Solange Knowles Joins USC as Music Scholar in Residence

Written By Lexx Thornton

The University of Southern California (USC) is elevating its music program with a major artistic coup. The university recently announced that Grammy-winning artist Solange Knowles is its newest professor and the Thornton School of Music’s inaugural scholar in residence. 

This prestigious, three-year residency is a comprehensive role. The Los Angeles Times reports that Solange will be deeply involved in academic life, teaching a course, hosting student workshops, and collaborating with faculty to develop new program offerings focused on music curation. 

Solange will also be joining the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program as its second member, a group dedicated to bringing distinguished music artists and creative leaders into the school’s fold. She follows acclaimed artist and producer Raphael Saadiq, a frequent collaborator of both Solange and her sister Beyoncé, who joined the program last December. 

The course Solange will teach is being developed in collaboration with her own creative agency, Saint Heron, which she founded in 2013. Tentatively titled Records of Discovery: Methodologies for Music and Cultural Curatorial Practices, the class is designed to explore the complex process of “constructing curatorial frameworks alongside the context, craft and creation of musical landscapes,” according to the Times. 

For Solange, this academic appointment holds deep personal significance. She shared her perspective with the Times, noting her non-traditional path to education: “I am a G.E.D. graduate. I was a teenage mom. I was pregnant with my son at 17, so I didn’t get to further my education in the classical sense.” 

She views this role as an opportunity to integrate her real-world knowledge with academic practice. “But I was really blessed and honored to have enriched these other parts of education through my art, through travel [and] through the globalization of my life… so to be able to have access and broader tools as a scholar in residence, to enrich that and deepen that, is really so exciting for me.” 

Solange’s appointment is set to bring an unparalleled level of industry expertise and creative vision to the USC Thornton School of Music.