Musicians Who’ve Canceled Kennedy Center Appearances to Protest Donald Trump’s Takeover
Written by admin on January 29, 2026
After appointing himself chairman, the president added his name to the historic venue’s title.
Donald Trump and Melania Trump attend the 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors at the Kennedy Center on Dec. 7, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Allison Robbert/Getty Images
Since Donald Trump resumed presidential power in January 2025, one American institution in particular has seen a great many changes under his rule: The Kennedy Center.
After becoming the only POTUS to ever skip the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony multiple times during his first White House term (2016-2020) — and the first to ever do so without urgent international travel or crisis necessitating it — Trump has taken a special interest in the historic venue in his second term. Shortly after his second inauguration, he got to work overhauling the center’s board, firing many of the members and replacing them with his own Republican picks. The billionaire businessman also appointed himself as its new chairman, making him the first president to assume the role.
Under Trump’s direction, the Kennedy Center experienced a number of programming changes. Notably, one of the first things the new board did was cancel a scheduled Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington concert in February 2025.
But the twice-impeached politician wasn’t done embedding himself in the organization just yet. In December 2025, the Trump administration claimed that the board had “unanimously” voted to change the name of the institution to “The Trump-Kennedy Center,” with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt writing on X that it was due to the “unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building.”
Trump told reporters shortly afterward, “This was brought up by one of the very distinguished board members, and they voted on it … I was very honored.”
The Kennedy Center was founded in 1971 to both memorialize President John F. Kennedy and serve as a dynamic hub for fine arts and culture — both of which, many creatives would argue, are inherently political. And in response to the polarizing president’s actions, many artists have pulled out of planned performances at the venue in Washington, D.C. — including renowned instrumentalists, composers and even Broadway stars — to protest Trump’s controversial politics.
As people continue expressing their opposition to the president’s Kennedy Center leadership with each new administrative development, Billboard is keeping track of it all. See a list of musicians who have canceled appearances at the institution below.
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Béla Fleck
“I have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center,” Fleck, a 19-time Grammy-winning banjoist and bandleader, announced on social media in January 2026. “Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music. I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art.”
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‘Hamilton’ Cast
The cast of Hamilton had been scheduled to perform the show at the Kennedy Center for the venue’s Declaration of Independence 250th-anniversary celebrations, but pulled out in March 2025. “It’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it,” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said at the time. “The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. We’re just not going to be part of it.”
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Philip Glass
In January 2026, Glass canceled what would have been the premiere of his Symphony No. 15: “Lincoln,” which the National Symphony Orchestra had been scheduled to debut at the Kennedy Center in June.
“Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony,” the acclaimed composer told The Washington Post at the time. “Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership.”
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Rhiannon Giddens
In February 2025, Giddens announced that she’d be moving her May concert at the Kennedy Center to a different venue nearby, writing on social media, “I cannot in good conscience play at The Kennedy Center with the change in programming direction forced on the institution by this new board.”
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Stephen Schwartz
Announcing that he would no longer be hosting the Washington National Opera Gala at the Kennedy Center that May, Schwartz told Newsday in January 2026 that the venue “no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be,” adding: “There’s no way I would set foot in it now.”
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The Cookers
Jazz supergroup The Cookers pulled out of a scheduled performance at the Kennedy Center in December 2025 — shortly after Trump’s name was added to the venue’s title — and stated that they’d wait until “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it” to play there.
