Solange Knowles has been named the first scholar-in-residence at USC Thornton School of Music, with her three-year residency at the music school announced on Monday, October 13.
This prestigious professor role will enable Knowles to share her skills while engaging with the school community. Solange will work with her multidisciplinary institution Saint Heron, USC Thornton dean Jason King and other faculty members to teach a course on music curation.
She will also organize student workshops, including one about “The Making of Eldorado Ballroom,” the series she hosted at Walt Disney Concert Hall which recognizes Black artists who changed the face of music and art. The Grammy-winning artist will further help faculty build long-term frameworks for Thornton during her custom-designed residency, which started this week, according to the LA Times.
The music curation course tentatively titled “Records of Discover: Methodologies for Music and Cultural Curatorial Practices” will launch in fall in 2027. USC said the course will “explore the process of constructing curatorial frameworks alongside the context, craft and creation of musical landscapes.”
Knowles will also take part in USC’s forthcoming symposium by discussing women in classical work, such as composer Julia Perry.
“For decades now, I’ve watched the evolution of music and music curation, and I feel like I have something adequate to add to the conversation,” the superstar artist told the Times. “I feel really inspired by the idea of my 15-year-old self being able to have someone sort of walk me through the footsteps of what I was about to embark on. So if I can, in any role, be a vessel of guidance, it really just sort of warms my heart that I am given the opportunity to be in that space…. Being able to help students navigate what that is for them is like a dream job,” said the music icon, who released her first album, “Solo,” at 15.
Knowles is also the second member to be invited to join the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program, following legendary producer Raphael Saadiq. The Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program, which includes masterclasses, workshops, and public discussions and private instruction, aims to enhance interactions between distinguished artists and students of Thornton.
“I am a GED graduate,” Solange said to The Times. “I was a teenage mom. I was pregnant with my son at 17, so I didn’t get to further my education in the classical sense. But I was really blessed and honored to have enriched these other parts of education through my art, through travel [and] through the globalization of my life.”
“So to be able to have access and broader tools as a scholar in residence, to enrich that and deepen that, is really so exciting for me,” she said of her new role.
