World-renowned composer Philip Glass is the latest artist to pull out of his scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center after the board of the storied venue voted to rename it after President Donald Trump.
Glass was scheduled to premiere his new symphony, “Lincoln,” in June.
“After thoughtful consideration, I have decided to withdraw my Symphony No. 15 ‘Lincoln’ from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” Glass posted to X on Tuesday.
“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,” he continued. “Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership.”
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In the first months of his second term as president, Trump fired and replaced many of the board’s members, appointing allies to the board and installing himself as its chairman. In mid-December, the arts center’s board of trustees voted to rename the venue the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” triggering a wave of artist cancellations.
In the weeks since the renaming, the number of artists canceling their performances has grown to nearly a dozen, including Grammy-award-winning bluegrass performer Béla Fleck.
Earlier this month, the National Opera Center announced it would no longer hold its residency at the Kennedy Center, but cited financial constraints rather than politics as the reason.
The composer of the musical “Wicked,” Stephen Schwartz, said in his decision to cancel early this month that appearing at the Kennedy Center under Trump’s leadership “has now become an ideological statement. … As long as that remains the case, I will not appear there.”
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