Music

Major and Minor

The music program at Knox College is designed for students who love music and wish to excel at whatever level they choose. Students pursuing the major will find a curriculum that provides a thorough and rigorous foundation for tomorrow's performer, conductor, scholar, and teacher, drawing on both western and global traditions. Five minors in music are also available.

Knox has active, award-winning performing ensembles -- the Knox College Choir, jazz bands, student string ensemble and the Knox-Galesburg Symphony. Individual instruction is available on all instruments (including harp, organ, and guitar) and voice.

Introductory courses are offered in music history, theory, and music education, with topical classes such as World Music, Music of the African Diaspora, Jazz History, and Music in the United States. Upper-level courses deal with a broad range of musical genres and periods, with topical classes generally organized as seminars. Many students also advance through independent study in theory, history, performance practice, and musicology.

Performance Ensembles
Students may elect to receive academic credit for participation in the following groups:

Knox College Choir
Directed by Laura Lane, the choir performs a variety of choral literature from the 16th century to the present. The choir has performed in Carnegie Hall and toured in Austria, England, Spain and throughout the United States.

Chamber Singers
This elite group, drawn from the Knox Choir membership, specializes in vocal chamber music from all time periods and performs many concerts on and off campus. Every other spring, Chamber Singers present a Madrigal Dinner, a musical play written and performed by the members.

Knox Jazz Ensemble
This award-winning group consists of selected, auditioned members who tour and perform at collegiate jazz festivals, in addition to hosting the annual Knox-Rootabaga Jamm JazzFest. The ensemble recently commissioned a work by Frank Mantooth and has recorded four CD's including "Mr. B Natural" and "No Excuses."

Jazz Combos
The Jazz Combos perform on campus, off campus and regionally. The Cherry Street Combo is featured every Thursday night at McGillacudy's in downtown Galesburg. This faculty combo is frequently populated with Knox Jazz Ensemble student soloists. There is also the Knox Latin Conjunto and five other combos. Membership in these groups is open to any student interested in learning improvisation and standing jazz vocabulary and interaction.

Knox College String Ensemble
Directed by Knox-Galesburg Symphony principal cello Carolyn Suda, this student organization specializes in music of the Baroque and Classical eras and is open without audition.

Women's Chorale
This ensemble rehearses twice a week, with a performance each term. Open without audition, the Women's Chorale performs a wide repertoire from classical to pop.

Men's Ensemble
The Men's ensemble has become a popular source of fun and inspiration for the men on campus. Open to all men regardless of musical background, the ensemble meets once a week and is dedicated to a wide range of music.

The Umoja Gospel Choir
The Umoja Gospel Choir is a non-auditioned group that consists of Knox College students, staff, faculty, and members of the Galesburg community. The choir sings a variety of Christian songs including traditional, progressive, and contemporary gospel, as well as spirituals, anthems, and hymns. "Umoja," which is the Swahili term for "unity," expresses the choir's commitment to unite people of diverse backgrounds from both on and off-campus in order to spread the Gospel in song.

Galesburg Community Chorus
This 70-voice community-based, non-auditioned group performs major choral works with orchestra. Recent concerts have included Orff's "Carmina Burana," Poulenc's "Gloria," and Vaughan Williams's "Dona Nobis Pacem."

Knox-Sandburg Community Concert Band
The band is made up of some 60 Knox musicians, community members and local band directors. Membership is open to all qualified instrumentalists. It rehearses weekly and performs three major concerts during the school year.

Knox College Chamber Wind Ensemble
The Knox Wind Ensemble is a unique performance opportunity. Because the ensemble is open to all interested Knox students, the roster of instruments is not predetermined. The director, Dan Godsil, is an award winning composer who writes or commissions works designed specifically for the make-up of the ensemble each term. The ensemble rehearses weekly and performs formal concerts three times a year.

Knox-Galesburg Symphony
A professional orchestra open to students through audition, the orchestra has twice been recognized with the prestigious Illinois Orchestra of the Year Award. Its conductor, Bruce Polay, chair of the music department, has won the coveted Illinois Conductor of the Year Award for an unprecedented second time. The symphony, which recently toured Spain, performs six concerts annually in Galesburg's historic Orpheum Theater (four blocks from campus), and the annual Concert on the Lawn on campus the evening of Commencement each June.

Music Resources
The music department, with its spacious studios and classrooms, is found in the Eleanor Abbott Ford Center for the Fine Arts. The acoustically superb, 325-seat Kresge Recital Hall houses recently-purchased 9' Steinway "D" and 6'6" Kawai GS concert pianos, two harpsichords and a pipe organ. (Photo: The Knox-Galesburg Symphony performs in the restored Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg.)

A music library has extensive holdings of scores, recordings and scholarly works. Jay Rehearsal Hall has built-in risers for choral and instrumental groups. The department has 16 practice rooms, each equipped with a recently-purchased Kawai piano, which are available to students 24 hours a day. Another resource is the department's MIDI and digital music lab.

Performers and composers of national and international acclaim are regular guests of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony and the Nova Singers, a professional vocal ensemble directed by Laura Lane. Recent guests have included Mikhail Petukhov, resident piano soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic; Mikhail Tsinman, concertmaster of the Bolshoi Theatre Symphony and Chamber Orchestras; Christina Anghelescu, violin soloist of the Romanian National Radio Orchestra; and composers David Finko, Moses Hogan, and Ruth Watson Henderson.