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Short bio - 177 words
Ensemble Polaris was founded in the spring of 1997 to explore the music of the north: Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, Scotland, and Canada. Composed of Canadian musicians from a unique array of traditions and backgrounds, the band uses a smorgasbord of instruments (nyckelharpa, hurdy gurdy, baroque flute, bass clarinet, Swedish bagpipes, ‘cello, accordion, Norwegian will flute and more) plus voice, to create a unique, distinctive style. The resulting music has an eclectic palette of musical influences, colours, and techniques - early, folk, Klezmer, Hot Club of Paris, middle Eastern and southeast Asian, traditional Scandinavian, Celtic, Cape Breton, eastern European, classical, improvisatory, and avant-garde. Ensemble Polaris has won wide-ranging admiration from music lovers of all types, succinctly summed up by an enthusiastic reviewer on amazon.com: “I dare you not to love this music.”
Ensemble Polaris is
Marco Cera, guitars
Kirk Elliott, violin, folk harp, mandolin, accordion, bagpipe, etc.
Margaret Gay, 'cello
Ben Grossman, hurdy gurdy
Katherine Hill, voice, nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle)
Alison Melville, baroque flute, recorders, seljefløyte (willow flute)
Colin Savage, clarinet, bass clarinet, recorders
Debashis Sinha, percussion
Medium bio - 670 words
A unique group on the North American music scene, ENSEMBLE POLARIS was founded in the spring of 1997 to explore the ‘idea of North’ in music. Their innovative and genre-bending artistry and style, nicknamed ‘Arctic fusion’ by a fan, has won Polaris international rave reviews of all kinds, from an Amazon.com customer’s “I dare you not to love this music!” to a Disc of the Month award from Britain’s Classic CD magazine.
Composed of expert performers from a variety of musical traditions and backgrounds, Polaris incorporates an eclectic palette of musical influences, colours and techniques in their sound – early, folk, Klezmer, Hot Club of Paris, middle Eastern and southeast Asian, traditional Scandinavian, Celtic, Cape Breton, eastern European, classical, improvisatory, and avant-garde. Their music evolves through the processes of improvisation, collaborative arrangement and composition.
Ensemble Polaris is
Marco Cera, guitars
Kirk Elliott, violin, folk harp, mandolin, accordion, bagpipe, etc.
Margaret Gay, 'cello
Ben Grossman, hurdy gurdy
Katherine Hill, voice, nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle)
Alison Melville, baroque flute, recorders, seljefløyte (willow flute)
Colin Savage, clarinet, bass clarinet, recorders
Debashis Sinha, percussion
‘While there’s nothing precious about their approach, Ensemble Polaris take a holistic view…Ancient songs with extraordinary words, laments and dances, are all reworked here for modern ears. The arrangements are absolutely spot on…’
Classic CD (UK)
‘What do a hurdy gurdy, a bass clarinet, a set of bagpipes, and Norwegian lyrics add up to? A rocking good time is the answer, as I discovered this weekend when I discovered Ensemble Polaris…Ensemble Polaris definitely rates a tip of the padre's beret –
go see them if you get the chance!’
Audience member’s blog, Middleton, NS
"...Incredible variety is all respects and a collection of sounds that is strongly rhythmic or gorgeously melodic - predominantly an early instrumental music sound, but with various influences of celtic, klezmer, middle eastern and blues!"
Customer review, Amazon.com
Ensemble Polaris first performed at Toronto’s Northern Encounters Festival in June of 1997 and subsequent concerts have been heard across Canada in numerous broadcasts on CBC-Radio 2 and Radio-Canada. Their Montréal début for Radio-Canada at the Salle Pierre Mercure in 2004 met with enthusiastic audience response, as have other performances across southern Ontario. All their shows on tours across Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in summer 2009 and Alberta/British Columbia in winter 2011 met with standing ovations. The group established its own concert series in Toronto in 2006 with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils.
Frequently heard on Canadian radio, Polaris’s recordings have also been in regular rotation on the ABC (Australia), NPR (USA), NRK (Norway), BBC (Britain) and other European radio networks. Their first CD Midnight Sun (Dorian) was released in 2000 and received glowing praise in folk, classical and alternative music publications from Canada, the USA, Holland, Norway, England and elsewhere, including a Disc of the Month award in August 2000. Not Much is Worse than a Troll (2005) included new arrangements and original tunes which evolved through a grant for repertoire development from the Canada Council. The band’s third recording, Vikings on Vacation, was released in August 2009, and a fourth disc is projected for release in 2011.
Polaris’s recordings are distributed worldwide by Naxos of America.
Polaris’s music has also been part of various diverse collaborative events. Choreographer Carol Anderson used several tracks from Midnight Sun for her creation Shore, performed by the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre; a lecture on medieval Norse poetry was followed by a Polaris concert as part of the University of Toronto’s Jackman Series; and Polaris has played at benefit concerts for numerous community organizations.
www.ensemblepolaris.com
www.myspace.com/EnsemblePolaris
Ensemble Polaris gratefully acknowledges the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council for their support.
‘Their concert was not only flawless but incredibly engaging with the audience. So much talent, so much heart and such humility.’
Peter Miller, Musique Royale, Middleton NS
"This music is inventive. This music is full of passion.
This music made me like the clarinet..."
Customer review, Amazon.com
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Long bio - 2191 words
A unique group on the North American music scene, ENSEMBLE POLARIS was founded in the spring of 1997 to explore the ‘idea of North’ in music. Their innovative and genre-bending artistry and style, nicknamed ‘Arctic fusion’ by a fan, has won Polaris international rave reviews of all kinds, from an Amazon.com customer’s “I dare you not to love this music!” to a Disc of the Month award from Britain’s Classic CD magazine.
Composed of expert performers from a variety of musical traditions and backgrounds, Polaris incorporates an eclectic palette of musical influences, colours and techniques in their sound – early, folk, Klezmer, Hot Club of Paris, middle Eastern and southeast Asian, traditional Scandinavian, Celtic, Cape Breton, eastern European, classical, improvisatory, and avant-garde. Their music evolves through the processes of improvisation, collaborative arrangement and composition.
Marco Cera, guitars
Kirk Elliott, violin, folk harp, mandolin, accordion, bagpipe, etc.
Margaret Gay, 'cello
Ben Grossman, hurdy gurdy
Katherine Hill, voice, nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle)
Alison Melville, baroque flute, recorders, seljefløyte (willow flute)
Colin Savage, clarinet, bass clarinet, recorders
Debashis Sinha, percussion
‘While there’s nothing precious about their approach, Ensemble Polaris take a holistic view…Ancient songs with extraordinary words, laments and dances, are all reworked here for modern ears. The arrangements are absolutely spot on…’
Classic CD (UK)
‘What do a hurdy gurdy, a bass clarinet, a set of bagpipes, and Norwegian lyrics add up to? A rocking good time is the answer, as I discovered this weekend when I discovered Ensemble Polaris…Ensemble Polaris definitely rates a tip of the padre's beret –
go see them if you get the chance!’
Audience member’s blog, Middleton, NS
"...Incredible variety is all respects and a collection of sounds that is strongly rhythmic or gorgeously melodic - predominantly an early instrumental music sound, but with various influences of celtic, klezmer, middle eastern and blues!"
Customer review, Amazon.com
Ensemble Polaris first performed at Toronto’s Northern Encounters Festival in June of 1997 and subsequent concerts have been heard across Canada in numerous broadcasts on CBC-Radio 2 and Radio-Canada. Their Montréal début for Radio-Canada at the Salle Pierre Mercure in 2004 met with enthusiastic audience response, as have other performances across southern Ontario. All their shows on tours across Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in summer 2009 and Alberta/British Columbia in winter 2011 met with standing ovations. The group established its own concert series in Toronto in 2006 with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils.
Frequently heard on Canadian radio, Polaris’s recordings have also been in regular rotation on the ABC (Australia), NPR (USA), NRK (Norway), BBC (Britain) and other European radio networks. Their first CD Midnight Sun (Dorian) was released in 2000 and received glowing praise in folk, classical and alternative music publications from Canada, the USA, Holland, Norway, England and elsewhere, including a Disc of the Month award in August 2000. Not Much is Worse than a Troll (2005) included new arrangements and original tunes which evolved through a grant for repertoire development from the Canada Council. The band’s third recording, Vikings on Vacation, was released in August 2009, and a fourth disc is projected for release in 2011.
Polaris’s recordings are distributed worldwide by Naxos of America.
Polaris’s music has also been part of various diverse collaborative events. Choreographer Carol Anderson used several tracks from Midnight Sun for her creation Shore, performed by the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre; a lecture on medieval Norse poetry was followed by a Polaris concert as part of the University of Toronto’s Jackman Series; and Polaris has played at benefit concerts for numerous community organizations.
www.ensemblepolaris.com
www.myspace.com/EnsemblePolaris
Ensemble Polaris gratefully acknowledges the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council for their support.
‘Their concert was not only flawless but incredibly engaging with the audience. So much talent, so much heart and such humility.’
Peter Miller, Musique Royale, Middleton NS
"This music is inventive. This music is full of passion.
This music made me like the clarinet..."
Customer review, Amazon.com
About the band’s members:
MARCO CERA studied at the Padua Conservatory of Music (Italy) and at the Musikhochschule der Stadt Basel (Switzerland). In 1996 he was chosen as first oboe for the European Union Baroque Orchestra, with which he performed in Denmark, Portugal, Germany, Great Britain and South Africa. He has collaborated as a soloist with many leading baroque orchestras including Il Giardino Armonico, Concerto Italiano, I Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, les Talens Lyriques, Europa Galante, Accademia Bizantina, La Cappella della Pietà dei Turchini, Apollo’s Fire, I Barocchisti, Academia Montis Regalis, and has worked with conductors Jordi Savall, Gustav Leonhardt, Sigiswald Kuijken, Robert King, Jesper Christensen, Jaap ter Linden and Barthold Kuijken. He recently returned to Toronto with his family to resume his position as oboist with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, with whom he has appeared in concert in Canada and throughout the world, and with whom he has recorded numerous CDs, radio broadcasts and DVDs. As a guitarist, composer and arranger, Marco played with various jazz and folk groups in Italy, and is delighted to be part of Ensemble Polaris.
KIRK ELLIOTT has been called ‘the Leonardo da Vinci of Canadian music’ (Max Ferguson, CBC Radio). He lives in Toronto, where he composes and performs music for film, concerts, theatre, dance and television. Working with over 60 instruments in his recording studio, he has produced scores for the Toronto Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of Canada, CTV, YTV, the Discovery Channel, Oscar winning film director Chris Landreth, and the National Film Board of Canada. Kirk's first band won a Juno Award, and a recent children's CD received an Indie Award. As a performer, Kirk has played Renaissance music with the Toronto Consort; toured across North America from St. John’s to Honolulu with Sharon, Lois and Bram's Elephant Show; finished in the top ten fiddlers at the Canadian Old Time Fiddle contest in Shelburne, Ontario; and introduced children to Celtic, jazz, rock, old-time fiddle and Elizabethan music as a guest with the Victoria and Kingston Symphony Orchestras. Kirk has released over a dozen CDs of original music for adults and children.
After completing a Bachelor of Music degree at Boston University School for the Arts, MARGARET GAY accepted an invitation to the Banff Centre for Fine Arts, where she completed the winter program. From there she moved to Toronto, where she earned a Master’s degree at the University of Toronto and began a remarkably active freelance career performing on both modern and period ‘cello. Margaret performs regularly with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, Opera Atelier, Mississauga Sinfonia, Baroque Music Beside The Grange, the Eybler Quartet, and Ensemble Polaris, a group exploring the traditional music of various Nordic countries. She is Artistic Director of the Gallery Players of Niagara, an organization based in the Niagara Region that presents chamber music, and has also spent considerable time exploring new music. She was for many years a member of Modern Quartet, a string quartet dedicated to the performance of new works, the Burdocks, a foursome specializing in works of the 20th century, and Critical Band. In the summers she has performed at the Carmel Bach Festival, Stratford, Elora, Parry Sound, Grand River Baroque, and Lameque Baroque Music festivals, as well as teaching ‘cello and coaching chamber music at the Toronto Board of Education Music Camp, and the University of New Brunswick Summer Music Camp. Margaret can be heard on numerous CD’s, including a recent release from Analekta of Joseph Leopold Eybler’s Op. 1 string quartets, Ensemble Polaris, Not Much Is Worse Than A Troll, a Hungaroton disc of 17th century English theatre music, Ah! How Sweet It Is To Love, O Bali from New Music Concerts, and A Curious Collection for the Common Flute.
BEN GROSSMAN is a vielle à roue (hurdy gurdy/Drehleier/zanfoña) player, percussionist, composer and improviser based in Guelph, Ontario. He grew up playing electric guitar, listening to a wide variety of music, and building homemade synthesizers, tape loops and effects in his parent’s suburban basement. He later became interested, at various times, in traditional Irish, Balkan, French, Turkish and Arabic music. Ben has studied Turkish music in Istanbul where he focussed on ud and percussion. Since taking up the vielle, he has done workshops and lessons with Valentin Clastrier, Matthias Loibner, Maxou Heintzan and Simon Wascher. A busy session musician, his playing can be heard on over 80 CDs, film and television soundtracks, and performing live with the Toronto Consort, Ensemble Polaris, BT, Loreena McKennitt, (amongst others) and in various solo and ensemble improvisational events. Ben’s first solo album, Macrophone was released in 2007 and features a unique two CD form for simultaneous, aleatoric playback.
Since playing her first CBC recording gig at the age of 20, ALISON MELVILLE’s career has taken her across Canada and to the USA, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand and Europe. A member of Toronto Consort and a frequent performer with Tafelmusik, she has appeared with many other ensembles and festivals across North America including Opera Atelier, Boston Early Music Festival, Aradia Ensemble, I Furiosi, la Nouvele Sinfonie, Early Music Vancouver, Canadian Opera Company, Festival of the Sound, Festival Vancouver and others. She has appeared as a soloist with Tafelmusik, the Toronto Symphony, Orchestra London, Aradia, and the Niagara and Mississauga Symphonies; has played new music concerts for Soundstreams, New Music Concerts and ArrayMusic, and can be heard on over 45 CDs, including four critically-acclaimed solo recordings. Her work in music for film and television includes CBC’s beloved ‘Friendly Giant,’ films by Atom Egoyan, Amnon Buchbinder and Ang Lee, and the TV series ‘The Tudors.’ As a creator of original music her work has been heard in 999 Years of Music (dir. Peter Hannan), the Post-Medieval Syndrome project, Amherst Early Music in Connecticut and Vermont, and at the Oberlin Conservatory (OH). She is currently working on a mixed-media project of music for, by, about and inspired by birds, which includes several new pieces written for her by various Canadian musician/composers. For many years Alison was also co-Artistic Director of Baroque Music beside the Grange. She studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as the winner of various Canada Council awards. Alison was a professor at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music from 1999 to 2010, and also teaches for the University of Toronto.
COLIN SAVAGE has performed on recorder and clarinet with ensembles in Canada, the USA and Japan, including Artek, New York Collegium, Tafelmusik, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Atelier, la Nouvele Sinfonie, Aradia Ensemble, Apollo’s Fire and the Toronto Consort. In 2006 he appeared as soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the American Virtuosi for their collaboration with the Jose Limon Dance Company in "Concerto Six Twenty-two." Colin is principal clarinetist in the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra and frequently performs chamber and orchestral music on period clarinets and basset horn. Regularly heard on CBC Radio, he has recorded for Sony Classical, ebs, Naxos, Atma, Analekta and Dorian. He has taught for the Young Artists Performance Academy at the Glenn Gould Professional School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and for many years was co-Artistic Director of the chamber concert series Baroque Music beside the Grange. Colin studied at the University of Saskatchewan, McGill University and in London, England.
DEBASHIS SINHA is a Toronto based percussionist who specializes in the drums of the Arab world, Greece, and Turkey. His ability to uncover the rhythmic threads in a wide variety of musical styles have earned him a place in the forefront of Canada’s new generation of traditional musicians, appearing with such acts as autorickshaw, Mernie!, Marilyn Lerner, Leela Gilday, the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, Trichy Sankaran and others. A founding member of Juno nominated world music ensemble Maza Mezé, Debashis has performed with them and other ensembles on stages across Canada, the US and as far away as Cairo. Equally at home in world music and free improvised contexts, Debashis’s approach to percussion ranges from the deeply traditional to the cutting edge of modern sensibility. He has studied South Indian rhythmic theory with Trichy Sankaran, Arabic tambourine and doumbeck at the Helwan University Faculty of Music in Cairo, and has traveled to the US to take lessons from tombak master Pejman Hadadi. He has been awarded grants from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and the Chalmers Foundation for a wide variety of projects, including projects that are part of his growing catalogue of new media and audio art works. A fixture on Toronto’s dance scene, he has collaborated and performed with Peggy Baker, Dancemakers, Hari Krishnan, Anita Ratnam, and Winnipeg’s Fusion Dance Theatre. On CD Debashis can be heard in various solo projects as well as recordings with Maza Mezé, autorickshaw, Doula and others.
Toronto-born KATHERINE HILL is a specialist in medieval music as a singer and fiddler (rebec, vielle), and has also studied Swedish traditional music with a special interest in kulning (cow calling). She is frequently heard as a member of the Toronto Consort and with numerous other Canadian groups including Ensemble les Fumeux, I Furiosi, Sine Nomine, Duo Seraphim, Aradia Ensemble and many others. From 2000 to 2006 Katherine was based in Amsterdam, where she studied early music as the two-time winner of awards from the Canada Council. During her time in northern Europe she performed with such groups as Sequentia, Concerto Palatino, Scivias, Ensemble Elyma, Super Librum, La Compagnietta and the Collegium Vocale of Ghent. She is co-founder of Ensemble nu:n, a medieval music/improvisation group, and Fata Organa, a medieval music/location theatre troupe. She is regularly heard on CBC Radio and has recorded for many labels including Naxos, Dorian and Marquis. Besides her work in early music, Katherine has appeared with the Arabic ensemble Doula and has collaborated with indie rock artists for the Kelp Records label in Ottawa.
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