Music

Major and Minor

Bruce Polay, chair
   Artistic Director/Conductor, Knox-Galesburg Symphony; theory, music history, composition, songwriting
Jeremy Day-O’Connell
  Music theory
Sarah Day-O’Connell
  Music history and culture
Laura Lane
   Director of choral activities; voice, conducting, music history
Nicole Malley
  Director of jazz studies; music history and culture

Lecturers
Carolyn Kellert
Sarah Moran
Dean Petrie

Instructor/Accompanist
Megan Clewell

Music study at Knox is set within the liberal arts tradition, training accomplished musicians as well as those new to music study. More than a third of the Knox student body participates in our music program through classes, lessons, and ensembles.

Courses in music history and culture expose students to the diverse ways music reflects and shapes societies past and present, in the West and around the world. Courses in music theory train students in the construction of music and analytical techniques. Students may pursue interdisciplinary connections between music and a host of other fields including psychology, history, anthropology, sociology, history, art history, philosophy, black studies, and gender studies.

Knox offers a dynamic, comprehensive jazz experience with weekly performances and annual tours. The Knox Jazz Ensemble (KJE) has won numerous outstanding soloist awards at collegiate festivals, and recently completed a fourth CD. Membership in the KJE and top combo is by audition; other combos are open to all. The Knox Jazz Studies program sponsors the Rootabaga Jazz Festival, bringing highly acclaimed performers and clinicians to Galesburg. Wind and percussion may audition for the Knox-Sandburg Community Band, comprised of Knox students and other area musicians; this ensemble features guest conductors and soloists, who often premiere contemporary works. Wind, brass, and string players may also perform with the Knox Chamber Ensemble and flute players may perform with the Knox Flute Choir.

The Knox College Choir (KCC) is the premier choral ensemble of the College. It performs three different programs each year, and tours every year during spring break, with a European tour every two years. The KCC performed in Carnegie Hall in March 2005, under the baton of Dr. Laura Lane, and in the famed Paraninfo of the University of Barcelona in March 2006 and 2010.

The Knox Chamber Singers is a select 18-voice ensemble auditioned from the Choir, performing everything from Renaissance madrigals or vocal jazz to Debussy or Lauridsen.

Selected instrumentalists have the opportunity to perform in the Knox-Galesburg Symphony (KGS), a professional orchestra directed by Dr. Bruce Polay, Illinois Conductor of the Year in 1997, 2004 and 2010. The Orchestra has three times been named Illinois Orchestra of the Year and has won 17 prestigious awards in 10 categories from the Illinois Council of Orchestras. Each year the KGS presents a subscription concert series, a Pops Concert and the "Concert on the Lawn." Guest soloists bring international reputations to Galesburg. The Symphony performs in the Orpheum Theater, a stunningly restored 1,000-seat concert hall in downtown Galesburg.

The Knox String Ensemble performs at student recitals and off campus. It is open, without audition, to any student who plays one of the standard orchestral string instruments.

In addition to participating in nearly twenty ensembles, Knox students may take private lessons in piano, organ, guitar, all standard string, wind and percussion instruments, and voice, as well as lessons in composition, orchestration, improvisation, and jazz on all standard jazz instruments.

Music Education Program
Students who want to teach music in elementary or secondary schools may follow the music education program (requirements listed below). This demanding curriculum includes the music major, an educational studies major, and several courses specifically designed for music education. Students who complete this program become certified by the State of Illinois and can begin teaching directly after graduation.

Students interested in music education should contact Professor Lane as early as possible. In order to complete the program in four years at Knox, students must begin in their first year. Specific courses required by the program are:

• Music: a music major, including MUS 145, 245, 246, 322, 324, 343, 361 and 363
  • MUS 307 Instrumental Techniques I
  • MUS 309 Secondary Choral Methods
  • MUS 311 Fundamentals of Conducting
  • either MUS 308 Instrumental Techniques II, or MUS 310 Vocal Pedagogy
  • proficiency on both piano and a major instrument
• Educational Studies: a major in Educational Studies, Secondary, replacing EDUC 318 by EDUC 319

The departmental curriculum contributes to the College's Key Competency Requirements as follows:

• Writing Key Competency - MUS 322 and 324 serve as a writing intensive courses for majors
• Speaking Key Competency - MUS 254, 260, or the combination of two of: MUS 345, 361, and 363 serve as speaking intensive courses for majors
• Information Literacy and Informed Use of Technology - Music majors use technology to conduct research, (using e.g. RILM and Oxford Music) to effectively present, (using e.g. Powerpoint, GarageBand) and to compose (using e.g. Sibelius and Finale). Key courses for acquiring these skills include MUS 101, 102, 254, 260, 322, 324, and applied music lessons.

Requirements for the Major and Minor

Music Course Descriptions