Kennedy Center leader rebukes musician who canceled Christmas concert
Ticket sakes for shows at the venue have declined steeply since President Donald Trump took over as its chairperson.
Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell has sent a scathing letter criticizing a musician’s decision to abruptly pull out of a scheduled annual holiday performance at the institution and threatening him with legal action.
Drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd is the longtime host of the center’s Christmas Eve Jazz Jam, which was canceled this year shortly after the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that it was renaming the storied arts institution after President Donald Trump.
“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 said in his letter to Redd, a copy of which the center shared Friday with the Washington Post.
He added, “This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.”
Redd did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Friday. He told the Associated Press on Wednesday that upon seeing the name change, he had decided to call off the concert, which he described as a “very popular holiday tradition” that it was “very sad to have had to cancel.”
Grenell, a Trump ally, was appointed to lead the Kennedy Center in February, the same month the president fired the majority of its board and became its chairperson. Grenell formerly served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany and as acting director of national intelligence during the first Trump administration. Under President George W. Bush, he was also a State Department spokesperson to the United Nations.
His letter to Redd, which is undated, was first reported by the Associated Press.
In it, he said Redd’s decision “surrenders to the sad bullying tactics employed by certain elements on the left, who have sought to intimidate artists into boycotting performances at our national cultural center.”
Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, added in an emailed statement to the Post: “Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn’t courageous or principled — they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people.”
The Kennedy Center, which is visited by approximately 2 million people a year, is a public-private institution that was founded to be the nation’s cultural center and was designated in 1964 as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy following his assassination.
Its board of trustees voted last week to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” but the move was swiftly challenged by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D., Ohio), who filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that an act of Congress was required to officially change its name.
Some members of the Kennedy family including Maria Shriver, a niece of John F. Kennedy, and Joe Kennedy, a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, expressed disbelief and dismay over the vote.
The Kennedy Center has experienced a steep decline in ticket sales since Trump’s takeover of the institution compared with the same period last year, the Post reported. Sales for orchestra, theater, and dance performances are the worst they have been since the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Post analysis.
In the weeks after the February board changes, at least 20 productions were canceled or postponed, with names such as comedian and actor Issa Rae pulling out of planned performances at the center, and musical artist Ben Folds and opera singer Renée Fleming announcing they were stepping down as artistic advisers.