The Koger Center for the Arts is an arts center located in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...

, on the University of South Carolina campus. It was built in 1988, and has 2,256 saleable seats. The center is the home of the Columbia City Ballet, the

South Carolina Philharmonic The South Carolina Philharmonic is an orchestra based in Columbia, South Carolina, USA. Performances are held at the Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia. The current concertmaster is Mary Lee Taylor Kinosian. The orchestra was founded in 1963. ...

, and is also used for other functions such as The State of the State Address, The South Carolina Body Building Championships, The South Carolina Science Fair, Freshman Orientation, The Conductor's Institute, The Columbia Classical Ballet, and the dance concerts for the Columbia City Ballet, Southern Strutt's year-end concert and the university's doctoral hooding ceremonies. The center is named for philanthropists Ira and Nancy Koger, who made a substantial donation for construction of the $15 million center. The descendants of Ambrose Elliott Gonzales, Narciso Gener Gonzales, and William Elliott Gonzales also made a large donation to the center and the Gonzales Hall auditorium was named in acknowledgement of their contribution. The

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

gave the first performance at the Koger Center on Saturday, January 14, 1989.

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, havi ...

from Chapel Hill performed there in 1992 (he's performed there 3x). New Edition performed a benefit concert there on August 26, 2006, which was televised on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

Ben Folds Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer, who is the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., since May 2017. Folds was th ...

from Chapel Hill performed there in '06. Canadian

Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960 ...

performed there in '09. Comedian Daniel Tosh of Tosh.0 performed there in 2010, and reggae singer

Matisyahu Matthew Paul Miller (born June 30, 1979), known by his stage name Matisyahu (; ), is an American reggae singer, rapper, beatboxer Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum mac ...

performed there in 2011. The

Blue Man Group Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in 1987. It was purchased in July 2017 by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil. Blue Man Group is known for its stage productions, which incorporate many kinds of music and art, bot ...

('12), Art Garfunkel ('14), Weird Al Yankovic ('16),

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...

('17),

Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...

('17), funk rock group

The Time (band) The Time, also known as Morris Day and the Time and The Original 7ven, is an American musical group founded in Minneapolis in 1981. Their work has been a part of the formation of the Minneapolis sound, featuring a mix of soul music and dance mu ...

with

Sheila E. Sheila Cecilia Escovedo (born December 12, 1957) better known under the stage name Sheila E., is an American percussionist and singer. She began her career in the mid-1970s as a percussionist and singer for The George Duke Band. After leaving t ...

('18),

Joe Gatto Joseph Anthony Gatto Jr. (born June 5, 1976) is an American improvisational comedian, actor, and producer from the New York City borough of Staten Island. He was a member of the Tenderloins, a comedy troupe consisting of Sal Vulcano, James Mu ...

of Impractical Jokers in '22, and Kevin James in '23, and Ryan Stiles of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in '23. Riverdance, and

Celtic Woman Celtic Woman is an all-female Irish musical ensemble conceived and created by David Kavanagh, Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show ''Riverdance.'' In 2004, Downes recruited five Irish female music ...

have performed at the Koger Center in recent years.

References

External links

Koger Center for the Arts website
Performing arts centers in South Carolina Buildings and structures in Columbia, South Carolina South Carolina culture University of South Carolina Tourist attractions in Columbia, South Carolina University and college arts centers in the United States {{ColumbiaSC-struct-stub

See also

References

External links