A group of college-aged students gather on stage after a performance.

USC Thornton Celebrates Trojan Family Weekend 

By Deanna Gasparyan

The USC Thornton community celebrated Trojan Family Weekend from Thursday, Sept. 26 to Sunday, Sept. 29.

USC Thornton hosted a variety of special events for Trojan Family Weekend, an annual celebration that allows families to explore campus and learn more about the USC student experience. 

Ron McCurdy speaks at a podium inside an indoor a theater.
College-aged students gather in an outdoor courtyard on the campus of a university.

Ron McCurdy, Assistant dean of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee, welcomes parents with a presentation in Newman Recital Hall, as students and their families gather in Herklotz Courtyard for a breakfast reception. (Photos by David M. Giannamore)

USC Thornton Dean Jason King hosts the USC Thornton Popular Music Forum featuring legendary songwriting and album production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. James Samuel “Jimmy Jam” Harris III and Terry Steven Lewis are an American R&B/pop songwriting and record production team. Their productions have received commercial success since the 1980s with various artists, most extensively Janet Jackson. They have written 31 top ten hits in the UK and 41 in the US. In 2022, the duo were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Musical Excellence category. (Photo by Willow Cai)

The weekend kicked off on Friday morning with introductory presentations from faculty and leadership, followed by a breakfast reception in Herklotz Courtyard. That afternoon, Dean Jason King led the Popular Music Forum, a long-standing course for Pop Performance, Music Industry and Music Production majors at Thornton. He was joined onstage by the legendary songwriting and album production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. 

Guests were also invited to attend concerts throughout the weekend, including Raven Chacon and Laura Ortman, the USC Thornton Winds, and a musical tribute to Alan Louis Smith.


Featured photo by Willow Cai

TAGS: Arts Leadership, Choral and Sacred Music, Classical Guitar, Composition, Early Music Performance, Jazz Studies, Keyboard Collaborative Arts, Keyboard Studies, Music Industry, Music Teaching and Learning, Music Technology, Musicology, Organ Studies, Popular Music, Screen Scoring, Strings, Studio Guitar, Vocal Arts and Opera, Winds and Percussion,

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