Solange Knowles doesn’t just take “A Seat at the Table,” she creates her own.
As a singer, songwriter and actress, she’s constantly expanding her reach within the arts. In 2022, she composed a score for the New York City Ballet. She’s explored performance art, with her work being showcased at venues like the Elbphilharmonie, the Venice Art Biennale and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
In 2013, she launched Saint Heron, which is a digital platform showcasing Black artistry within music and culture. Eight years later, it expanded into a studio, creative agency, library and art gallery.
Now she’s taking all of that knowledge and bringing it to the classroom.
On Tuesday, she was named the first scholar in residence at USC Thornton School of Music. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Grammy award-winning singer will “work across all areas of the school.”
Her three-year residency within the program starts this week, and she’ll help develop the school’s music curation program. Thornton School of Music Dean Jason King told the outlet it’s an area of interest for those in the music industry, which also includes “creative directors, documentary filmmakers, DJs and people who work in experimental design.”
She’s also set to teach a class in the fall of 2027, tentatively called “Records of Discovery: Methodologies for Music and Cultural Curatorial Practices.” It will “explore the process of constructing curatorial frameworks alongside the context, craft and creation of musical landscape,” in collaboration with her Saint Heron team, King and other faculty members.
The expansive role will also have the “Cranes in the Sky” singer and her Saint Heron team creating student-focused conversations and workshops. One will include her Walt Disney Concert Hall Series called “The Making of the Eldorado Ballroom.”
She will also be a part of the school’s symposium on women in classical work, discussing the work of composer Julia Perry, who combined European classical training with her Black heritage.
“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,” she said. “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.”
At just 15, she released her debut album “Solo Star.”
She called the position “a dream job” as she’s looking forward to helping guide students.
The dream doesn’t end there.
Knowles is also a part of the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program. She’s only the second member to receive the honor. The distinguished program’s inaugural member was singer and songwriter Raphael Saadiq in December 2024.
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