The Kennedy Center’s end-of-year slate has become the focus of another round of cancellations after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the facility, prompting more artists to say they are stepping away from planned appearances, according to The Associated Press.
The Cookers, a jazz supergroup that has performed together for nearly two decades, announced the group’s withdrawal from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” on its website. The Cookers said the decision “has come together very quickly” and acknowledged frustration from people who may have planned to attend, without referencing the building’s renaming or the Trump administration in its statement, the AP reported.
The AP also reported that Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York-based dance group, said in a late Monday Instagram post that it would pull out of a performance slated for April. The group said it “can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution.”
Those moves followed a cancellation announced earlier last week by musician Chuck Redd, who canceled a Christmas Eve performance at the Kennedy Center, the AP reported. Taken together, the latest withdrawals add to what performers and other stakeholders describe as a growing politicization of the venue’s programming as the year ends.
The Cookers’ statement did not cite the Trump name change directly, but it said that when the group returns to performing, it wants to ensure that “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.” The group reiterated a commitment “to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them,” according to the AP.
The AP report said the cancellations come as the Kennedy Center also faces declining ticket sales and weaker viewership for the Dec. 23 broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors. It reported that viewership was down by about 35% compared with the 2024 show, and noted that Trump had predicted the broadcast would soar.
The Kennedy Center’s current turmoil has built on earlier clashes, with the AP reporting a prior wave of pushback tied to leadership changes under Trump. That included performer Issa Rae and the producers of “Hamilton” canceling scheduled engagements, and musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming stepping down from advisory roles, according to the AP; MSI previously reported that cancellations followed leadership upheaval at the Kennedy Center amid political controversy in January.
Saxophonist Billy Harper, whose comments were posted on the Jazz Stage Facebook page on Saturday, said he “would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture.” He added, “The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing,” in the AP report, and said Harper also described the board and the name displayed on the building as reflecting “a mentality and practices I always stood against. And still do, today more than ever,” according to the AP.
In response, the AP reported that the White House said Trump’s handpicked board approved the renaming. Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after ousting prior leadership, posted on X that the artists canceling shows “were booked by the previous far left leadership,” suggesting the bookings were made under the Biden administration, the AP reported.
In a Tuesday statement to The Associated Press, Grenell said the “last minute cancellations prove that they were always unwilling to perform for everyone — even those they disagree with politically.” Grenell also said the Kennedy Center had been “flooded with inquiries from real artists willing to perform for everyone and who reject political statements in their artistry,” according to the AP.
There was no immediate word from Kennedy Center officials on whether the institution would pursue legal action against the latest performers, the AP reported. After Redd’s cancellation last week, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages for what he called a “political stunt,” the AP said.
Not all artists are stepping away. Bluegrass banjoist Randy Barrett, scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center next month, told the AP that he was “deeply troubled by the politicization” of the venue. Barrett said he respected those who had canceled, but added that “our tribalized country needs more music and art, not less,” describing it as “one of the few things that can bring us together.”
The AP report also said President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and that Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him. Scholars have said any changes to the building’s name would require congressional approval, and the law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior, according to the AP.