Past Projects

A solo show performed in 2018 Linsey Pollak is “Carrot Man”. He didn’t want to be “Carrot Man” but the name sort of stuck (that’s what happens when a video with you drilling out a carrot and turning it into a clarinet goes viral). He tried to ignore the name, he even stopped making carrot […]

2012 – 2018 The Unusual Suspects – A 23 piece street band – 8 drummers, 4 saxes, 3 trumpets, a clarinet, a tenor horn, 2 trombones, a sousaphone, an ipod, a cittern and a rezouki. Unusual music in unusual times and in unusual clothes. Balkan, funky dance music for dancing in the streets (or anywhere […]

A solo show performed 2011 – 2016 Linsey makes music by live-looping instruments of his own making such as “Mr Curly” (a contra-bass clarinet made from garden hose), the Rubber Glove bagpipe, a watering can clarinet and the Saxillo (a wooden sax made from an Olive tree he planted). He also makes a clarinet out […]

Slavka & Živko was a duo with Linsey and Nadia Sunde, performed 2012 – 2014. Slavka & Živko are the greatest sensation of musicalness since the Eurovision Song Contest began. These peoples are having crowds moving in happiness and amazement. Slavka is almost award-winning singer and beauty queen, coming third in Miss Adriatic contest, which […]

This Little Life was a duo performance by Linsey and Mark Bromilow developed from 2011 – 2014. www.thislittlelife.com.au Part ritual, part performance, This Little Life is a visual and musical journey into the secret life of small objects. 12 guests at a time are invited into a strange inflatable dome, removed from the big world […]

The Extinction Room was a solo music piece performed by Linsey 2009 – 2016.  The Extinction Room is a sound  piece creating music from the sounds of endangered & extinct animals.In this performance of approximately 45 minutes,  the audience will wear blindfolds and be taken on a journey into the Extinction Room….. a sound archive of endangered […]

The Dream of Zedkat Nabu was performed at the 2012/13 Woodford Folk Festival “Zedkat Nabu dreamt that she was baking bread, and as she baked, water suddenly poured forth from her oven forming a great sea. As the sea rose, many and various animals tried to escape the growing deluge of water, crying out with […]

performed 2009 – 2011 “Brides of Groove” are Linsey Pollak (kaossilator,  soprano sax & Mr Curly), Jessica Ainsworth (drums), Ric Halstead (soprano & tenor sax) and Brendan Hook (soprano & tenor sax) . They play kaoss electrodance grooves verging on dirty Balkan funk. Learn “The Sniffy Dance” & learn how to dance in 13/8. mp3s:  […]

2010 – 2011 Shopska Salata is Lubche Nikolovski (winds, loops & kaossilator) and Svetko Ramanuja  (vocals, kanjira & morsing). Their style is “tongue ‘n Groove and their stylist is Slavcho (their Uncle).Think “Black Cat White Cat” and “Pit Bull Terrier” and you begin to get the picture. Sporting pointy white shoes, suits and extravagant moustaches they […]

A solo show performed 2008 – 2011 This solo show was a quirky look at how wind instruments work and how they are invented using unexpected materials. Linsey makes Membrane reeds from balloons and rubber gloves, gradually developing them  into the Foonki and the rubber glove bagpipe. He makes panpipes and harmonic flutes from irrigation […]

2010 Funky Junk  was a duo show devised by Linsey performing together with his partner, percussionist Jessica Ainsworth. Funky Junk has ping pong bats scraping shaved heads and bare legs. There are bagpipes made from rubber gloves and beach balls. You’ll here the unbelievable sound of Mr Curly (a contra bass clarinet made from garden hose). There […]

2008 – 2010 music made with bicycles…. springing up in unexpected places. Number of Performers: 3 Three cyclists appear spontaneously in carefully selected places and perform for approx 7 minutes in each place. The musicians include three wind players (Linsey Pollak, Ric Halstead, Brendan Hook). All the music is made with the bicycles, especially featuring: […]

a solo show performed 2007 – 2009 Professor Squealy Deetbum is the world’s leading researcher in Cycology (the art of playing the bicycle). He will be delivering a lecture demonstrating the fundamental principles of bicycle music. Sounds are recorded live during the lecture with percussion, wind, and string sounds from the bike. The Bicycle seat, […]

‘SQUIRT’  –  an interactive and performance installation using water squirted from bottles to trigger the sounds of Australian frogs.    2005 – 2008 Click here to try online interactive version of SQUIRT Listen to a sample of Squirt Sounds (mp3 format 1.2mb)  click to listen to SQIRT sounds   The water is squirted at twelve two […]

trio with Peter Rowe & Terri Delany  2003 – 2007 When qwerty walk on stage they have no idea where the performance will go; no idea of the song content, the sounds to be used or the musical style, let alone such details as key or time signature. Audiences are taken on a journey; sometimes […]

Produced by Performing Lines 2003 – 2007 The Lab is an inventive and theatrical music performance by Graeme Leak and Linsey Pollak. Set in a laboratory, two scientists share their exciting and hugely entertaining musical discoveries. Associate Professors of Fun, Leak and Pollak, take the audience on an aural adventure, an adventure obsessed with sounds […]

2006 composed by Linsey Pollak  – based on poems written by refugees for 2 voices, 3 saxophones, “Lyrebird” wind synth, percussion, wind harps, and clarinis. mp3s: Listen to “The Only Hope” (mp3 format 1.49mb)   The only Hope Listen to “Destiny” (mp3 format 1.89mb)   Destiny “Here is my room. Oblivion is corroded and silence has grown […]

2007 – 2009 The Wishing Well  was an interactive  performance and then later an installation which set out to record the wishes, dreams and deepest desires for the wellbeing of the world and each other. It offered the opportunity  for people to make a wish and have a look what the world is wishing for. It […]

a solo show performed 2003 – 2006 Making Jam is a solo show by Linsey Pollak. It’s for people of all ages, and as with many of Linsey’s previous shows it’s about making music from the things around us. In Making Jam we get to hear flutes, panpipes and clarinets made from garden hose and  […]

2005 – 2011 The marimba band “KKarimba” came from the small town of Kin Kin on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. Started and led by Linsey Pollak, they began as a group of 24 beginners coming along to weekly workshops. They continued for another 6 years under Linsey’s direction to record an album and become […]

an interactive sound installation  for Qld Biennial Festival of Music 2003 Devised by Linsey Pollak Constructed by – Linsey Pollak, Steve Langton, David Murphy, Steve Weis and Mik Moore. In the magical forest, a musical fantasy emerges. Throughout the ten days of the festival, all day and into the night, strange sounds and wacky and […]

MD / performer  Wataboshi Festival  2003 Glen Sheppard and Peter Rowe, are both young men using facilitated communication (fc) to write the songs. (Put very simply, that’s using an alphabet board with the physical support of a trusted support person). They are improvising the words as you watch and listen, and these words are Although […]

A Festival of Experimental Musical instrumentsApril 5th – 7th  2002 Music of our time is rich in new timbres, new textures and new instruments.   Contemporary artists are pushing the boundaries beyond the physical limitations of traditional instruments, to explore new sounds from new sources.  REV presents the very latest developments in experimental musical instrument making […]

Street show 2002 “Foonki” is a street show from Australia with Linsey Pollak and Jessica Ainsworth, plus a length of garden hose, a rubber glove, a rubbish bin and some watering cans. A hilarious and profoundly musical 15 minute show that creates a giant interractive bagpipe played by Linsey and 5 members of the audience […]

2001 A barge that was part huge Brisbane Centenary of Federation River Parade directed by Neil Cameron. Linsey was Musical Director and one of the barges was the Dream Barge that Linsey designed along with Steve Weis. Eight musicians worked in two teams of four to play non stop music to half a million people […]

1999 – 2001 Linsey and Jessica Ainsworth (Linsey’s gorgeous friend, lover, partner since 1986) play music using a WX5 wind synth and SPD20 drum pads that are fed into 20 sets of headphones. Only the people with the headphones can hear them. They usually performed this at festivals and on the street. Taking their headphones […]

a solo show performed 1999 – 2002 (directed by Mark Bromilow) Ivan is a home-styled kitchenhand with a difference. He’s eccentric, hilarious and totally irresistable. And he lives in a musical world where all is possible…. From the moment that Ivan walks into the kitchen, everything becomes musical…. carrots, potatoes, satay sticks, meat cleavers and […]

directed by Michael and Marjorie Fordea solo show performed 1998 – 1999 Playpen was commissioned by The Out of The Box Festival, directed by Michael and Marjorie Forde and produced by Performing Lines. It toured to Sydney, Adelaide and Toronto. Description: “Playpen” is a performance for 3 – 8 year olds and families. In this […]

MD/Composer/Performer 1997 Woodford Folk Festival 1998 Brisbane Festival ………………a sensual and magical world created for the audience from natural sounds, sampled sounds and digital sounds,  …….. constructed entirely from bamboo. Six performers musically explore this new world in which they live as gatekeepers, caged birds, newborn and dying, subterranean and flying, laughing and crying.. As […]

a solo show performed 1996 – 1998 (directed by Chris Willems) Kevin is a Roadie, a sound checker,  “… one, two…one, two……” Every gig is different…different town, different venue, different audience, but Kevin is a constant, the one part of the gig that remains the same – reliable, detached…a pro.  But there’s something about Kevin […]

1995 The Big Marimba was a huge Community music project devised by Linsey for The Brisbane Biennial Festival of Music (as it was then called) which involved 400 people from all around Cooroy on The Sunshine Coast making a 320 metre long marimba (xylophone) that comprised 160 x 2 octave marimbas. The 2400 marimba bars […]

Composer / instrument maker / Performer  1994 – 1997 Devised by Linsey, Out of the Frying Pan was commissioned by The Out of The Box Festival in Brisbane, directed by Chris Willems and produced by Performing Lines. It created music from house and garden objects with a cast of musician/actors that included Ceri McCoy, Jorge […]

MD 1992 – 1995 This National cross-cultural ensemble, formed by Linsey under the auspices of the Brisbane Ethnic Music and Arts Centre (BEMAC), represented a gathering of some of Australia’s most uniquely talented artists. Slivanje (meaning “meeting of waters” in Macedonian) created new Australian music based on the traditions that each musician brought to the […]

1992 – 1998 A crazy quartet from Kin Kin on the Sunshine coast with Linsey, Jess Ainsworth, Ali Adams and Mik Moore. Music from a Humarimba (marimba attached to 2 humans), sax, clarini, rubber glove bagpipes, zurna, wheelie bin, djembes, zils, boing pipes, frying pans and a carrot. This group of natty dressers (their early […]

1986 –  1998 You had to be there! This trio of three included: The President – Professor Crivici (Romano Crivici – Linsey’s oldest friend…I don’t mean old….just from long ago….when they were just kids….almost) – keys and violin. Frank Brutal – leader of the political arm of the Society (Blair Greenberg) – percussion and guitar. […]