Polay's Completed String Quartet Published

GALESBURG: Knox-Galesburg Symphony artistic director/conductor, Bruce Polay, professor of music at Knox College, recently completed his string quartet (2007) which will be published by Rassel Editions of New York.

The quartet has been commissioned by the Lynn University Conservatory of Music, in Boca Raton, Florida, as part of Polay?s upcoming composer/scholar-in-residency, and the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University. Polay will be composer/scholar-in-residence during March 2008.

?In preparation for composing this work I studied quartets by Beethoven, Smetana, Brahms, Zemlinsky, Schoenberg, Elgar, Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Szymanowski, Shostakovich, Lutoslawski, and Volans, with emphasis on Haydn, in particular, the Prussian Quartets, Op. 50,? Polay notes.  ?The quartet?s five movements have an arch-like architecture much like Bartok?s Fifth Quartet, with a twist.?

The world premiere will take place on March 20, at Lynn University, Boca Raton.

According to Rassel Editions, the music publishing company ?is dedicated to presenting contemporary composition of the highest craft and quality. The composers represented speak in refined and accessible styles and have forged individual voices.? Rassel Editions was founded by Phillip Lasser a member of the Juilliard composition faculty.

The Knox-Galesburg Symphony, founded in 1951, is one of 110 orchestras in the state of Illinois. It has been recognized for its innovative repertoire and performances 16 times by the Illinois Council of Orchestras since Polay became artistic director/conductor in 1983.  KGS is a three time recipient of the Illinois Orchestra of the Year, and Polay has been honored twice as Illinois Conductor of the Year and recipient of the 2008 Illinois Cultural Leadership of the Year and 2006 Illinois Programming of the Year Awards.