News Release

SOUTH BEND — The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center’s 20th anniversary 2024–2025 Presenting Series season begins in one month.

First announced with a sneak peek this spring, the complete season now features 26 performances. An anniversary festival celebration Thursday, Sept. 19, opens a lineup with multiple returning stars from past years.

Why is Sept. 19 significant? It was the first Presenting Series performance in 2004. Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis was a sellout, including seats behind the stage in the Leighton Concert Hall’s Choral Terrace.

“While we consider Sept. 19 the center’s birthday, I believe I speak for all staff when I say that this anniversary season is not about us. It’s about the connections, understanding and collective inspiration built with each instance of welcome since opening in 2004 and particularly since 2020, after which — together — we rekindled the promise of the performing and cinematic arts: celebrating people, our community and the power of creative expression,” said Executive Director Ted Barron.

Other DeBartolo Performing Arts Center returning artists include the London Philharmonic Orchestra, dance illusionists MOMIX, Celtic music’s Altan and South Bend native Nathan Gunn performing with Broadway legend Mandy Patinkin.

Two productions by Actors From the London Stage bring Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “Hamlet” for multiple-night runs along with “The Wolves” by Sarah DeLappe, a co-production with the Department of Film, Television and Theatre. Gospel icon Fred Hammond debuts in a concert featuring a community choir. Crowd pleasers and perennial sellouts, Uzima Drum and Dance Company and the A Gammage Solutions’ curated showcase, “A Tribute to Motown,” return to bring a wealth of local talent into the limelight of the center’s biggest stage.

The season also features several chamber ensembles, organ recitals and art songs by the Grammy-nominated duo, soprano Laura Strickling and Notre Dame Department of Music Professor of the Practice Daniel Schlosberg on piano.

“We aim to support the range of artistic exploration to unite people across cultures in shared experiences,” said Senior Associate Director Sean Martin of curating the season. “For this milestone anniversary season, from September’s opening celebration to an arts festival April weekend anchored by Mandy Patinkin to the return of our former ensemble-in-residence, Third Coast Percussion with American composer Jessie Montgomery, we want people to see, hear and feel art to remember that we are connected.”

The DeBartolo 2024–2025 season schedule, including all artists and performances, dates and times, is available online.

Season ticket options include Director’s Choice, six pre-selected events available through Oct. 16, and Choose Your Own, requiring a minimum purchase of tickets to three eligible events available through April 5, 2025. Single tickets are on sale, effective Monday, Aug. 26.