USC Thornton Edge, previously known as the Contemporary Music Ensemble, was founded in 1976 by Robert Wojciak. Since 1984, the group has been under the direction of Donald Crockett. Composed of some of the finest student musicians of the USC Thornton School of Music, Edge has presented an annual series of concerts at USC for many years, has been a guest on the Monday Evening Concerts and Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series, as soloists with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and has presented concert tours in Berlin, Paris and Lyons. Under Donald Crockett, Edge has presented numerous premieres and has been coached and/or conducted by such composers as Witold Lutoslawski, John Harbison, Henryk Górecki, Joan Tower, Steven Stucky, Judith Weir and the members of the USC Thornton composition faculty. Edge received the 2004 LA Weekly Award for Outstanding Classical Soloist/Ensemble.

Donald Crockett has received commissions from a wide spectrum of organizations including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (Composer­-in-Residence, 1991-97), Kronos Quartet, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hilliard Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Xtet, the San Francisco-based chamber chorus, Volti, the California EAR Unit, the Harvard Musical Association for violist Kate Vincent and Firebird Ensemble, Claremont Trio, and the University of Southern California for its 125th anniversary, among many others.

Recent projects include commissions from the Guitar Foundation of America, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, 21st Century Consort, a chamber opera, The Face, based on a novella in verse by poet David St. John, and a consortium commission from twenty- two college and university wind ensembles for his Dance Concerto for Clarinet/Bass Clarinet and Wind Ensemble.

The recipient in 2013 of an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for outstanding artistic achievement, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006, Donald Crockett has also received grants and prizes from the Barlow Endowment, Bogliasco Foundation, Copland Fund, Copland House, Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, Meet the Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA and many others. His music is published by Keiser Classical and Doberman-Yppan and recorded on the Albany, BMOP Sound, CRI, Doberman-Yppan, ECM, lnnova, Laurel, New World, Orion and Pro Arte/Fanfare labels. A frequent guest conductor with new music ensembles nationally, Donald Crockett has been very active over the years as a composer and conductor with the venerable and famed Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles. As conductor of the USC Thornton Symphony's annual New Music for Orchestra series Donald Crockett has premiered over 125 new orchestral works by outstanding Thornton student composers. His recordings as a conductor can be found on the Albany, CRI, Doberman-Yppan, ECM and New World labels. Deeply committed to education, Donald Crockett is Professor and Chair of the Composition Program, Director of Thornton Edge new music ensemble and Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs at the USC Thornton School of Music, as well as Senior Composer-in- Residence with the Bennington Chamber Music Conference.

Brian Head, assistant dean for curriculum, associate professor of practice, and director of undergraduate music theory, classical guitar and composition at USC Thornton School of Music, was voted Outstanding Thornton School Graduate of 1991.

Head was chosen in 1999 as the USC Gamma Sigma Alpha Professor of the Year. He is sought after as an ensemble guitarist performing in numerous chamber and symphonic groups including XTET, Ten-String Music and the New World Symphony. His compositions are published by Alfred Music and Guitar Solo Publications, and have been recorded on Delos, Denon, Digital Revolution, GSP Recordings and Massax Productions. His music has been performed throughout the U.S. in venues including Merkin Hall in New York, the Ambassador Auditorium in Los Angeles and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, as well as abroad in Tokyo, Madrid, Sao Paulo, and Dubai.

He currently teaches on the faculty of his alma mater, the USC Thornton School of Music.

Recognized as one of America’s finest classical guitarists, William Kanengiser won First Prize in the 1987 Concert Artists Guild International Competition as well as major guitar competitions in Toronto (1981) and Paris (1983). He has recorded four solo CD’s for the GSP label, ranging from classical to jazz to Caribbean to Near Eastern styles, and he recently recorded two CD’s for the Suzuki Guitar Advanced Repertoire Series. In 2005 he released a live concert DVD, “Classical Guitar and Beyond”, for Mel Bay Recordings, which also features Mr. Kanengiser’s talents as a comedian/mimic in his infamous “GFA Imitation Show”. A member of the guitar faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music since 1983, he was a recipient of the “2011 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching”. He has given master classes around the world and produced two instructional videos, “Effortless Classical Guitar” and “Classical Guitar Mastery” for Hot Licks Video. The 2010-11 season was marked by special performances of Shingo Fujii’s “Concerto de Los Angeles” for solo guitar and guitar orchestra, which was written for Mr. Kanengiser and recorded in Kyoto in 2008. This piece was played with guitar students in seven US cities, as well as in Osaka and Shanghai. Featured recitals in 2012-13 include Spivey Hall near Atlanta and appearances with the Long Island, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Calgary and Indianapolis Guitar Socities.

As a founding member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Mr. Kanengiser has toured extensively throughout Asia, Europe and North America and recorded over a dozen CD’s. LAGQ was awarded a GRAMMY® for Best Classical Crossover Recording in 2004. Their newest recording project “Interchange”, features concertos by Joaquin Rodrigo and Sergio Assad; it was released in March 2010 and received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Classical Composition. In addition to three European tours this season, they recently completed their Australian debut tour, including three sold-out shows at the Sydney Opera House.

In addition to the many arrangements and compositions Mr. Kanengiser has written for LAGQ over the years, Mr. Kanengiser recently created the stage production “The Ingenious Don Quixote: Words and Music from the Time of Cervantes”, writing a one-hour script for John Cleese (of Monty Python) and arranging accompanying Spanish Renaissance music for guitar quartet. This work is now being toured with comedian Phil Proctor of the Firesign Theater, and was recently released as a live DVD on Mel Bay Recordings.

Scott Tennant is a founding member of the the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, the GRAMMY-winning ensemble composed entirely of alumni of the USC Thornton School of Music, and is himself considered to be one of the world’s top classical guitarists. During his student years at USC (1980-1986), he studied with Pepe Romero, James Smith and was a chosen performer in the USC Segovia Masterclasses of 1981 and 1986. He has authored several books and articles on guitar technique, including the best-seller Pumping Nylon, which has attained a “cult” classic status. It has become a standard text in conservatory and university guitar programs around the world.

Tennant has made numerous recordings as a soloist on the GHA, Delos and GSP labels, and with the LAGQ he has recorded for GHA, Delos, Sony Classical, Windham Hill, Deutsche Grammophon and Telarc labels. Their Telarc release LAGQ Latin was nominated for a Grammy award, and it was their current Telarc title LAGQ’s Guitar Heroes that won a Grammy as the best classical crossover recording of 2005. Tennant is best known for his performances of Spanish music, and his recordings of the music of Joaquín Rodrigo.

Guitarist James Smith was professor and chair of the classical guitar program at USC Thornton, a program regarded as one of the finest in the world. His students included prize-winners in international competitions, and two ensembles trained at USC Thornton, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ) and the Falla Trio, have enjoyed successful professional careers.

He presented masterclasses at the Manhattan School of Music, Eastman, Yale, and the New England and San Francisco Conservatories, to name a few. Smith was very active as a performer, playing throughout the Americas and Asia. As a dedicated chamber musician he performed with lhe Bel Arls Trio (David Shostac, flute, John Walz, cello), Canto Claro (Sun Young Kim, soprano), Windwood (Douglas Masek, winds), and with guitarist Dusan Bogdanovic and violinist Endre Balogh. Also a skilled arranger, he had several of his works recorded by the LAGQ and other ensembles. Recordings with David Shostac on Excelsior and Douglas Masek on Massax include numerous arrangements by Smith. An ardent supporter of new music, he has given the premieres of works by Bogdanovic, Reich, Johanson, Musgrave, Leisner and Lesemann, to name a few, and his recordings for Orion and Protone records have first recordings of works by Schickele, Crockett and others. Smith's solo playing was featured in the acclaimed movie Sleepy Time Gal (1996), starring Jacqueline Bisset.

James Smith served as president of the Guitar Foundation of America, the advisory committee of the First American Guitar Congress and as a board member of ASTA-LA. He judged many international guitar competitions, and organized the Celebration of Pepe Romero at USC Thornton (2004), the First Stotsenberg Guitar Competition, and the Andres Segovia Commemorative (1986), the last two-week long tribute to the Maestro.

James Smith succumbed to brain cancer in September 2010.

The Illinois Times wrote that guitarist Martha Masters “…is on a swift and certain trajectory to star territory." Masters’ playing has been described as “seductive” (Ft. Worth Star Telegram), “intelligent and natural” (Guitar Review), and “refined and elegant” (American Record Guide). She is active as a solo recitalist, as a chamber musician, and as a soloist with orchestras. Recent concert seasons have included performances on concert series and at festivals in China, England, Denmark, Spain, Poland, Germany, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, and throughout the United States.

Masters’ first CD, Serenade, is now in its second printing, and her Naxos recital disc sold over 10,000 copies worldwide in the first year of its release. Her recording of Italian music was released in 2006 on the GSP label, and a recording of early 20th Century Spanish music was released on GSP in 2009. Masters has published books with Mel Bay and Alfred, and has received critical acclaim as an author and pedagogue.

In October of 2000 Martha Masters won first prize in the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) International Solo Competition, including a recording contract with Naxos, a concert video with Mel Bay, and an extensive North American concert tour. In November of 2000, she also won the Andrés Segovia International Guitar Competition in Linares, Spain and was a finalist in the Alexandre Tansman International Competition of Musical Personalities in Lodz, Poland. Prior to 2000, Masters was a prizewinner or finalist in numerous other international competitions, including the 1999 International Guitar Competition "Paco Santiago Marín" in Granada, Spain, the 1998 Tokyo International Guitar Competition and the 1997 GFA International Solo Competition.

In addition to being on the guitar faculty of California State University Fullerton and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Masters is also the President of the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), dedicated to supporting the instrument, its players and its music in the US and throughout the world.