Paul Korda
| Paul Korda | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Paul Kunstler |
| Also known as | Paul Korda |
| Origin | Singapore, Malaysia |
| Genres | Rock, pop, soul |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, producer, arranger, actor |
| Instruments | guitar, piano, vocals |
| Years active | 1965–present |
| Associated acts | Original cast of Hair, Dada, Elkie Brooks, Love Sculpture, Teddy Brown, Franki Valli, Roger Daltrey |
| Website | www.paulkorda.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| piano, guitar | |
Paul Korda (born Paul Kunstler in 1948, Singapore, Malaysia) is an English songwriter, singer, musician, and actor. He has been writing and performing music since the 1960s. His songs have been covered by myriad artists, such as Roger Daltrey, Dave Edmunds, Frankie Valli, and Love Sculpture.
Korda was born into a creative family of entertainers, professional singers, songwriters, and accomplished musicians. His father, Hungarian-born Tibor Kunstler, was a violinist and former student of the Franz Liszt Conservatory of Music in Budapest, Hungary and Academia La Scala in Milan. Tibor played saxophone on jazz great Coleman Hawkins' tour of the East, which was the first jazz tour to take place in Asia. Korda's British mother, Shirley Green—who worked under the stage name Shirley Lenner—was a vocalist and actress. She starred in the wartime film musical Those Kids From Town (1942) and also sang with band leaders Joe Loss, George Elrick, and Stéphane Grappelli.
Tibor and Shirley met while working as entertainers in Singapore. Tibor, who had been interned during the Japanese invasion of Java while playing at the Hilton Hotel there, was performing at Raffles Hotel while Shirley, who had spent the latter part of World War II entertaining British troops, was singing at Princes Restaurant nearby.
Paul's British grandparents had also been professional singers, songwriters and musicians. In the 1890s, his grandmother Florence Wright worked in a market stall in Edinburgh, Scotland, singing songs penned by Chappell Music founder Lawrence Wright to help sell his sheet music. Florence and her husband, pianist Tommy Lenner, took their thirteen children on tour with them as angels at the beginning of the Vaudeville era.
Shirley Lenner's sisters were well-known singers in Britain: Judy Shirley hosted 'Monday Night At Seven' for the BBC during World War II, and Anne Lenner sang with celebrated American composer Carole Gibbons.
Due to his parents' work commitments and divorce, Paul was sent to boarding school at age five and a half upon returning to England. He continued to be away at school for much of his childhood. He took classical piano lessons, prompted by his father's classical education, while his mother arranged for him to take lessons from a contemporary piano player. At the age of nine wrote his first musical.
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