Bruce Polay

Bruce Polay's recognition as a composer has been enhanced through ASCAP's Rudolf Nissim Composition Competition for his award-winning Tranquil Cycle for Tenor Voice and Orchestra (1992), and with ASCAP Standards Awards each year since 1993. His Y'Urning Cycle for Soprano, Clarinet, and Piano (1998) and Cathedral Images have been released on compact disc. Bruce's recently completed commissions include an entire evening of music for the 2000 Sandburg Festival. As a piano recitalist and chamber musician, he has performed all over the world and serves on competition juries.

Bruce Polay is also the director of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony and is a professor of music at Knox College where he teaches courses in music theory and music history. He has also made appearances as a guest conductor have included performances in Romania, Ukraine, Russia and in the U.S.

Commissions and Performances
Elegy for violin and orchestra - 1997
1997: Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon

Elegy for violin and orchestra
"Elegy" was commissioned by Rimma Sushanskaya in thoughtful remembrance of her late husband, Eric. From my view, much of its character was inspired by a picture of Eric which sits on the piano of Rimma's Stratford-upon-Avon home. Elegy's texture contains a number of duets, pairing the solo violin and oboe, or English horn, or French horn. The harmonic style borrows from the early-20th-century Russian tradition, recalling, at least to the composer, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Glazunov and possibly Medtner. While the harmony does recall, it also looks to current times -- a response, maybe, to Rimma's wonderful, insightful performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, which we recently performed together with the Knox-Galesburg Symphony in the US. This is not intended to be a sad piece, iInstead, it is a quiet, respectful reminiscence which is intended to reflect the wonderment of cherished time spent together in peace and love.
Bruce Polay