These are a few of our concert and touring programs. For further info, please contact us at ensemblepolaris@gmail.com.

DEFINITELY NOT THE NUTCRACKER: A show based on the Nutcracker Nouveau CD, celebrating Tchaikovsky’s popular music juxtaposed with instrumentals and songs from Russian folk tradition. With influences ranging from traditional Scandinavian, bluegrass, Roma and Klezmer to Chinese classical and The Nightmare Before Christmas, this is music to bring you good cheer, at any time of year!

VIKINGS ON VACATION: Those travel-loving Vikings got around – to Constantinople, to the Volga River, to North America…Drawn from the band’s third CD, Vikings on Vacation also voyages further afield with tunes from the melancholy north, sunny Italy (including music by Nino Rota), and original music by Kirk Elliott and Deb Sinha. 

UNCHARTED WATERS: A program based on the CD Uncharted Waters, this program runs the gamut from evocative laments to sizzling dance tunes, and include a number of charts by members of the band. Tunes from Vikings on Vacation also sneak their way into this program, as the mood strikes…

A NORTHERN SEA CELEBRATION: First presented at the Toronto Music Garden in the summer of 2014, this show celebrates the bodies of water connecting all circumpolar countries, and their legends, people and creatures. Music from Canada, Scotland, the Baltics, Scandinavia and Finland, about boat races and acquatic mysteries to sailors, mermaids and water trolls. This show goes on tour to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in August 2015.

WHO’S WHO IN VALHALLA: A show drawing upon the band’s repertoire of tunes from Iceland, Sweden and Norway, interspersed with short tales from Norse mythology. The trade Freya made to get that fantastic necklace, how Thor got his magic hammer back, and more.

EDUCATIONAL SHOWS:

Between them, the members of Ensemble Polaris have played hundreds of shows presented by the Toronto Symphony Education Program, Mariposa in the Schools, Sharon Lois & Bram, Autorickshaw, Toronto Consort and many others. Their school programs offer a panorama of their arrangements and original music, introduce their many instruments and musical influences, and always include lots of time for questions!

‘Prior to Tuesday evening’s concert by Ensemble Polaris I called my granddaughter to hear how their workshop in her school went earlier in the day. She replied in a typical 12 years old fashion that it was ‘good’ and ‘interesting.’ I asked what grades and was told Grades 1 to 8…I learned from others that the school workshop had been a great success – informative, well executed, fun.’ Barrie Examiner, October 2014