Béla Fleck withdraws from Kennedy Center show

Béla Fleck has become the latest musician to step away from a scheduled appearance at the Kennedy Center following Donald Trump’s contentious takeover of the institution. The Grammy winning banjoist had been set to perform with the National Symphony Orchestra in February, but confirmed on Tuesday night that he has decided to cancel the engagement.

“I have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at the Kennedy Center,” Fleck wrote on social media. “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.”

Fleck’s decision follows closely behind a similar move by Stephen Schwartz, the Oscar winning composer known for Wicked and other major stage productions, who recently backed out of his own planned appearance at the Kennedy Center in response to Trump’s actions involving the venue.

Schwartz had been scheduled to host the Washington National Opera Gala on May 16, but said in an email to Newsday that the center “no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be.” He added, “There’s no way I would set foot in it now.”

Over the past year, a growing number of performers have pulled out of events at the Kennedy Center. The first wave of cancellations came after Trump’s early 2025 efforts to dismantle the board, replace members with loyalists, and install himself as chairman. Toward the end of last year, another round of artists withdrew after Trump’s board voted unanimously to rename the venue the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

Among the cancellations tied to the name change were the Kennedy Center’s annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam, along with performances by the New York Dance Company, the Cookers, jazz musician Wayne Tucker, and folk singer Kristy Lee. Chuck Redd, who has led the Christmas Eve Jazz Jam since 2006, said in a statement, “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert.”

Lin Manuel Miranda also called off a planned revival of Hamilton that had been slated for spring 2026. “This latest action by Trump means it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it,” Miranda said. “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.”