Dean Jason King honors Sinéad O’Connor in NPR feature
In an NPR feature published on August 2, journalist and USC Thornton Dean Jason King honored the music and life of Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor, who died last week at age 56. Drawing on her 1993 performance of “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace,” King described O’Connor as a freedom singer akin to the… Continue reading Dean Jason King honors Sinéad O’Connor in NPR feature
2022-2023 Year in Review
Looking back on a remarkable year at USC Thornton.
USC alumni Travis Chen and Brian Femminella expand SoundMind
In 2021, USC alumni Travis Chen and Brian Femminella built the music therapy app SoundMind to address the growing mental health crisis. The inspiration behind the app? A USC Thornton world music course. According to a Fortune Well article, Femminella took a world music class taught by Thornton musicology professor Scott Spencer, “where he began… Continue reading USC alumni Travis Chen and Brian Femminella expand SoundMind
Patrice Rushen and Joanna Demers featured in Shondaland article on music and time
On Feb. 20, USC Thornton Popular Music program chair Patrice Rushen and Musicology department faculty member Joanna Demers were featured on Shondaland. In the article, Rushen and Demers explained the benefits of nostalgia in music education. Rushen discussed how and why songs live long past their release dates, referencing her 1982 Grammy-nominated R&B single “Forget… Continue reading Patrice Rushen and Joanna Demers featured in Shondaland article on music and time
Fall 2022 Semester in Review
Looking back on an amazing fall 2022 semester at USC Thornton.
USC Thornton members involved in new publication, “The Cambridge Companion to Krautrock”
Multiple USC Thornton members are authors in the academic publication, “The Cambridge Companion to Krautrock.” The publication, released on Oct. 20, is an introduction and analysis of the Krautrock movement in German music of the 1960s and 1970s. Thornton Musicology faculty member Sean C. Nye and keyboard studies alum Michael Krikorian (DMA ’18), an assistant… Continue reading USC Thornton members involved in new publication, “The Cambridge Companion to Krautrock”
Josh Kun quoted in the Los Angeles Times
USC Thornton Interim Dean Josh Kun was quoted in the Los Angeles Times in a feature about Arabic-language pop and Elyanna, a 20-year-old Palestinian-Chilean pop singer from Tarzana.
Nate Sloan featured on BBC’s The Inquiry
Assistant Professor of Musicology Nate Sloan was featured as an expert source in a new episode of BBC’s podcast The Inquiry: “Is Spotify Killing The Music Industry?”
León F. García Corona
León F. García Corona is a music scholar whose work focuses on the intersections between music, race and social justice in Mexico and among its diasporic communities in the United States. His scholarship has been published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Latin American Music Review, American Music, the Canadian Journal of Latin American… Continue reading León F. García Corona
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