Candice D. Mattio
Dr. Candice D. Mattio will join the USC Thornton School of Music this fall as Assistant Professor of Music Teaching and Learning. Her research focuses on the intersections of musical creativity, social issues in contemporary and popular music education, and technology-based music teaching and learning contexts. Her work has been presented on the international, national,… Continue reading Candice D. Mattio
Jonathan A. Gómez
Jonathan A. Gómez is a musicologist who studies Black American musics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as well as musics of the African diaspora more broadly. Gómez is particularly interested in working interdisciplinarily between music studies and Black studies, excavating the ways that Black people have turned to music as a site of identity… Continue reading Jonathan A. Gómez
Seth Parker Woods
Cellist Dr. Seth Parker Woods has joined the faculty of USC Thornton as an assistant professor of practice beginning in April 2022. Woods will direct the USC Thornton Strings Department’s chamber music program while teaching cello. Woods, the recipient of the 2022 Chamber Music America Michael Jaffee Visionary Award hailed by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” who… Continue reading Seth Parker Woods
Alex Nickson
As senior vice president of television music for DreamWorks Animation, Alex Nickson oversees the musical creative direction for the studio’s rapidly growing slate of original television projects, including content for Netflix, Apple TV+, Peacock, Amazon, Hulu and other leading broadcasters around the world. Some of the most recent series include Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, Gabby’s Dollhouse, The… Continue reading Alex Nickson
Doug Petty
Doug Petty is a pianist, arranger and composer living in Los Angeles. A top call session player, he has recorded and performed with many of today’s biggest artists including Rihanna, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias, Tears for Fears, Roseanne Cash, Rufus Wainwright, Shawn Colvin, Westlife and the Backstreet Boys to name just a few.… Continue reading Doug Petty
Daniel Allas
Daniel Allas makes and performs instrumental and electronic music. His recent work researches intermedial forms of performance, critical theory (particularly in relation to colonial studies), and collaborative composition processes. In this work, he has collaborated with classical music groups including ensemble mosaik, wasteLAnd, the LA Philharmonic, Peter Evans and the International Contemporary Ensemble, wild Up,… Continue reading Daniel Allas
Maxine Eilander
Maxine is adjunct professor of historical harps at the USC Thornton School of Music. She has most recently started working on a project of harp and violin music by little known female composers of the Classical and Romantic periods with violinist Tekla Cunningham.
Juan Pablo Contreras
Juan Pablo Contreras is a Latin GRAMMY®-nominated composer who combines Western classical and Mexican folk music in a single soundscape.
Nicolas Lell Benavides
Nicolas Tell Benavides is a celebrated composer who works in opera, dance and chamber music.
Melissa Treinkman
Melissa Treinkman is an Adjunct Instructor in Musical Theatre at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles and enjoys a versatile career as a singer, voice researcher, and vocal pedagogue.