William E. Rutherford memorial to be held January 27

William E. Rutherford (1929-2017) was an esteemed and renowned scholar, writer, and professor of Linguistics at USC for thirty years. He was also a musician and performed early music on the harpsichord and organ. In the 1960s, he formed the Musica Pacifica ensemble with Shirley Marcus, Ruth Adams, Morris Newman, and others, and the group became one of the seminal early music groups in Los Angeles. Rutherford often hosted musical events at his home in Mt. Washington and the Tesserae ensemble was founded in his home.

In addition to making his home available to the USC Thornton community for recitals, concerts and events, Rutherford donated his extraordinary collection of musical instruments to the school, which are now utilized by our Early Music Organ Studies programs.

The USC community is invited to a “Celebration of Life for William E. Rutherford” on Saturday, January 27, 2018, at 2:00 PM. Please click here to download an evite for more details.