An acclaimed jazz group has canceled two New Year’s Eve concerts at the Kennedy Center, joining a growing list of artists who have scrapped plans to perform at the famed arts institution since President Donald Trump’s handpicked board of directors voted to add Trump’s name to the center.
The Cookers, a New York-based jazz group, announced Monday they would no longer participate in “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” at the Washington, D.C., venue on Dec. 31. The announcement came days after musician Chuck Redd’s decision to pull out of the Kennedy Center’s Christmas Eve “Jazz Jam,” a longtime holiday tradition that he has hosted for almost two decades.
Redd cited the addition of Trump’s name to the exterior of the center as the reason for his decision to pull out, which drew scathing condemnation and threats of legal action against Redd from Richard Grenell, whom Trump installed as the Kennedy Center’s president in February.
The Cookers did not specifically cite the name change as the reason for canceling their performance. But the group said in a statement on its website that “jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice,” adding that the members “understand how frustrating last‑minute changes can be.”
The Cookers and a spokesperson for the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.
The Kennedy Center was designated by Congress in 1964 to act as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy following his assassination. It became a focus for Trump early in his second term as he sought to implement a sweeping ideological overhaul of one of the nation’s defining cultural institutions.
In February, Trump gutted the center’s board of trustees; ousted its long-serving president, Deborah Rutter; and removed major donor and board chair David Rubenstein, who was appointed to the position by President Joe Biden in 2022. Trump then made himself board chairman following a vote by the loyalists he installed as trustees.
The board voted earlier this month to rename the center, adding the words “the Donald J. Trump” in front of “the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The next day, Trump’s name was etched into the institution’s white marble facade.
Members of the Kennedy family and Democratic lawmakers criticized the unprecedented change, arguing that it would take an act of Congress to permanently amend the name of the presidential memorial. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, was quick to file a lawsuit challenging the legality of the name change.
The dance company Doug Varone and Dancers also announced Monday that it had canceled two performances at the center for April 2026. The company said in a statement that it was an “honor” to have been invited to perform at the center, but “with the latest act of Donald J. Trump renaming the Center after himself, we can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution.”
Alabama folk singer-songwriter Kristy Lee announced last week that she would not perform at the center next month as planned, citing “concerns for institutional integrity.” Lee said in a post on social media, “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.” A cascade of artists canceled or postponed shows at the center earlier this year after Trump’s February takeover of the institution. Actress and comedian Issa Rae, opera singer Renée Fleming and musician Ben Folds were among them. In March, producers of the hit musical “Hamilton” canceled plans for a 2026 Kennedy Center season. “Political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy,” one of the musicals lead producers, Jeffrey Seller, said in a post on X at the time. “These basic concepts of freedom are at the very heart of ‘Hamilton.’ However, some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics. The Kennedy Center is one such institution.” Ticket sales at the center have plummeted since December of last year, according to an analysis by The Washington Post, which found sales for dance, orchestra and theater performances reached their lowest point since the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. Recommended
Grenell slammed the artists who pulled out of their holiday performances at the center, calling them “far left political activists” in a statement on Monday. “Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” Grenell said.
