New Year's Eve Concerts at Kennedy Center Are Canceled [View all]
Source: nytimes.com
The jazz drummer Billy Hart said the decision was “evidently” connected to President Trump’s name being added to the arts center.
By Adam Nagourney and Neil Vigdor Dec. 29, 2025Updated 7:52 p.m. ET
A veteran jazz ensemble and a New York dance company have canceled events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, intensifying the fallout at one of the nation’s pre-eminent arts centers after it was renamed to include President Trump.
The center had previously promoted two New Year’s Eve performances by the Cookers as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.” But those performances, like an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert hosted by Chuck Redd, are now canceled.
The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a statement on Monday that said, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.”
But the band’s drummer, Billy Hart, told The New York Times that the center’s name change had “evidently” played a role. He acknowledged that the group was concerned about possible reprisals.
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New Year’s Eve Concerts at Kennedy Center Are Canceled
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A bas-relief outside of a building that has the words “Donald Trump” visible between thin columns.
The head of Doug Varone and Dancers called the decision to cancel two performances at the Kennedy Center “financially devastating but morally exhilarating.”Credit...Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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