Kennedy Center president threatens lawsuit after musician cancels Christmas concert

Kennedy Center president threatens lawsuit after musician backs out of holiday show

The president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts criticized musician Chuck Redd on Friday for canceling a Christmas Eve performance at the venue, days after the White House announced President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the center. Richard Grenell, who leads the center, said he would pursue legal damages following Redd’s last-minute decision, according to a letter shared with The Associated Press. Redd, a longtime fixture of the Kennedy Center’s holiday “Jazz Jams,” said he pulled out after seeing the renaming on the Kennedy Center’s website and then on the building itself.

Grenell’s letter to Redd took issue with what the center described as the timing and stated rationale for the withdrawal. In the letter, Grenell wrote that Redd’s decision to withdraw at the last moment—“explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure”—was “classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” the Associated Press reported. Grenell also said he would seek $1 million in damages “for this political stunt,” the report said.

Redd did not immediately respond to a request for comment after Grenell’s letter became public, the Associated Press said. But in an email sent Wednesday to The Associated Press, Redd said he canceled the concert in the wake of the renaming.

Redd said he made the decision after observing the changes tied to Trump’s name. “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” he said in the email. Redd added that the event had been a “very popular holiday tradition” and that he often featured at least one student musician, according to the Associated Press report.

A separate statement from Redd characterized the cancellation as difficult for him despite his objections. “One of the many reasons that it was very sad to have had to cancel,” he told The Associated Press.

The Kennedy Center’s renaming dispute has run alongside questions about governance of the institution and the legal status of its memorial purpose. The Associated Press reported that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and that Congress passed a law the following year naming the Kennedy Center as a living memorial to him. The report said the law bars the center’s board of trustees from changing that purpose by making the institution a memorial to anyone else.

The Associated Press also said the law prohibits putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior. In the reporting, the White House said the board approved the renaming, a step scholars have said violates the law. The report further said Kennedy niece Kerry Kennedy has vowed to remove Trump’s name from the building once he leaves office, and former House historian Ray Smock is among those who say any changes would have to be approved by Congress.

Within the Kennedy Center’s internal leadership, Grenell is described as a Trump ally who was chosen to head the institution after the previous leadership was forced out, according to the Associated Press. The episode involving Redd’s canceled holiday show underscores how quickly the renaming fight has moved into decisions affecting artists scheduled to perform at a major Washington venue.