Steve Miller sets USC music school benefit

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Rocker Steve Miller will help the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music mark its 125th anniversary with two benefit concerts, USC said.

The Steve Miller Band -- whose catalog of hits includes "Fly Like an Eagle," "Rock 'n Me," "The Joker" and "Jet Airliner" -- is scheduled to perform Oct. 22 and 23 in the 1,235-seat Bovard Auditorium on the school's Los Angeles campus.

Thornton School Associate Dean of Popular Music and Industry Studies Chris Sampson said in a news release Tuesday the school is "deeply grateful to Steve and his band for their incredible generosity and support of Thornton."

USC Thornton School of Music, founded in 1884, offers programs in popular music performance, recording science, scoring for movies and TV, classical music, opera, jazz, composition and research.

Violinist Jascha Heifetz, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and composer Igor Stravinsky have taught there. Alumni include trumpeter-producer Herb Albert; film score composers James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith and James Newton Howard; conductor Michael Tilson Thomas; opera star Marilyn Horne and classical guitarist Christopher Parkening.