Advertisement

USC Thornton School of Music announces expansion, new degrees

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The USC Thornton School of Music announced today that it is expanding its physical presence by 50% with the acquisition of three buildings on the university’s main campus.

The buildings, which belonged to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, will transition to USC Thornton over the next two years and will be used as classrooms and rehearsal and performance spaces.

Advertisement

USC Thornton’s Dean Robert Cutietta told Culture Monster that several other schools were interested in acquiring the facilities, but the final decision was made by the office of the provost.

The school also confirmed today that four new undergraduate programs will launch in the fall 2009 semester. The programs will offer Bachelor of Arts degrees in popular music performance, choral music, vocal jazz and performing and visual arts studies, which is an interdisciplinary degree.

The news was announced today by Cutietta as part of USC Thornton’s 125th anniversary, which the school is celebrating this year with 125 days of performances and other events that will kick off in August. A webpage detailing the various festivities will launch in the next several days, according to the school.

The anniversary celebration will feature 50 events that will highlight each of the school’s 16 departments. Artists expected to appear include Steve Miller, Michael Tilson Thomas and the new music group Eighth Blackbird.

USC Thornton was founded in 1884 and was renamed in 1999 in honor of a $25-million gift from Flora L. Thornton.

The three buildings that will join the school are the Marcia Lucas Post-Production building; the Carson Soundstage; and the Harold Lloyd Soundstage. Staff and faculty have already begun moving in, and each of the buildings will be repurposed to fit the school’s needs. The buildings became available with the March 29 opening of the new USC School of Cinematic Arts compound.

Advertisement

The school also announced that it has revised its doctoral programs in music education and sacred music to make them ‘even more relevant to the workplace and academia,’ according to Cutietta.

-- David Ng

Advertisement