POLKY - Polish Feminist FIDDLE folk
Polky is a fiddle-driven feminist fiddle folk band bringing rural Polish music to North American audiences. Led by Canadian Folk Music Award winner Ewelina Ferenc, the group blends traditional melodies with bold contemporary arrangements, creating a vibrant, cross-continental sound rooted in tradition and shaped by Toronto’s diverse music scene.
Based in Toronto with two Polish immigrants, Marta Sołek (Kraków) and Ewelina Ferenc (Katowice), Polky offers a unique perspective to Polish folk shaped outside of Europe. Their music connects Poland’s raw, rural traditions with the creative pulse of one of the world’s most diverse cities. Touring across Canada and the U.S., the band delivers a vibrant, cross-continental sound that is both deeply authentic and boldly new. Polky reimagines Polish village music through a modern lens, showing how tradition can evolve, travel, and thrive far from its roots, carried by artists living between cultures.
The band has performed extensively across Canada and the US and internationally, appearing at major venues and festivals including Ottawa Jazz Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Summerfolk, Ashkenaz Festival, Mémoire et Racines, Sunfest, Vancouver Island MusicFest, Regina Folk Festival, and this year at the Toronto Jazz Festival, and numerous Polish and Ukrainian cultural festivals. They have also been selected as official showcasing artists at Folk Music Ontario, Folk Alliance International, and Mundial Montréal, helping bring Polish and Eastern European folk traditions to contemporary audiences.
Their debut album, Songs From Home (2020), received praise from Songlines Magazine for its captivatingly dynamic essence. It encapsulates the spirit of the multicultural city of Toronto and reflects the band's deep-rooted Polish heritage. Notably, this album's excellence led to its nomination in three categories at the Canadian Folk Music Awards 2022, ultimately clinching the Traditional Singer of the Year Award for the talented Ewelina Ferenc. Their second full-length album is dropping this fall.
In 2026, the band released the new single Ache from their upcoming album Mother Tongue, a powerful reinterpretation of a traditional folk narrative through a contemporary feminist perspective. The project marks a bold new sonic direction for the group, incorporating drums and electric guitar alongside Suka and fiddle while continuing to center storytelling rooted in heritage and lived experience.
images by Daria Perev