About

Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, and educator, Dennis Kwok, exists at the intersection of bebop, contemporary classical, free improvisation, and pop music. Originally from Calgary, his interest in jazz and improvised music led him to pursue studies at Humber College, where he completed his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Saxophone. Since then, he has been featured as part of the 2020 TD Toronto Jazz Festival Discovery Series, selected as a musician-in-residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2021, and backed JUNO-award winning artists, such as The Tenors, Jackie Richardson, and Pat LaBarbera. As a versatile woodwind doubler, Dennis has appeared as the oboe soloist for Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #1 and #2 with the Oakville Chamber Orchestra, and has also been active in musical theatre orchestras, including productions of Follies (Royal Conservatory of Music),  Escape to Margaritaville (Theatre Calgary), La Cage Aux Folles, Chicago (Stratford Festival), 1922 (Shaw Festival), and Mean Girls (Mirvish).

Since 2016, Dennis has appeared on more than 15 commercial releases as an instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, arranger, producer, and recording engineer. Notably, he contributed orchestral arrangements for Alec Steinwall's debut album, My Wildest Dream (2022), engineered The Green Trees of June (2020) for Toronto-based trumpeter, Paul Callander, and sang in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir on the GRAMMY-nominated rendition of “Messiah” (2016) with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Dennis’ compositions and arrangements have been showcased by the Sonuskapos Jazz Orchestra, Etobicoke Jazz Festival, and Caity Gyorgy (2-time JUNO-award winner), among others.

In 2020, Dennis released his debut album, Windward Bound, with the Dennis Kwok Jazz Orchestra, consisting of his original six-part suite for big band, and featuring himself as a soloist on multiple woodwind instruments. Windward Bound has been described as “an elegant album of program music for 19-piece jazz orchestra” by The WholeNote magazine, and “an impressive debut all 'round and an intriguing harbinger of voyages yet to come” by All About Jazz. Dennis can be heard as both a bandleader and a sideman at venues across the Greater Toronto Area.