The Cookers, a jazz supergroup that has performed together for nearly two decades, said they are canceling their scheduled “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” appearance at the Kennedy Center, with the group describing a rapidly formed decision and acknowledging frustration for people who had planned to attend. The announcement came on the group’s website amid a renewed wave of artist withdrawals tied to the Kennedy Center’s renaming and the politics surrounding its leadership.
Doug Varone and Dancers, a dance group based in New York, said in a late Monday Instagram post that it would pull out of a performance slated for April. In the post, the group said it could no longer permit itself—or ask its audiences—to step inside what it described as “this once great institution.”
The new cancellations follow earlier withdrawals, including musician Chuck Redd canceling a Christmas Eve performance last week. The Kennedy Center’s programming has also faced broader attention as ticket sales for the venue have declined and as viewership for the Dec. 23 Kennedy Center Honors broadcast fell by about 35% compared with the previous year’s show, according to the Associated Press.
The latest artist statements arrive after a year of tension over the Kennedy Center’s governance and leadership. President Donald Trump ousted the Kennedy Center board earlier in the year and named himself the institution’s chairman, a move that prompted an initial round of pushback from artists, including performer Issa Rae and the producers of “Hamilton,” who canceled scheduled engagements, and musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming, who stepped down from advisory roles.
The Cookers said they did not mention the building’s renaming or the Trump administration, but they said their focus when they return to performing would be ensuring “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.” The group reiterated its commitment “to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them,” a message aimed at art rather than institutional politics.
Some artists tied their objections directly to the Kennedy Center’s name and the group controlling it. On Saturday, saxophone player Billy Harper said in comments posted on the Jazz Stage Facebook page that 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.” Harper said the same music he devoted his life to creating and advancing is at stake, and he added that the board and the displayed name represent a mentality and practices he said he has stood against.
Harper’s remarks referenced what he said was documented authorization for the change. According to the White House, Trump’s handpicked board approved the renaming, and Harper said both the board and the name on the building represented a mentality and practices he said he always stood against.
On the other side of the dispute, Richard Grenell—an ally of Trump whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after he forced out the previous leadership—posted on X Monday night that the artists canceling shows were booked by the previous “far left leadership,” suggesting bookings were made under the Biden administration. In a statement Tuesday 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,” adding that the Kennedy Center had been “flooded with inquiries from real artists willing to perform for everyone and who reject political statements in their artistry.”
There was no immediate statement from Kennedy Center officials about whether the institution would pursue legal action against additional artists. After Redd canceled last week, Grenell told the Associated Press he would seek $1 million in damages, calling the cancellations a “political stunt.”
Not all performers are opting out. Bluegrass banjoist Randy Barrett, scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center next month, told the Associated Press he was “deeply troubled by the politicization” of the venue, and said he respected those who canceled. Barrett also said that, in his view, “our tribalized country needs more music and art, not less,” adding that he sees art and music as part of what can bring people together.
The controversy sits in a legal framework that dates to the Kennedy Center’s founding era. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to Kennedy. Scholars have said changes to the building’s name would need congressional approval, and the law bars the board of trustees from turning the center into a memorial to anyone else or putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.