Evil composer latest to cancel Kennedy Center concert after Trump name change

The composer of the musical Wicked said he would not perform at the Kennedy Center after its board of directors voted to include US President Donald Trump’s name in the venue’s name.

Stephen Schwartz said in a statement that appearing at the center “has now become an ideological statement,” adding: “As long as that remains the case, I will not appear there.”

But Richard Grenell, the center’s president, written the that reports that he had pulled out of a gala in May were “totally false” and that he had never been signed to attend.

The Academy Award and Grammy Award-winning composer is the latest artist to say he will no longer perform at the national cultural institution due to recent changes.

Schwartz told the BBC that in late 2024, the artistic director of Washington National Opera asked him to participate with them in the May event.

He said he agreed, but had received little communication since last February and assumed it would no longer happen.

The composer explained that he was contacted Thursday by a journalist telling him that the gala was announced on the Kennedy Center program and asking him if he would participate.

He had been listed on the center’s website as appearing at the gala, but that was removed from the website Friday afternoon, according to CNN.

“The Kennedy Center was founded to be an apolitical home for free artistic expression by artists of all nationalities and ideologies,” Schwartz, 77, said.

“It is no longer apolitical and appearing there has now become an ideological statement. As long as that remains the case, I will not appear there.”

But Mr Grennell replied: “Stephen Schwartz’s reports are completely false. Shame on the woke high school journalists who repeat them.

“He was never signed and I’ve never had a single conversation about him since he arrived.

“He himself said last February that he had heard nothing about it.”

Two musical acts canceled their appearances at the center at the start of the week.

The Cookers, a veteran jazz group, announced it had canceled two New Year’s Eve shows. The group did not mention Trump or the Kennedy Center in a statement, but said the decision was “made very quickly.”

Another group, Doug Varone and Dancers, said it would not perform two shows in April due to the name change, adding, “We can no longer afford or ask our audiences to enter this once great institution.”

Mr. Grenell called the cancellations “a form of inconvenience syndrome.”

Before them, jazz percussionist Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve concert he had organized every year since 2006 at the center because of the name change.

Mr Grenell called it a “political stunt” and threatened to demand $1 million (£740,000) in damages.

The Kennedy Center board, which Trump filled with allies, voted in December to rename the institution the Donald J Trump and John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. New signage appeared outside the building the next day.

Some U.S. lawmakers and legal scholars have argued that because the center was named in a 1964 law, Congress should have a say in any name change.

Some members of President John F. Kennedy’s family denounced the decision. The center was named in Kennedy’s memory shortly after his assassination.

Joe Kennedy III, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and great-nephew of the late president, said the venue was “a living memorial to a fallen president and named in his honor by federal law.”

“No sooner can we rename it than anyone can rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says,” he added.