ABOUT

Culture, Community & Impact

Creating practices, policies, and organizational changes at USC Thornton that support and reflect community belonging.

Eight students sit on the green campus lawn, smiling.

Creating Change

USC Thornton actively fosters intellectual and creative exploration, innovative approaches and connections with the world.

Students perform onstage with a guitarist in the foreground.

Thornton’s Pledge

USC Thornton is committed to preparing students to create and perform the music of the past, present, and future from a critically-informed and community-driven perspective.

DEIB moderated panel answers questions onstage.

Culture, Community & Impact Committee

With the collective input of our faculty, students and administration, the Culture, Community & Impact committee develops strategies and measures progress in key change areas at Thornton.

Current Committee Members


Ronald C. McCurdy, Chair

Lina Bahn, faculty

Angelica Brooks, student

Viet Bui, staff

Jeff De Caen, staff

William Coppola, faculty

Leon Garcia Corona, faculty

Jeanine Cowen, faculty

Derrick Lawrence, faculty

Larry Livingston, faculty

Kevin Lyman, faculty

Gretchen Meier, staff

Amber Robinson, staff

Seth Parker Woods

Clarence Penn, faculty

Tram Sparks, faculty

Scott Spencer, faculty

Katherine Teeter, student

Matt Weaver, student

Mark Weiser, faculty

Guang Yang, faculty

Spotlight

A More Affirming Experience

The USC Thornton Department of Choral & Sacred Music offers a variety of performance attire for all student ensembles.

Spotlight

That Something Within

USC Thornton keyboard studies doctoral student Lenny Hayes partnered with USC Annenberg faculty member Miki Turner in honoring, reimagining century-old Black gospel hymn.

Spotlight

Women in Music

At the USC Thornton School of Music, female students, faculty, staff and alumni are constantly blazing new trails and opening new doors, all while being authentically themselves.

Illustration of African tribe dancing

From Tragedy to Triumph

From Tragedy to Triumph was an interactive, student-led series about the African diaspora told through discussion with film, dance and music. The seven-part series was organized by USC Thornton Professor of Music and Associate Dean of Culture, Community & Impact Ronald C. McCurdy. Each event was produced in creative collaboration among musicians and writers from across the university with student & faculty composers, dancers, and filmmakers.