USC Upstate Commercial Music Program

08/23/2025

Thursday night, featuring our guitar professor Zach Pruitt and alum ('24) Javi Alverson:

08/18/2025

This meme perfectly represents the mutually exclusive two-part forms found in Black Sabbath songs such as "Symptom of the Universe" (1975). Check out University of South Carolina Upstate music professor Dr. Nolan Stolz's chapter about this song from in the new book The Routledge Handbook to Metal Music Composition, which arrived today!

08/13/2025

Here is our third video for incoming students. In this one, we walk you through the Music Theory Placement Exam. Those who already have a good handle on basic music theory and aural skills might be placed into MUSC U115 this Spring. This is what you'll find on the MUSC U101 Fundamentals of Music Theory exam👇

08/12/2025

Yesterday we posted a link to the written portion of the Aural Skills Placement Exam study guide, and today we are sharing with incoming students a self-test of the individual portion. Those who pass both won't have to take U101L this Fall! Check out the video below 👇

08/11/2025

Incoming music majors might already be signed up for MUSC U101L, which is the aural skills lab for the U101 Fundamentals of Music Theory course. Those who already have a good handle on basic aural skills might be able to test out and jump right into U115/L in the Spring! To help those prepare for the placement exam, which is taken on the first day of class, here is a tutorial video for the aural skills written portion that we hope that you will find helpful 👇

08/08/2025

University of South Carolina Upstate music professor Dr. Nolan Stolz recently sat down with High Plains Public Radio, a network of 17 NPR stations in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas to talk about his most recent travels on Route 66 for inspiration for his hour-long composition for symphony orchestra, the Route 66 Suite. HPPR posted the interview this morning 👇

07/02/2025

This was authored by one of our music professors, Dr. Griffin Woodworth:

"Prince, Musical Genre, and the Construction of Racial Identity" by Griffin Woodworth is now available! This new edition to our Tracking Pop series explores the legacy of the music legend though an intersectional approach to musical analysis. Learn more: https://myumi.ch/g3kJq

07/02/2025

Did you know that USC Upstate music professor Dr. Griffin Woodworth is a specialist in the music of Prince? His book came out recently: https://press.umich.edu/Books/P/Prince-Musical-Genre-and-the-Construction-of-Racial-Identity2
You can take courses with him as a music major OR as a non-major.

Throughout his career, the Minneapolis musician Prince was known for fusing different musical genres as well as moving between different identities—sexual lothario, devout man of God, androgynous sprite—qualities t ...

06/28/2025

On Friday morning, the 2nd half of Springfield MO's NPR's interview with UUniversity of South Carolina Upstatemusic professor Dr. Nolan Stolz aired. It includes demos, a preview performance, and a live performance of two of his compositions.

Part One goes from 25:20 to 46:45 on last week's show https://www.ksmu.org/show/arts-news/2025-06-20/arts-news-june-20-2025 and yesterday's show was from 11:10 to 36:10 https://www.ksmu.org/show/arts-news/2025-06-27/arts-news-june-27-2025

Students at USC Upstate can take applied lessons in composition, songwriting, and a whole variety of instruments: MUSC U111 and U311 for music majors and U312 for non-music majors

Part 2 of our series on the "Route 66 Suite" by composer Dr. Nolan Stolz. new sculptures coming to Springfield, music by J@llen, Buster Clifton Davis, and the Oklahoma City University Symphony Orchestra, and more!