The center provides audiences with performances and programs in orchestral, chamber, and jazz music, and in theater, dance, and opera.

The building's heat and air-conditing systems are entirely powered by geothermal sources, enabling the Fisher Center to be fossil fuel free during standard operations.

[1] The total cost of the project reached $62 million and took three years to complete, opening in April 2003.

The New Yorker calls it "[possibly] the best small concert hall in the United States.

The Performing Arts Center is primarily devoted to teaching and college events during the academic year and used as a public performing-arts facility and venue for the college's graduate programs in the arts during the summer months.