Thornton School of Music
Graduate Degrees
Non-Degree Programs
Artist Diploma Program
This program is designed for young artists of exceptional ability and musical sensitivity who plan careers as solo performers. The Artist Diploma Program provides young artists with the opportunity to devote their full time to concentrated study and practice for the duration of their assigned programs.
Entrance Requirements
Following the recommendation of the student’s major department, a performance audition, consisting of a full-length recital before the Artist Diploma Committee, is required.
Curriculum Requirements
A minimum of 16 units at the 754 level (from MPEM, MPGU, MPKS, MPST, MPVA or MPWP) and four full-length recitals are required. This program typically requires two to three consecutive years of study for completion.
Graduate Certificate in Arts Leadership
Certificate in Arts Leadership (ARTL)
The graduate program in arts leadership is a two-semester certificate program for artists, arts administrators and cultural workers of all types to develop the skills necessary to become successful leaders in the arts and arts organizations in a rapidly changing and radically altered contemporary world. The program is based in the Thornton School of Music, but it is designed to be applicable for artists/students engaged in any of the arts disciplines who want to develop their leadership skills in the hybrid and holistic environment of the contemporary arts. The program is highly individualized and deeply student centered in its approach, with simultaneous emphases on research, discovery, theory and current practice. With strong faculty mentorship and guidance from the director of the program and other working professionals in the field, students explore the dimensions of the most current issues and ideas while developing specific real-world applications of these ideas to their own practice as artists and leaders.
The program consists of a minimum of 18 units which can be completed in two semesters. The program begins with a 2-unit gateway course (ARTL 500) which introduces the students to the varied, complex and contentious issues in the arts and arts leadership that currently exist in the contemporary arts world. From this experience, students will develop a life plan that examines their own career and life trajectory for the next several years, providing a guidepost for their own personal development in arts leadership. Students will take four core courses including ARTL 501, which focuses on a deep understanding and application of the challenges of executive leadership in the arts and ARTL 502, which looks at major environmental trends affecting the arts and how that impacts the student’s leadership role in the arts. Essential to all of these courses is developing the ability to think, speak and write critically about the arts in the contemporary world, key components of strong arts leadership. There is also a two semester practicum, ARTL 510, in which the student creates, develops and completes an actual arts leadership project of his or her own choosing, supported by faculty mentorship and the cohort of other practicum students.
Admission to the program is by application, reviewed and approved by the director of the program. Admission to the practicum requires a project proposal to be created by the student and approved by the director of the program.
| Core Courses | units | |
|---|---|---|
| ARTL 500 | Arts Leadership and Arts Entrepreneurship | 2 |
| ARTL 501 | Executive Leadership in the Arts | 2 |
| ARTL 502 | Issues in the Arts and the Contemporary World | 2 |
| ARTL 503 | Arts Organizations: Innovation and New Models | 2 |
| ARTL 504 | Arts and Community: Current Practice and New Visions | 2 |
| ARTL 510 | Arts Leadership Practicum (2 semesters) | 2-2 |
| 14 | ||
| Select a minimum of 4 units from the following courses* | units | |
|---|---|---|
| MUIN 570 | The Music Industry | 4 |
| PAS 561 | Curatorial/Organizational Models | 2 |
| PAS 571 | Histories of Art in the Public Sphere | 3 |
| PAS 572 | Contemporary Art in the Public Sphere | 3 |
| PAS 585 | Theorizing the Public Realm | 3 |
| PPD 675 | Nonprofit Management and Leadership | 4 |
| PPD 687** | Strategic Management in Nonprofit Sector | 4 |
| PPD 689 | The Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy | 4 |
| PPDE 645 | Financial Management of Nonprofit Organizations | 4 |
| 4 | ||
| Minimum total units: 18 |
Graduate Certificate Program in Performance
This two-year graduate-level program is designed for students who have completed their undergraduate education in music, or its equivalent, and intend to concentrate their energies on the full-time development of their discipline.
Entrance Requirements
A performance audition is required with repertory to be determined by the student’s primary department.
Curriculum Requirements
The requirements for this program consist of 16 units of Graduate Certificate Performance (4 units per semester of MPEM 554, MPGU 554, MPKS 554, MPST 554, MPVA 554, MPWP 554 or MUJZ 554). Graduate Certificate Performance encompasses individual instruction, studio class and two ensembles or the equivalent as appropriate to the discipline.
Graduate Certificate Program in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television
This one-year program is designed for students who hold the Bachelor of Music in Composition or its equivalent. Students in the SMPTV program must maintain a 3.0 GPA (A = 4.0), with no course grade lower than a C (2.0). Work graded C- or below is not acceptable for credit toward the certificate.
Entrance Requirements
Specific entrance requirements are reviewed on an annual basis and published in the Application Requirements section online at usc.edu/music.
| Curriculum Requirements | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| MUCO 440ab (4), MUCO 442ab (4), MUCO 443ab (4), MUCO 520 (2), MUCO 522ab (4), MUCO 523ab (4), MUCO 545 (4), MUCO 560ab (4) | 30 | |