Friday, December 8, 2000
Contact: Peter Bailley
news@knox.edu
309-341-7715

Knox Professor Bruce Polay Serves as Guest Conductor

Bruce Polay, music director/conductor of the award-winning Knox-Galesburg Symphony and professor of music at Knox College, is traveling to Belarus and Russia during November and December 2000 to serve as guest conductor for two prominent orchestras.

In Minsk, Polay will conduct the Belorussian State Philharmonic Orchestra on November 30 in a program that will include Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. The concerts features pianist Mikhail Petukhov, who has previously performed with the Knox-Galesburg Symphony. The Belorussian State Philharmonic Orchestra is considered one of the top five orchestras of the former Soviet Union.

On December 4, Polay will conduct the Bolshoi Theater Chamber Orchestra in Moscow, in a program of works by Bach, Barber, Boccherini, and Mozart. The Bolshoi Theater Chamber Orchestra is made up of the best musicians from the orchestra that accompanies ballet and operatic performances at the world-renowned Bolshoi Theater.

Polay's trip is funded by the Mellon Foundation and sponsored by the Global Partners Program of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest of which Knox College is a member.

Since joining the Knox-Galesburg Symphony as music director and conductor in 1983, Polay has been selected Illinois Conductor of the Year and the Symphony has twice won the coveted Illinois Orchestra of the Year Award, most recently in 1998-99. Upcoming invitations as a guest conductor and piano recitalist will take Polay to Canada, England, Greece, Romania, Spain, and the US.

A noted composer, Polay received the 1992 Rudolf Nissim Composition Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for "Tranquil Cycle for Tenor Voice and Orchestra." He has received ASCAP/Plus Awards every year since 1993. His composition "Y'Urning Cycle for Soprano, Clarinet, and Piano" (1998) and "Cathedral Images" (1992), have been released on compact disc. His recently completed commissions have included an entire evening of music for the 2000 Sandburg Days Festival in Galesburg, "Concerto-Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra" (1997-98), "Sinfonia Concertante for Three Soloists and Orchestra" (1998) and "Anniversary Mourning for A Cappella Chorus" (1996).

Polay teaches courses in music theory, music history, composition, orchestration and conducting at Knox College. Polay is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University for which he will judge the International Composition Competition and the National Commissioning Program.

Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,220 students from 47 states and 41 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

This news release:
http://www.knox.edu/x160.xml2001/Polay_Guest_Conductor_2000.html

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