Solange Knowles steps into academia as first scholar-in-residence at USC’s Thornton School of Music

Solange Knowles is joining USC Thornton School of Music for a three-year residency that includes teaching, mentorship and more.

There are no limits to Solange Knowles’ talent and creativity and now University of Southern California (USC) is preparing a “seat at the table” for the multihyphenate star. After launching a free library designed to preserve Black literature and make it accessible to everyone through her multidisciplinary institution Saint Heron, Knowles is now bringing her creativity to academia. 

The “Cranes in the Sky” singer is reportedly joining USC Thornton School of Music as the school’s first-ever scholar in residence. USC students will be introduced to Solange as Professor Knowles, as she teaches a course on music curation in collaboration with Saint Heron, the USC Thornton dean, and other faculty members. 

“I am a GED graduate,” Solange told The Los Anges Times. “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. 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.”

In addition to teaching a class, Solange will host student-focused conversations and workshops, and help the university’s faculty build long-term teaching frameworks for the music school’s curriculum. She is also set to join the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program, which invites artists and industry figures to mentor students, collaborate with faculty and each other to create “a vibrant and interdisciplinary community.” 

“I think the work that she does as a music curator is very singular and very unique, so I’m hoping that she’s going to bring that uniqueness into the classroom and [her] programming,” Thornton School of Music Dean Jason King shared.“I think she herself will be a model for how to do this kind of work and to do it differently.”

For Solange, who released her first album at 15 and grew up with a first hand experience watching her big sister in Destiny’s Child, this new role feels like “a culmination of the many practices” she’s exhibited throughout her decades-long multidisciplinary career. 

“For decades now, I’ve watched the evolution of music and music curation, and I feel like I have something adequate to add to the conversation,” Solange shared. “I feel really inspired by the idea of my 15-year-old self being able to have someone sort of walk me through the footsteps of what I was about to embark on. So if I can, in any role, be a vessel of guidance, it really just sort of warms my heart that I am given the opportunity to be in that space.”

“Being able to help students navigate what that is for them is like a dream job,” she concluded. 

Though Solange’s residency began on Oct. 13, her class will launch in fall 2027.