Our Mission

Spark: Carolina’s Music Leadership Laboratory, supplements a traditional music school experience by preparing musicians for sustainable, vibrant futures. We offer coursework, project support, guest residencies, and other initiatives to foster an environment of creative learning, skill development, and personal exploration. Spark empowers members of the School of Music community - students, faculty, and staff - to develop and explore dynamic, diverse careers. Spark advocates for the transformative power of the arts to make a difference in our communities, creating music leaders of the future.

Our Approach

We encourage students to utilize our four part call-to-action during their time at the University of South Carolina and throughout their professional endeavors.

As a student at the USC School of Music, you can:

Explore your unique voice
Identify opportunities, take chances, and learn to be a lifelong learner.

Create your vision
Build a concept, test an idea, analyze experiences, repeat the process.

Engage others
Advocate for the arts amongst peers, locally, nationally, and internationally.

Lead into the future
Continue to discover and share how the arts impact the society around us.

 

We need leaders!

The music world is in need of creative artists who understand current realities and are brave enough to experiment with new solutions and paradigms. There are opportunities waiting to be discovered by performers who bring great music to new settings, educators who instill its transcendent and spiritual values to students, and administrators who foster new audiences while insisting that artistic integrity remain high. There is a shortage of entrepreneurial leaders unveiling new models for success and artist-citizens leading the crusade to keep meaningful musical experiences vibrant.