The Classical ReDesign
We’ve created a new model of classical music education for undergraduates by rethinking what it means to be a virtuoso in the 21st century.
The music profession has changed, and we’ve changed with it. In our continuing commitment to rethinking how we train musicians for successful careers, USC Thornton unveiled a new educational model that launched in Fall 2019 for undergraduates in the Classical Performance & Composition Division. We call it the Classical ReDesign.
“USC Thornton’s new curriculum was designed with the 21st-century musician in mind, and musical excellence remains the core,” said Robert Cutietta, former Dean of USC Thornton. “We want students to rethink virtuosity. It’s all about making students better, and lifelong, musicians.”
Rethinking Virtuosity
What it means to be a classical musician in the 21st century has changed. Musicians are erasing boundaries and reimagining how music is presented and received.
USC Thornton is located near downtown Los Angeles, a hotbed of this creative renaissance, where professional organizations and Thornton students alike are expanding the idea of what a performance, a composition or a career in classical music can be. The school is poised to expand the idea of the new virtuoso.
“Our students are highly successful in all the traditional ways. They are winning auditions, competitions, and finding fulfilling careers. It’s exactly because we are successful that we feel an obligation to lead a change to ensure a vibrant future for our art form.”
ROBERT CUTIETTA
former Dean of USC Thornton
A New Model
Our new degree structure offers more flexibility, allowing students to chart their own musical path and take electives in any area they wish. They maintain a robust core of performance, history, and theory classes, including a senior recital and an individualized project. And of course, students will invest plenty of time honing their musical craft in the practice room.
The Classical ReDesign degree structure offers more flexibility, allowing students to chart their own musical path and take electives in any area they wish. They maintain a robust core of performance, history, and theory classes, including a senior recital and an individualized project. And of course, students will invest plenty of time honing their musical craft in the practice room.
Because career development is integrated into the four-year curriculum and not relegated to a separate course, students work toward their professional goals from day one. Whether competing for coveted orchestral positions or launching their own ensembles, they have a wider range of opportunities and are able to create their own.
Just as boundaries are quickly disappearing across the entire music profession, the new curriculum encourages a cross-genre approach to music training. In the first year, classical, jazz, and popular music students take theory and aural skills classes together. In the second year, they begin their music history sequence together in a class called Music & Ideas that challenges them to rethink music history, from Mozart to Miles Davis, in themes rather than chronology.
“It’s the first music history class students will encounter here, and it’s subversive because it’s non-chronological. Rather than being organized by time period or musical style, it’s built around ideas. For example, how has money influenced the creation and performance of music? What about political and cultural institutions? What is beauty? Students will engage with the most enduring animating forces that musicians have grappled with across styles and across time periods.”
BRIAN HEAD
Assistant Dean of Academic Programs
Eight Components of the Classical ReDesign
Our new model restructures lessons, rehearsals, and classes, themselves. Our faculty has identified eight components that define professional virtuosity and consider what it means to have a fulfilling musical career. The eight components, or through-lines, are addressed in every class, lesson, and rehearsal across a student’s four years of study in the Classical ReDesign.
Each aspect of our new curriculum helps students create a distinctive musical voice by…
- Developing musical excellence
- Connecting scholarship to music making
- Interrogating the relevance of music to a diverse and inclusive society
- Erasing performance boundaries between different genres of music
And create a fulfilling musical career by…
- Navigating their way into the music profession to monetize their skills
- Mastering skills to share music through digital platforms and non-traditional venues
- Building a lifelong, global professional network
- Leading a healthy life as a musician
The Young Artist Project
At the heart of the new program is the Young Artist Project, which students begin working on in their junior year, providing an opportunity to specialize, collaborate, and shape work that reflects a distinct musical voice. Students might visualize a composition, develop a hybrid performance, conduct research, or even explore new creative technologies – the Young Artist Project is about developing a unique voice to make their art powerful and relevant today.
Meet the Artists
Meet the Thornton alumni who combined creativity and passion to create their Young Artist Projects in 2019.
A pianist and dancer, Mangiaracino composed, performed, choreographed and filmed a sonata for music and dance aimed at a young audience on social media.
Jamie Kim (’22)
Kim researched composers beyond the canon and developed a podcast that introduces classical audiences to talented but overlooked women and BIPOC composers.
Olivia Chiang (’22)
Developed a website showcasing guitarists around the world in the style of the best-selling “Humans of New York” photoblog and book.
Javier Morales-Martinez (’22)
Partnered with a music academy to organize a concert featuring eight groups of Indigenous Mexican musicians performing work by composers representing their culture.