In this comedic chamber opera, the Thornton Opera takes an affectionate look at a cast of characters in a small English town.

The townsfolk struggle to pull off their annual May Festival, befuddled by the changing mores of their young people.   

Ken Cazan, resident stage director
Brent McMunn, conductor

November 19, 20 and 21, 8 p.m.
November 22, 2 p.m.

Daily: Thursday 11/19/2009 - Sunday 11/22/2009; All day

University Park Campus Bing Theatre

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Smith was the silver medal winner in the 2004 USA International Harp Competition. She made her National Symphony Orchestra debut in 2003 and has been honored in numerous competitions throughout the country. She performs as both an orchestral musician and concert artist.

Monday 11/23/2009: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

University Park Campus Ramo Recital Hall

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Daily: Monday 11/30/2009 - Wednesday 12/02/2009; 5:30 PM - 12:00 AM

University Park Campus Alfred Newman Recital Hall

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The program will feature carols and tunes from around the world. The festivities will culminate in memorable arrangements of Ding! Dong! Merrily on High; Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella; and O Holy Night! — sung by the combined choirs of the USC Thornton School with brass, piano four-hands, and percussion.

Wednesday 12/02/2009: 7:30 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

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Located in the intimate and casual setting of Ground Zero, USC Thornton’s Jazz Night series features a variety of student jazz ensembles, directed by some of the top names in the music industry. Styles range from classic New Orleans swing to up-tempo Bebop, from fusions of jazz, funk, and soul to the hippest modern jazz around the country.

Dates: 10/08/2009, 10/29/2009, 11/05/2009, 11/12/2009, 11/19/2009, 12/03/2009: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Ground Zero Performance Cafe

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Thursday 12/03/2009: 8:00 PM

University Park Campus Alfred Newman Recital Hall

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The performance will take advantage of the beautiful acoustics of St. John's Episcopal Church, just beyond USC's main campus.

Friday 12/04/2009: 7:30 PM

St. John's Episcopal Church 514 West Adams Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90007

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The Thornton Baroque Sinfonia presents an evening of sacred music from 17th century Italy.

Friday 12/04/2009: 8:00 PM

University Park Campus Alfred Newman Recital Hall

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Director Franco Zeffirelli's breathtaking production of Puccini's last opera is a favorite of the Met repertoire.

The USC School of Cinematic Arts, The Metropolitan Opera and Visions and Voices: The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative invite you to a special HD broadcast of Turandot, presented in HD and 5.1 sound.

About Turandot

Maria Guleghina plays the ruthless Chinese princess of the title, whose hatred of men is so strong that she has all suitors who can't solve her riddles beheaded. Marcello Giordani sings Calàf, the unknown prince who eventually wins her love and whose solos include the famous Nessun Dorma.

Conductor: Andris Nelsons. Production: Franco Zeffirelli.

In Italian with English subtitles. Approximate running time: three hours 21 minutes, with two intermissions. This presentation is a delayed rebroadcast of a live performance from the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

About Check-In and Reservations

This screening is presented free of charge and is open to all. Seats must be reserved electronically through the link above, with the RSVP list opening November 23 at 12 p.m.; please do not attempt to reserve via phone or email. The theater will be overbooked to ensure capacity, and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or printout of your reservation confirmation, which will be automatically sent to your email account after you successfully RSVP through the Web site. Check-in will begin at approximately 6:30 P.M. Doors will close 15 minutes into the performance. Food and drink are strictly prohibited in the auditorium.

Tuesday 12/08/2009: 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre

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For more information, please call the Thornton Development Office at (213) 740-6474 or visit www.usc.edu/music/giving.

Friday 12/11/2009: 7:30 PM

Millennium Biltmore Hotel 506 South Grand Avenue Los Angeles CA 90071

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Sunday 12/13/2009: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Alfred Newman Recital Hall

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Explore the music of the African diaspora in this entertaining, informative evening of music and conversation.

Scholars, students and celebrity guests will come together to present the historical evolution of bebop, doo-wop and hip-hop, three genres that emerged from the black experience.

Take a musical journey as students perform compositions from the three genres, including songs by the fathers of bebop, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie; the vocal-based R&B stylings of doo-wop; and contemporary selections of hip-hop.

Discussions will be interspersed throughout the night, exploring the unique and powerful history of these musical traditions. The evening will culminate in a rousing performance of an original composition incorporating aspects of all three genres.

Thursday 01/21/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

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The USC arts schools offer an exciting array of hands-on workshops in art, photography, theater, dance, music, architecture and film.

In response to popular demand, the USC arts schools team up once again to present a daylong festival, an exciting opportunity to get your hands dirty with the arts. Learn how to salsa dance, make a sculpture, play guitar or take architectural photos. Join us, get your hands dirty, and experience the creativity and thrill of making art!

Organized by the USC arts schools

Saturday 01/30/2010: All day

University Park Campus

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A native of Illinois, Bird is an accomplished singer-songwriter, violinist and guitarist also known for his other signature talents, from whistling to playing glockenspiel.

He’s what every independent music artist strives to be — a musician with a truly unique sound who has earned the enthusiasm and respect of each fan one at a time.

Trained by the Suzuki method from a young age, Bird released his first solo album, Music of Hair, in 1996. In the midst of the swing craze that swept the U.S. music industry in the mid-1990s, Bird began doing collaborative work with the band Squirrel Nut Zippers. He then took on the role of band leader in 1997 with his group Bowl of Fire, which released three albums — Thrills, Oh! The Grandeur and The Swimming Hour — before it disbanded in 2003.

Bird’s early work, which echoed gypsy jazz, blues, swing and traditional folk, has led to his current sound, which mixes rock with more broad compositions. Bird released two solo albums, Weather Systems (2003) and The Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005), both distributed through the label Righteous Babe Records. He switched to Fat Possum for 2007’s Armchair Apocrypha and 2009’s Noble Beast.

Bird has performed in a variety of venues, from major music festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo to barns, churches and grand theaters. USC Spectrum welcomes Andrew Bird for his first performance at USC’s Bovard Auditorium.

Saturday 02/20/2010: 8:00 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

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In a phenomenal show, America’s most acclaimed tap dancer reveals the essence of tap.

The trailblazing Savion Glover will present Bare Soundz, “a remarkable explosion of steel on wood” (The Washington Post). Glover and two additional dancers perform without musical accompaniment; the dancers themselves become the musicians, creating a thrilling and hard-hitting performance of music through dance.

Savion Glover is a Tony-winning winner, hoofer, choreographer and producer who has danced on stages throughout the world. His numerous credits include the Broadway shows The Tap Dance Kid; Black and Blue; Jelly’s Last Jam; and Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk, and the films Tap with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr.; Bamboozled by Spike Lee; and Happy Feet, an Academy Award winner choreographed by Glover.

Tuesday 02/23/2010: 7:30 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

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Gritty short films, music videos and docs from Kourtrajmé Productions, a Paris-based collective of emerging visual artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians.

“Beautiful women, ugly illegal immigrants, Romanian sneaker pimps, coked-up fashion babes, down-and-out thugs eating shish kebab at 3 a.m. Welcome to our Paris.” — Kourtrajmé Productions, as quoted in Anthem magazine

Kourtrajmé Productions is a collective of emerging French and Francophone visual artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed directors Mathieu Kassovitz and Vincent Cassel, this production house and artist collective has garnered increasing attention and acclaim after getting millions of hits on online sites like Dailymotion and YouTube. Founded by Kim Chapiron, Romain Gavras and Toumani Sangaré, Kourtrajmé produces playful innovations and cutting interventions in popular culture and society that represent the cultural dreams, lives and crises of transnational urban and peri-urban French youth today.

This is a chance to explore the short films, music videos and documentaries that represent what legendary French filmmaker Chris Marker calls a “nouvelle nouvelle vague” of French cinema. Directors from the collective, including Ladj Ly and Toumani Sangaré, will be on hand to answer questions and discuss the group’s history and work.

Organized by Edwin Hill (French and Comparative Literature). Co-sponsored by the Department of French and Italian and French Cultural Services, Los Angeles.

Friday 03/05/2010: 6:00 PM

University Park Campus School of Cinematic Arts, Room 108

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A satellite broadcast of The Metropolitan Opera’s unforgettable new production of Hamlet, starring Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay.

This event is part of an ongoing series of broadcasts presented in spectacular HD digital projection and 5.1 surround sound.

Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of the Bard’s most unforgettable characters in this new production of Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet. For the role of Ophelia, the French composer created an extended mad scene that is among the greatest in opera.

Conducted by Louis Langrée. Presented in French with English subtitles.

The opera will be preceded by a discussion hosted by the USC Thornton School of Music.

The opera is presented as a rebroadcast of a live performance taking place at The Metropolitan Opera in New York at 10 a.m. that day.

Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts in association with The Metropolitan Opera.

Saturday 03/27/2010: 12:00 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Frank Sinatra Hall

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David Schweizer directs a darkly satiric musical based on Melville’s last novel, The Confidence-Man.

The richly imaginative work of the great American novelist Herman Melville has inspired numerous contemporary adaptations, from the opera of Benjamin Britten to the performance art of Laurie Anderson. At this event, USC students will perform a work-in-progress by USC professor Joseph Boone and composer Benjamin Boone, based on Melville’s The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade. This tale unfolds on a Mississippi riverboat on All Fools’ Day, just before the War Between the States threatens to explode and expose the empty promises that lie at the heart of the American Dream.

The play will be directed by David Schweizer, who has won widespread acclaim for his productions in New York City and Los Angeles.

Organized by Joseph Boone (English)

Related Event
September 10-11, 7 p.m. And God Created Great Whales. Rinde Eckert reprises his 2000 Obie Award–winning performance as a monomaniacal composer desperately attempting to complete an opera based on Melville’s Moby-Dick.

Thursday 04/01/2010: 7:00 PM

24th Street Theatre 1117 West 24th Street Los Angeles CA 90007

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A dynamic multimedia presentation explores the exciting possibilities for using art and technology to explore humanity and create community.

The extraordinary work of internationally acclaimed electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is engaging, provocative and beautiful. Born in Mexico City and currently living in Montreal, Lozano-Hemmer develops large-scale interactive installations in public space, usually deploying new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces. Using robotics, projections, sound, Internet and cell phone links, sensors and other devices, his installations aim to provide, in his words, “temporary anti-monuments for alien agency.” His kinetic sculpture, responsive environments, video installations and photography have been shown in more than 30 countries, and his work has been commissioned for such events as the United Nations’ World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the celebration of the expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004), the 40th anniversary of the Tlatelolco student massacre in Mexico City (2008), and the Vancouver Olympics (2010).

In this multimedia event, Lozano-Hemmer will discuss his award-winning work.

Organized by Visions and Voices. Co-sponsored by the USC Fisher Museum of Art and the USC Roski School of Fine Arts.

Wednesday 04/14/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

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Scholars, musicians and musicologists describe how Wagner's Ring Cycle influences the way we think, feel and imagine the 21st century world.

How have The Ring themes and symbols permeated literature, philosophy, psychology, and even movies and cartoons? In collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences presents a panel that will take on the idea of the hero, violence and the cult of masculinity, "the mythic," the development of fascist theories (and governments), the power of the unconscious, the allure of death, and the mob.

No singing required. Mind-opening insights guaranteed.

Moderator

• James R. Kincaid, USC Aerol Arnold Professor of English

Speakers

• Leo B. Braudy, University Professor, Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature, professor of English
• Roberto Ignacio Diáz, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Comparative Literature
• John P. Nuckols, vice president, Advancement, L.A. Opera
• John Carlos Rowe, USC Associates Chair in Humanities, professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity
  

Registration will open in Spring 2010.

Thursday 04/15/2010: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

University Park Campus

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Preeminent conductor James Conlon explores Wagner’s controversial personality in relation to bigotry, racism and prejudice.

James Conlon, the music director of L.A. Opera, will look at these issues as they relate to Wagner’s time and ours. The event will be presented in conjunction with the USC Thornton production of the Wagner opera Das Liebesverbot.

James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire and has developed enduring relationships with the world’s most prestigious symphony orchestras and opera houses. Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974, Conlon has appeared as a guest conductor with virtually every major North American and European orchestra and has frequently been a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. In addition to serving as the music director of L.A. Opera, he is the music director of the Ravinia Festival (the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and the Cincinnati May Festival.

In an effort to raise awareness of the significance of works of composers whose lives and compositions were suppressed by the Nazi regime, Conlon has also been devoted to extensive programming of this music in North America and Europe. At both the Ravinia Festival and the L.A. Opera, he continues to program works by these composers, including Alexander von Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Kurt Weill, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Erwin Schulhoff and Ernest Krenek.

In 2009, Conlon won two Grammy Awards (Best Classical Recording and Best Opera Album) for conducting L.A. Opera’s production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. During the 2009–10 season at the L.A. Opera, Mr. Conlon will conduct Wagner’s Ring cycle, beginning this season with the first two installments of the cycle, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. It will be Conlon’s first time conducting this work in the United States.

Tuesday 04/20/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bing Theatre

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An exciting evening of dance by the award-winning School of Theatre Repertory Dance Company.

Daily: Thursday 04/29/2010 - Friday 04/30/2010; 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bing Theatre

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