Legacies: USC
A Multigenerational Song Cycle

ADMISSION & CAMPUS ACCESS:
Admission is free. Reservations are required. Campus access is limited to registered guests and USC students, staff, and faculty with current USC ID.

RSVP beginning Monday, March 3, at 10 a.m.

DESCRIPTION:
Legacies: USC is an original song cycle made collaboratively by a multigenerational coalition of established and emerging composers from the USC Thornton School of Music. Loosely based on their legacies—where they come from, what they would tell their younger selves, and where they may fit into a larger lineage of art and culture—the special concert will feature songs by the acclaimed composers Andrew Norman and Ted Hearne, as well as up-and-coming USC Thornton master’s graduates Rohan Chander and Anuj Bhutani. Their musical styles draw upon many influences, including classical and electronic music, R&B and hardcore, as well as traditional Hindustani music. Andy Meyerson and Travis Andrews of The Living Earth Show and vocalist Tanner Porter will perform the new pieces, followed by a conversation with the creators and musicians.

About the artists:

Anuj Bhutani earned his master’s degree at USC Thornton in 2024, where he was awarded Outstanding Graduate in Composition. Often featuring visceral grooves; ethereal, meditative spaces; a combination of acoustic instruments and electronics, and a strong sense of narrative in a genre-fluid space, the award-winning and quickly emerging composer/performer has been described as “a force multiplier with more talents than time” (PATRON Magazine), whose music is “alternately celestial and dark” (John Schaefer, WNYC). Bhutani is currently collaborating with the Khemia Ensemble on a new work funded by Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning grant program.

Rohan Chander (a.k.a. BAKUDI SCREAM) is an electronic musician and artist who graduated from USC Thornton’s composition program in 2022. Described as “hypersensory” (Washington Post), “remarkably alive” (The Wire Magazine), and of “transcendent metamorphosis” (I Care If You Listen), Rohan’s work explores gothic, science-fiction storytelling as rewriting of personal and shared histories. Chander’s ensemble work has been commissioned by organizations such as the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the LA Phil, and the Matt Marks Impact Fund, and his debut solo album, Final Skin, won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 2022.

Ted Hearne is an associate professor of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music. As a composer, performer, singer, and bandleader, he draws on a wide breadth of musical and artistic influences to create intense, personal, and multi-dimensional works. Pitchfork called Hearne's music “some of the most expressive socially engaged music in recent memory­—from any genre.” Twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Hearne has written works for the LA Phil, Royal Ballet of London, and Komische Oper Berlin, and collaborated with such artists as poets Saul Williams and Dorothea Lasky, cellist Seth Parker Woods, director Daniel Fish, choreographer Pam Tanowitz, and hip hop/soul icon Erykah Badu.

Andrew Norman is an associate professor of composition at USC Thornton who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from USC and an Artist Diploma from Yale University. The composer, educator, and advocate for the music of others was praised as “the leading American composer of his generation” by the Los Angeles Times, and called “one of the most gifted and respected composers of his generation” by The New York Times. Established as a significant voice in American classical music, his engagements include a year as Carnegie Hall’s Debs Composer’s Chair, the premiere of his violin concerto with Leila Josefowicz and the LA Phil, and an American tour with Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Tanner Porter is a composer-performer and songwriter. In her “original art songs that are by turns seductive and confessional” (Steve Smith, The New Yorker), Tanner explores her passion for storytelling, often framing her work within the imagery of the California coast she grew up on. Tanner’s orchestral music, described as “drop-dead gorgeous” (Jim Munson, Broadway World), has been commissioned by the Louisville Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, and Nu Deco Ensemble, among others. Tanner has the privilege of performing on Broadway in ILLINOISE, with music by Sufjan Stevens, and being composer-in-residence with the Louisville Orchestra's 2023-2024 Creators Corps. 

One of the premiere contemporary chamber ensembles in the United States, The Living Earth Show has presented commissioned multimedia productions since 2011, working with dance companies, visual artists, sculptors, poets, and other musicians to craft new work. Deemed “outstanding” (San Francisco Chronicle), “transcendent” (Charleston City Paper), and one of the “22 for ’22 performers to watch” (Washington Post), guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson push the boundaries of technical and artistic possibility while amplifying voices, perspectives, and bodies that classical music has often excluded.

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by Andrew Norman and Ted Hearne (Music).

Photos: Ted Hearne by Jen Rosenstein, Anuj Bhutani by Carlos Matos, Tanner Porter by Titilayo Ayangade, Rohan Chander by Ashlin Hunter, Andrew Norman by Craig T. Matthew, The Living Earth Show by Natalia Perez