Overview
Over the past several decades, the performance of early music has evolved from a highly specialized activity into a major facet of professional music making to which an ever-increasing, international audience has responded. The profession of early music involves its specialists in a broad range of activities: Solo and ensemble performance, research and writing, program-planning, the preparation of performing editions and historically-informed arrangements, and ensemble direction and teaching, to mention some of the main ones. The aim of the two graduate degree programs in early music performance is to immerse majors in all of these activities and to insure that graduates leave the USC Thornton School with sufficient knowledge and expertise to begin careers in the profession of early music, whether in the U.S. or abroad.

Degrees Offered
MA, DMA

Curriculum Requirements
The MA in early music is a two-year, 33-unit program consisting of course work in music history, individual instruction on a historical instrument or voice, early music ensemble and collegium workshop, culminating with a thesis.

Ensemble
USC Thornton Baroque Sinfonia, Adam Gilbert, director

Faculty
Janet Beazley
Elizabeth Blumenstock
Adam Knight Gilbert
Rotem Gilbert
Charles Koster
Mary Rawcliffe
William Skeen
Shanon Zusman

Contact
Early Music Performance Program
USC Thornton School of Music
Los Angeles, California 90089-0851
(213) 740-3228
adam.gilbert@usc.edu