“Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz says he is not going to appear at the Kennedy Center after its board voted to connect President Donald Trump’s name to the venue — turning into the newest artist to push again in opposition to the president’s takeover of Washington’s most iconic performing arts heart.
The Oscar and Grammy-award profitable composer stated in an announcement, “The Kennedy Center was founded to be an apolitical home for artists of all nationalities and all ideologies. It is no longer apolitical, and appearing there has become an ideological statement. As long as that remains the case, I will not appear there.”
The heart’s web site had listed Schwartz as showing in a gala with the Washington National Opera in May, and included a hyperlink to purchase tickets to the efficiency, however it was faraway from the web site Friday afternoon.
In spite of the web site itemizing the upcoming look by Schwartz, Richard Grenell, the president of the middle’s board, denied that he had ever been signed to appear.
“He was never signed and I’ve never had a single conversation on him since arriving,” Grenell stated in a put up on X, calling reviews of Schwartz’s cancelation “totally bogus.”
“He himself said last February he hadn’t heard anything on it,” Grenell stated.
A spokesman for Schwartz stated the composer and an individual related to the Washington National Opera had been in communication about his “possible participation” in a May gala, they usually had final spoken in February 2025.
“Having not heard anything further after that point, he assumed—incorrectly, as it turns out—that the event was no longer moving forward,” the spokesman, Michael Cole, stated in an e mail to NCS. Cole added that Schwartz had solely realized Thursday night time that the occasion was nonetheless scheduled.
The Kennedy Center opened in 1971, designated by Congress as a dwelling memorial to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Schwartz attended the middle’s opening.
But a stream of artists have canceled their appearances since Trump purged the middle’s present board and put in a slate of loyalists to supervise the middle final 12 months. Since then, the middle has reduce workers and reevaluated its programming.
More artists canceled after the brand new board voted final month to rename the middle the “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” prompting threats of authorized motion from the Kennedy Center in opposition to a few of these artists.
The transfer shortly raised authorized issues as as to if the board had the authorized authority to rename the humanities establishment. But it’s unclear whether or not anyone trying to problem the renaming would have authorized standing to take action, experts previously told NCS.