Lillian Utsey Harder
Utsey Chamber Series Director, Professor Emerita
Contact
Department of Performing Arts
Phone: 864-656-3043
Email: harderl@clemson.edu
Professor Lillian Utsey Harder joined Clemson’s music faculty in 1972, and, in 1996, became director of the Brooks Center, serving for 21 years until she retired in 2017. An honor graduate of Coker College, she received a master’s degree in music from Converse College, and has pursued additional study at Boston University, the University of Georgia, the University of South Carolina, Amherst College, and the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France. The recipient of numerous awards for her contributions to the arts, Prof. Harder has received awards from the South Carolina Music Teachers Association, the American Association of University Professors, and the American Association of University Women. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Coker College where she has served on the Board of Visitors and the Board of Trustees. In 1995, Prof. Harder was the recipient of Clemson’s Outstanding Faculty Woman Award given by the President’s Commission on the Status of Women. In 2002, she received the Thomas Green Clemson Award for Excellence in recognition of sustained and significant contributions to Clemson. In May of 2002, Prof. Harder received the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts, the highest award given in the state for artistic achievements. In 1986, Prof. Harder and her husband, Dr. Byron Harder, began an endowed chamber music series in memory of her parents for whom the series is named. The Lillian and Robert Utsey Chamber Music Series has the distinction of being the only endowed chamber music series in South Carolina as well as the only series which offers its concerts free of charge to audiences. Each season four concerts of young up-and coming artists are presented.In 2007, Clemson University received an Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts in recognition of outstanding contributions to the arts by the Utsey Chamber Music Series. In 2014, the Brooks Center stage was named the Lillian Utsey Harder Stage in her honor by family, friends, and patrons of the Brooks Center. In 2017, Prof. Harder was named an honorary alumnus of the Clemson Alumni Association, and in 2018, she was named to the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities Hall of Fame.
