The USC Thornton School of Music's Beyond Category programming continues with acclaimed saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Kamasi Washington, who will take part in a wide-ranging conversation and Q&A with USC Thornton Dean Jason King about music, imagination, community, and the creative possibilities that emerge when artists move beyond the boundaries of category.

Few contemporary artists embody that spirit as fully as Washington. One of the most singular and influential musicians to emerge from Los Angeles in the 21st century, he has developed an expansive musical language that moves freely across jazz, soul, hip-hop, classical music, and the spiritual and experimental traditions of Black music. From his landmark album The Epic to Fearless Movement, Washington has continually challenged conventional ideas about genre and expanded the possibilities of what jazz can be and whom it can reach.

The conversation will explore the experiences and ideas that have shaped his musical language, his relationship to Los Angeles and its creative communities, the role of collaboration in his artistic practice, and what it means to follow one’s imagination in a culture that continually asks artists to define themselves by category.

ABOUT KAMASI WASHINGTON

Kamasi Washington is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and bandleader born and raised in Los Angeles. His four bodies of work to date — The Epic; Harmony of Difference, an EP originally commissioned for the 2017 Whitney Biennial; Heaven and Earth; and Fearless Movement — are among the most acclaimed of this century. As Told to G/D Thyself, his short film companion to Heaven and Earth, debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival to widespread acclaim. In 2020, Washington scored the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming, earning Emmy and Grammy nominations for his work. That same year, he co-founded the supergroup Dinner Party with longtime friends and collaborators Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper and 9th Wonder; their EP Dinner Party (Dessert) was later nominated for a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album. Washington has toured the world over and shared stages and collaborated with Kendrick Lamar, Florence + the Machine, Herbie Hancock and many more. At the 2026 Grammy Awards, Washington won multiple awards for his production and songwriting work on Kendrick Lamar's album GNX.

—
Admission is free and open to the public with an RSVP. All Thornton Signature Series Events have a standby line for fully booked events. Seating is first-come, first-served. Please arrive early to claim your ticket and allow enough time for parking, locating the venue, and checking in. If you arrive less than five minutes before the start time, you will forfeit your spot to the waitlist/standby line.