ENSEMBLE POLARIS was founded in the spring of 1997 to explore the music of the north: Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, Scotland, and Canada. Comprised of Canadian musicians from a unique array of traditions and backgrounds, the band treats traditional tunes from Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Scotland and Canada in innovative, categorization-defying ways, by blending various techniques of improvisation and arrangement. Over the past few years the band has also been creating completely original repertoire, sometimes using northern musical forms as their inspiration and point of departure.Their unique style has won them 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."

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. Their Montréal début for Radio-Canada at the Salle Pierre Mercure in 2004 met with enthusiastic acclaim. Their first CD Midnight Sun appeared on the Dorian label and received international critical acclaim including a ?Disc of the Month? rating in Classic CD (UK) magazine.

Choreographer Carol Anderson used several tracks from Midnight Sun for her creation Shore, which was performed by the Canadian Children?s Dance Theatre. POLARIS received a grant for repertoire development from the Canada Council in 2001, and much of this new work can be heard on their second CD, Not Much is Worse than a Troll, released in January 2005. Primarily an instrumental ensemble, their frequent guest vocalist Katherine Hill joined the group as a member in late 2006.