Solange Knowles is bringing her experience as an artist and music curator to the classroom.

Industry Journey

Knowles was in the fourth grade when she recorded a song for a jingle competition for United Way, which she won, according to AnOther Magazine. That moment “instilled a lot of confidence in me regarding how I could communicate musically,” she told the outlet.

At age 15, Knowles began writing songs more consistently after a knee injury. Her debut album, “Solo Star,” arrived a year later in 2002. She followed with “Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams” (2008), “A Seat at the Table” (2016) — which earned her first Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance for the single, “Cranes in the Sky”— and “When I Get Home” (2019).

Saint Heron

In 2013, Knowles furthered her imprint on the music industry and launched the digital platform, Saint Heron, to highlight Black pioneers in film, TV, music, and art, Essence reports.

In September 2025, Knowles launched the digital Saint Heron Library, an archival collection of works from Black and brown authors, poets, and artists, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.

USC Thornton School of Music

Now, Knowles is taking her decades of expertise to the University of Southern California (USC) Thornton School of Music for a three-year scholar in residence position, the Los Angeles Times reports. She is the first to hold the role. She will also join the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program to enrich the school through “masterclasses, workshops, private instruction, public discussions, and more,” the program’s website notes.

“I am a GED graduate,” Solange told the Los Angeles Times.

“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,” she continued.

Course Details

Knowles will create a curricular and programmatic offering in music curation — another first for the school — in partnership with Saint Heron, Thornton School of Music Dean Jason King, and other faculty.

The class, titled “Records of Discovery: Methodologies for Music and Cultural Curatorial Practices,” taught by Knowles, will “explore the process of constructing curatorial frameworks alongside the context, craft and creation of musical landscapes,” notes the Los Angeles Times. The class will debut in Fall 2027.

“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,” Knowles explained, according to Los Angeles Times.

“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. Being able to help students navigate what that is for them is like a dream job,” she added.