden: I met Michael Bridge when we evacuated. I ended up in Banff during the time that we were away, and I saw him play the accordion. Then I found out about his other projects, which included Kornel. We jumped on a Zoom and I realized that these were two people I wanted to bring to town and have hang out here and bring their music.

Michael, Kornel had been inviting you to expand on what we can expect tonight in From Bach to Benny Goodman.

Michael Bridge: We like to think we’re funny. We like to think we have a good time and that we play good music. We will be playing music that is 300 years old by Bach, some done authentically for the time, some completely twisted and reimagined using 21st-century technology in a way that was not possible even 10 years ago. You could not make the sounds that we now make 10 years ago. So that’s fun.

Between those we’ll be touching on some Bulgarian folk music, some swing music, some jazz, some Chopin from Kornel’s homeland of Poland and everything in between.

You guys have been up here for a couple days. You’ve had some school performances, there was a workshop on Wednesday. Did I here there are also young accordion players in Yellowknife?

Michael Bridge: Carmen found the one! I had the distinct pleasure to meet Nico, who moved here from Iqaluit last October. He joined us at his school on Wednesday, played a little reel, I accompanied him a little bit – and by the way, he’s going to play in the lobby at around 7:10pm before the concert. So come half an hour early and you’ll be treated to a local accordion performance as well.

Do you find many young accordion players on your travels? It strikes me as an instrument you have to work quite hard to be into.

Michael Bridge: Well, mine came to me by chance from a garage sale when I was five years old. I don’t know how Nico started, but I know in Nunavut there’s a big community of small button accordions.

You’d be surprised. We find people who walk up to the two of us after concerts frequently and say, “Hey, I have a clarinet in my attic,” or “I have an accordion in my dungeon,” or whatever people have had for the past 50 years. We try to inspire people to get back to them.

The number of times I’ve used the pickup line, “I have an accordion in my dungeon.” Kornel, how did you both start playing together?

Kornel Wolak: Rewind 15 years and I was playing with a gentleman named Joseph Macerollo, who is this iconic Canadian, legendary accordionist. He’s a prof at the University of Toronto, where Michael was a student at the time. We played together and we toured together.

At some point he says, “Hey, Kornel, you know, I’ve had enough of touring. I have grandchildren on my own and I would like to spend more time with my family. But this young kid just came to U of T and you should hear him play.”

Turns out it was Michael. Fifteen years later, we’ve toured so much that if you put together all the miles we’ve travelled, it would be enough, probably, to get to the Moon and back. We’ve played so much music, we’ve covered every possible genre and we’ve met wonderful people on at least three or four continents.

Is this the first time you’ve played in a Snowcastle, coming up this weekend?

Kornel Wolak: Definitely the first.

I’m glad we’re still able to deliver a first, even if you’ve been to the Moon and back.

Kornel Wolak: I also want to remind everyone that tonight there will be a world premiere of a piece composed for clarinet solo by your very own composer from Yellowknife, Kay Sibbeston. We’ve workshopped the piece meticulously. It is so good, it needs to be premiered here during our concert tonight.