Knox College

Music

Major and Minor

Faculty and professional interests

Bruce Polay, chair
Artistic Director/Conductor, Knox-Galesburg Symphony; theory, music history, composition, songwriting
Jeremy Day-O’Connell (on leave Spring 2013)
Music theory
Sarah Day-O’Connell (on leave Spring 2013)
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
Daniel Godsil
Carolyn Kellert
Allison Meuth
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 players 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. In March 2013 the KCC will perform for the third time in Carnegie Hall, under the baton of Dr. Laura Lane. The KCC has also performed in the famed Paraninfo of the University of Barcelona in March 2006, 2010 and 2012.

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. Our outstanding choral program also offers opportunities for students who love to sing but do not wish to audition: the Women's Chorale, the Men's Ensemble and the Galesburg Community Chorus.

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 voice, piano, organ, guitar, all standard string, wind and percussion instruments, 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 prepare for teaching certification. This demanding curriculum requires completing a major in music, a major in educational studies, and several courses specifically designed for music education. Students who complete these requirements and who pass the State of Illinois certification tests are qualified for recommendation for certification.

Students interested in music education should contact both Professor Lane (Music) and the chair of the Educational Studies Department as early as possible. In order to complete the program in four years at Knox, students must begin in their first year. Specific requirements to prepare for certification in music education are as follows:

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

Departmental Learning Goals

Students completing a Music major will:

  1. Be able to precisely describe detail and form in music (whether presented in sound or score) through words and analytical symbols, and to apply such analytical insights to unfamiliar pieces and repertoires
  2. Have basic practical proficiency on some instrument
  3. (Performance students) Have an advanced and artistic command of their chosen instrument, their voice, or conducting
  4. (Musicology and theory students) Be able to construct and evaluate a musicological or analytical argument critically and sensitively
  5. (Composition students) Be able to compose original pieces that draw upon existing musical vocabulary as well as articulate their own artistic voice

Requirements for the Major and Minor

Music Course Descriptions



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