The Greene Street United Methodist Church is undergoing renovations in order to house the USC School of Music’s jazz program.
Since 2009, the university has partnered with the church to host it's Suzuki young children's program and various concerts.
While having maintaining a positive relationship with the church over the years, Dean of the School of Music Tayloe Harding said the church and the United Methodist Conference were not interested in selling the property.
However, after a few years of negotiation, the property was finally acquired when the USC Development Foundation, an investment group that supports the university, came to an agreement with the church in 2020. The foundation would lease the property to the university, so that USC could rennovate the building and make the necessary space for the jazz program while also allowing the church to continue its congregation.
Harding said the jazz department will be moving into the new space because it is an area of study that had been underinvested in and lacking resources for much of his tenure.
“It's been hard to find dollars that we could invest in jazz when we had other priorities for finding money,” Harding said.
However, after looking into what would work in this new property, jazz seemed to be the perfect fit, according to Harding.
“It just seemed like a natural that we could do all the jazz instruction over there because most jazz instruction is done to small groups, 12 students or less, except for big band rehearsals, which are like 20 students, and that could happen in the sanctuary,” Harding said.
For Matthew White, associate professor and chair of jazz studies, the expansion holds a new reputation for USC's music program.
"I think we're poised to become the premier public institution in the southeastern United States for jazz studies," White, who joined the jazz program just as the renovation plans were settled, said.
While space was an issue for the school's jazz department in past semesters, so was the lack of faculty. Prior to the 2019-2020 school year, the jazz department had one full-time instructor who was responsible for about 75% of the instruction, according to Harding.
When the lone instructor retired, three new instructors were hired, including White and assistant professor of jazz studies Colleen Clark. White said that with the new addition, the jazz program is growing quickly in students and faculty.
"I think a lot of that is not only because the excitement around the church, but kind of this investment in new faculty, new curriculum, people are very excited about that, we look at it as an opportunity to have kind of our own space, and to not only provide programming and opportunities for our students, but students but also outreach to the community," White said.
But outreach goes beyond training new musicians, according to Clark.
“Our music is Black music. Jazz was born from New Orleans. The port where slaves were brought from Africa, South America, the Caribbean. That's the reason jazz was born plus that mixing with a bunch of other things. So we need to make sure that we are taking care of that." Clark said. "We have to make sure that the people supporting it understand how important it is."
The first phase of renovations is set to be completed by fall 2023.
Correction: A previous version of this story said that the USC Development Foundation would complete the building's renovations. USC Development Foundations is leasing the building to the university in order for the university to complete the renovations.