| The University of Southern California Thornton School of Music invites applicants for a part-time Adjunct Instructor to teach Popular Music Arranging in the Popular Music Performance Program. This is a part-time, non-tenure track appointment and begins August 2021. Combining the benefits of a world-class conservatory and a leading research university, the USC Thornton School of Music offers students the opportunity to pursue a thorough music education in a real-world context. Thornton offers students a full range of musical disciplines across a demanding innovative curriculum and the opportunity to work with a faculty of national and international renown. The student body at USC is extraordinarily diverse: it is racially and ethnically a majority/minority population with a full range of expressions of gender, ability, and sexual identities, which we embrace as a source of institutional strength and community pride. The Universityâs commitment to building an academic environment hospitable to this wide range of diversity is full and complete. To that end, we are seeking to create as diverse a pool of candidates as possible, one which reflects the broad diversity of identities and experiences that comprise the country as well as the field of popular music performance. The Popular Music Performance department offers a Bachelor of Music in Popular Music Performance with emphases in songwriting and drum, bass, guitar, keyboard, and vocal performance. Additionally, undergraduate and graduate minor fields in songwriting are also available. The department also offers a range of classes, private instruction and performance opportunities to Thornton majors and non-majors. The department promotes artistic, technical and leadership growth, as well as through mentoring and challenging students in the study, performance and production of music in a wide variety of contemporary musical styles. Duties Principal duties include teaching MPPM 325ab, Arranging in Popular Music. This is a 2-unit, 2-semester course that meets for two hours per week in the fall and spring semesters. The course covers principles and techniques of arranging for voice, rhythm sections, small horn sections and strings as utilized in the popular music idiom for students enrolled in the undergraduate Popular Music Performance program. Additional duties, including teaching individual instruction in pop arranging and/or mentoring student senior projects, may be assigned if needed and appropriate to the candidateâs areas of expertise. Qualifications The ideal candidate for this position will have demonstrated professional success in instrumental and vocal arranging as applied to a broad range of popular musical styles, in addition to professional experience as a songwriter, performer, musical director and/or music producer. Successful applicants will be expected to have a demonstrated record of experience and accomplishment working in a highly diverse environment and of promoting equity and inclusion in the work that they do and in their approach to the profession. Additionally, experience teaching at the college or secondary level is highly preferred. Preferred qualifications: a minimum of a bachelorâs degree in a related music field and a minimum of three years teaching at the college or university level in the area popular music. Applying Interested candidates must apply through the USC online system at www.usc.edu/jobs. Candidates are asked to provide: - A letter of application
- Curriculum vitae or resume
- Three references
Review of applications will begin as soon as April 15, 2021 and the position will remain open until filled. | 
