Fiona, Aretha and Norah meet for a martini…
piano, percussion, powerful…

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If you asked Kate Polsky when she started making her living as a musician, she’d tell you that it started the day she wrote the following on a slip of paper: “I will not limit the ways I am allowed to be a musician.” And so for almost three decades, she has enjoyed working in three very different sectors of the industry: performance, administration, and teaching.

As a performing musician, Kate has sung and played in venues from the Orpheum to BC Place to the Commodore Ballroom and beyond. Administratively speaking, her past clients include Jane Siberry (also known more recently as Issa), MusicFest Vancouver, and Music BC, eventually becoming its Executive Director (1999-2001). As well, she has taught primarily at the secondary school level in both the private and public sectors.

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Kate is a classically trained pianist and an award-winning performing songwriter with several recordings to her credit; in 2009, she was appointed as the songwriting instructor at the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach. She has toured in parts of Canada and the States, and in Vancouver, Kate has played keyboards and percussion as well as sung with several bands. Not only has she appeared in several theatre productions over the past two decades, she has also directed, written, composed for, and / or choreographed almost two dozen theatre productions. In 2005, Kate was accepted into internationally renowned Elektra Women's Choir and founded her own vocal jazz group, VERVE Collective.

As a past Executive Director of Music BC, Kate was responsible for national and provincial funding programs, the editor of their newsletter, manager of province-wide conferences, BC representative for the Juno Awards and co-producer of the West Coast Music Awards, and has received many invitations to act as a guest speaker, panellist, event host and MC.

Kate is a music teacher for the North Vancouver School District; she continues to write and arrange for a variety of choral ensembles.  In April 2010, Elektra premiered an arrangement Kate wrote of a song by legendary Canadian songwriter, Shari Ulrich (see "Choral Arrangements"). Kate works as a guest conductor and clinician for several lower mainland choirs and musical theatre programs, including SMMO; she is also a mentor for the UBC School of Music.

Kate continues to work on new recordings; these are posted on the Recordings page of this site as they become available; check back soon!