University of Southern California

Spanish guitar virtuoso Vicente Coves returns to USC Thornton for a masterclass covering the greatest Spanish guitar compositions. The artistic director of the Granada Guitar Festival is praised for his profound interpretations of the Spanish masters.

USC Thornton alum Cameron O’Connor presents a classical guitar recital with flutist Michael Matsuno and cellist Stella Cho, featuring Bach, Schubert, Beaser, Ryuichi Sakamoto, O’Connor, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Midori Goto, renowned violinist and Judge Widney Professor of Music at USC, returns to campus to lead a violin masterclass with USC Thornton Strings students.

Carl St.Clair leads the USC Thornton Symphony in a performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall featuring Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Op.35 and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante featuring USC Thornton faculty members Margaret Batjer, violin, and Yura Lee, viola. Program Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Soloists: Margaret Batjer, violin. Yura Lee, viola Scheherazade, Op.35 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Acclaimed violinist and Gramophone Classical Music artist, Christian Tetzlaff, leads a violin masterclass with USC Thornton Strings students.

The singing actors of the USC Thornton Opera Program present an evening of opera and musical theater scenes including Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Verdi's Falstaff and The Fantasticks written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt.

ALAJE, the USC Thornton Afro-Latin American Jazz Ensemble led by Aaron Serfaty, headlines this ongoing series featuring USC Thornton jazz ensembles. ALAJE plays the great Afro Cuban influenced Latin music from 1970’s New York salsa scene and 1980’s Latin jazz.

Guest conductor Cynthia Johnston Turner leads the USC Thornton Wind Ensemble in a performance that showcases the wide range of the ensemble's spectrum including works by Bryce Dessner, Dai Fujikura, Oliver Messiaen, Rob Smith, and Eric Whitacre. Program Dai Fujikura: Frozen Heat Oliver Messiaen: Oiseaux Exotiques Eric Whitacre: October Bryce Dessner: Murder Ballades Rob Smith: Dance Mix

The Verona Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the New England Conservatory of Music that features alum Jonathan Dormand, presents a masterclass for USC Thornton Strings students.

Acclaimed musicology scholar and president of the Victoria Guitar Society, Alexander Dunn, leads a classical guitar masterclass at USC Thornton. While finishing his PhD in Musicology at UC San Diego, Dunn completed his doctoral dissertation on the Theorbo music of Robert de Visée. His ground-breaking publication inspired Guitar Review Magazine to publish several of his guitar transcriptions from this collection. He now heads one of Canada’s top guitar programs at the University of Victoria.

The USC Studio Guitar Program presents the studio of professor Adam del Monte in a performance of classical guitar repertoire.

The Verona Quartet, featuring alum Jonathan Dormand, celebrates the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth with a performance of the composer’s last quartet along with the minimalist-inspired, The Weather of It, by Irish composer, Donnacha Dennehy. The final composition Ludwig van Beethoven wrote before his death in 1827, the String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135, is punctuated by a three-note theme: “Must it be?” Beethoven posed this question while considering the end of his life, and the Verona Quartet will address the iconic composer’s query as part of a three-day residency highlighted by a concert at Newman Hall. The performance will include collaborations with student writers, dancers, and jazz musicians from across USC who were asked to probe the question, Must it be? Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts & Humanities Initiative