by Ashley Wolfgang '14

Bruce Polay, a professor of music at Knox College and the artistic director and conductor of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, recently had his Suite of Preludes for organ published by Zimbel Press.

After publishing his first composition for organ, Consolation for Organ, in 1999, he was asked to write a suite of preludes for Zimbel.

"Organists like to unite things that are practical for the listener and player," Polay explains. Typical organ pieces "can be based on hymns and used in services, but these are concert pieces."

A professor at Knox since 1983, Polay is most interested in teaching music theory and history, contemporary tonal harmony, composition, songwriting, orchestration, experimental and avant garde music, and music of the United States. He has composed more than 30 pieces of music for various publications across the United States.

"My job as an instructor is to help students unveil their innate intellectual and creative talents through the dedicated implementation of theoretical and compositional techniques," says Polay.

"Sometimes our study lends itself strictly to discovering the nature of what the compositional process entails; sometimes this means that our students study other composers and strategies in the composition process, and sometimes, through blind luck, our students simply ‘find themselves' in a natural way, that enables the techniques of composition and theory to meld into something expressive, or at least musically sensible," he adds. "In all cases, my view is that teaching composition brings me great joy in helping students find what they are about in the world of ‘sound management' and expressivity."

Artistic director/conductor of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony since 1983, Polay is the only conductor to be named Illinois Conductor of the Year for Professional Orchestras three times, winning the accolade in 1994, 2004 and 2010.