Brooks Center for the Performing Arts // Courtesy
Clemson's symphony and string orchestras are among the many acts that will take the stage during the Brooks Center's upcoming season.
The Brooks Center for the Performing Arts is Clemson’s home for theatre, music and variety shows — essentially any kind of entertainment that can be found on a stage. Its 31st season, which begins in September, encompasses all of those categories and more.
The Brooks Center’s Boni Belle Brooks Series is its flagship lineup, which the Brooks Center notes features “noteworthy and emerging artists from a variety of genres.” Highlights of this year’s Boni Belle Brooks Series include Grammy-winning jazz artist Branford Marsalis, a show exploring the great Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s American influences and a touring production of the classic musical “The Music Man.”
In addition to the Boni Belle Brooks Series, the Brooks Center will also be putting on the 39th edition of its Utsey Chamber Music Series. This free series will feature four classical performances by high-profile ensembles, commencing on Sept. 30 with a performance of Bostonian composer Charles Martin Loeffler’s “Lost Octet.”
The series continues in October with a concert by Septura, a brass ensemble that currently holds the title of Ensemble in Residence at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Music. Their repertoire includes work by composers as diverse and distinguished as Ravel, Debussy and Gershwin.
Trio Zimbalist, a trio of highly acclaimed Curtis Institute of Music alumni, will take the stage on Jan. 27 with a concert including work by Beethoven among other beloved composers. Finally, the Utsey series will conclude in March with a performance by a wind quintet culled from the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
The bulk of the Brooks Center’s 2025-26 season is made up of events put on by Clemson’s Department of Performing Arts. The CU jazz and percussion ensembles will each perform twice, once in the fall semester and once in the spring, while the CU symphony and string orchestra will each perform twice per semester. The CU symphonic and concert bands will join forces on April 21.
In addition, faculty from the Department of Performing Arts will take the stage on Sept. 23, and the Music in the Air concert will return for its 21st year on Sept. 28. Clemson’s choirs and a capella ensembles will each perform once per semester, and will collectively put on the Sounds of the Season concert on Dec. 7.
The Clemson Players’ 2025-26 season includes two classic masterpieces, William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and Don Taylor’s translation of Sophocles’ “Antigone,” alongside the musical “Ride the Cyclone” and Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl’s comedy “Dead Man’s Cell Phone.”
Whether you’re interested in jazz, classical, theatre or any other type of performing arts, the Brooks Center is sure to have a show for you this season. Tickets are available now for all Department of Performing Arts and Boni Belle Brooks Series shows, while reservations for concerts in the Utsey Chamber Music Series will become available two weeks prior to each performance.