UPDATE
Dec 26, 2025 4:55 PM CST
The president of the Kennedy Center responded with fierce criticism on Friday to the sudden cancellation of a Christmas Eve jazz performance. Richard Grenell also told Chuck Redd, the musician who called off the concert in opposition to adding President Trump's name to the center, that he plans to seek $1 million in damages "for this political stunt," the AP reports. "Your 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—is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution," Grenell wrote in a letter to Redd.
Dec 24, 2025 6:20 PM CST
The planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, has been canceled. The show's host, musician Chuck Redd, told the AP that he called off the performance after the White House announced last week that President Trump's name was being added to John F. Kennedy's on the institution. "When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert," Redd told the AP Wednesday. Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, has been presiding over the holiday "Jazz Jams" at the Kennedy Center since 2006.
The center's website now lists the show as canceled. The center fired Kevin Struthers, the official in charge of the center's jazz presentations, in September, per the Washington Post. The dance programming team also has been replaced and a new director installed who has criticized "radical leftist ideologies in ballet." Writing in JazzTimes in September, David R. Adler said it appears that only administration-approved jazz and dance will be welcome at the center under its new management. His editor's note can be found here. Other performances have been canceled since Trump exerted control of the venue, and a singer-songwriter has added her show scheduled for Jan. 14 to that list, also because of the name change, per AL.com.
"When American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody else's ego, I can't stand on that stage and sleep right at night," Kristy Lee posted. "America didn't get built by branding. It got built by people showing up and doing the work." A center spokesperson countered that the new name doesn't mean a change in values. "The Trump Kennedy Center is a true bipartisan institution that welcomes artists and patrons from all backgrounds—great art transcends politics, and America's cultural center remains committed to presenting popular programming that inspires and resonates with all audiences," said Roma Daravi.
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