Experiences & Opportunities

Here are three examples of the experiences and opportunities you have as a music major or minor

1. You can combine two seemingly disparate subjects. Like Einar Pieler '21, who combined music and anthropology in his College Honors project.

2. You can write your own composition and perform it. Like Edward Davis who wrote a mass for six voices for his College Honors project.

3. You can intern at a fine arts camp. Like Linda Sanabria who worked at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Minnesota between her sophomore and junior year.

In each case, students get to apply what they learn in class (or in rehearsal) to the so-called real world. Here's how we do it:

Performance Opportunities

We offer many informal performances—from concerts arranged by the campus radio station to impromptu jam sessions—as well as programs, listed with the curriculum, that are directed by faculty and carry academic credit. Performance opportunities include:

• Knox College Choir
• Knox Jazz Ensemble
• Cherry Street Combo
• Jazz Combos
• Pop and Funk Combos
• Chamber Singers
• Knox College String Ensemble
• Enharmonic Fire
• TriTones
• Knox Chamber Brass Ensemble
• Knox Chamber Woodwind Ensemble
• Knox Flute Choir
• Galesburg Community Chorus

Our faculty also provide private music lessons to students in the areas of: classical piano, strings and voice; all jazz instruments; jazz voice, improvisation, and composition/arranging; and all concert instruments. Read more about private music lessons (PDF).

Research & Creative Work

Many of our majors—and minors—pursue College Honors or other research and creative projects. Some even present or perform their work at national and international conferences. Recent projects include:

• Einar Pieler, '21: Honors in Music and Anthropology/Sociology “What Makes a ‘Music Maker’?: Exploring the Personal and Social Narratives of Musicianship on a Liberal Art College Campus.”
• Zachary Cirone '20: Honors in Music “Schubert’s Piano Sonata Developments and Early Romantic Form.”
• Mara Lane '18: Honors in Music and Art History. “Imperfect Machines.”
• Cherry Street Jazz Combo, professional CD, Patchwork (Fall 2019)

Internships

There's no better way to explore the possibilities of life after Knox than internships:

• Hali Engleman '13 was involved in production, developing media content, fundraising, and working with volunteers at All Classical Radio in Portland, Oregon.
• Stephanie Hawes '15 helped organize logistics for semester education programs at the Austin Chamber Music Centre  in Austin, Texas.
• Sam Waldner '16 gained the technical skills needed to create and edit multimedia projects at Dailey & Associates, an ad agency, in Los Angeles, California.

Off-Campus Study

Our students take advantage of the more than two dozen study abroad and off-campus programs. Recent destinations for music students have included:

• Italy
• Austria
• Great Britain
• Morocco
• South Africa
• Ecuador