Solange Knowles Is USC’s First Scholar In Residence

While Solange’s big sis Beyoncé racks up the hits, the younger Ms. Knowles has taken a more circuitous path in the music business. It’s led her to some interesting places; she’s directing films, scoring ballets, curating events, and learning new instruments, proving that there is more to musicianship than simply recording music and performing concerts.

Solange’s latest resume addition furthers that end; this week, she began a three-year position as the University of Southern California’s (USC) first-ever scholar in residence for the Thornton School of Music. As part of her duties, she’ll teach a course, Records of Discovery: Methodologies for Music and Cultural Curatorial Practices, while helping to develop program offerings in music curation, and hosting student workshops. In addition, she will join the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program, along with Raphael Saadiq, the program’s inaugural member.

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Solange said, “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. 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.”