Born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1964, Wolf Tormann completed studies at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt with Professor Gerhard Mantel. He continued advanced studies with two of the worlds most famous cellists and cello teachers, Arto Noras, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, and Janos Starker, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Wolf has been a member of various orchestras, including the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Opera Orchestra Halle, Stuttgart Philharmonic and from 1992-1994, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, where he was assistant principal cellist.
While in Lisbon, he performed more than 100 solo, chamber music and orchestral concerts a season, appeared as guest soloist with the Metropolitan Orchestra and was Professor of Cello at the National Academy for Orchestral Education. He was also a founding member of the Tagide String Quartet.
Wolf moved to Canada in 1994. He has been the principal cellist of the Kingston Symphony Orchestra since 1996 and has been on the substitution list in the cello section of the National Arts Centre Orchestra since 2001, performing more than 1000 concerts with them. He has also toured with the National Arts Centre Orchestra on several occasions, including tours all over Canada, as well as Great Britain and China.
For nine years , Wolf was Music Director of a series of Chamber Music Soirees in Kingston, performing more than 25 concerts in and around the area, with both local and outside musicians. His duties included organizing, programming and hiring musicians for the concerts.
Wolf has been a member of Queen’s University faculty in the Dan School of Drama and Music for the past 24 years. His responsibilities include teaching, chamber music coaching and conducting the Queen’s Orchestra, which he has led for the past six years. Recent performances include:
Wolf has also taught through QCM (Queen’s Community Music, Queen’s Conservatory of Music) and teaches students of all ages in his Kingston and Toronto studios. For the past 10 years he has conducted a cello orchestra with up to 24 participants, featuring elementary, secondary and university students, as well as adult learners. He is also the founder and cellist of the Isabel Quartet, the Quartet in Residence at Queen’s University. He has an active concert career, performing frequently as soloist and in chamber music concerts with his colleagues from the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Queen’s University. He was the cellist of the National Piano Trio, which is the Ensemble in Residence for the National Music Camp of Canada, where Wolf has taught for the past 20 years.
Wolf is in high demand as an adjudicator for music festivals across the country. Most recent adjudications include the Alberta Provincial Finals, Edmonton Kiwanis, St. John’s Kiwanis, Pickering Kiwanis, London Kiwanis and Toronto Kiwanis Music Festivals.
Wolf has recorded for the Kingston Symphony Association as well as Radio Difusao Portugal and CBC Radio Canada. He plays on a Guy Harrison cello that was built for him in 2108 and is made from 100-year old German maple and Canadian spruce. Private cello lessons are available at his Kingston and Toronto studios for all levels of child and adult learners.