Béla Fleck cancels Kennedy Center appearance, says it’s become ‘charged and political’

The noted banjo player Béla Fleck has canceled three performances scheduled for next month with the National Symphony Orchestra, or NSO, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Fleck, who has won 18 Grammy Awards and often performs with symphonies around the country, is the latest artist to cancel engagements at the Kennedy Center amidst many administrative and curatorial changes at the Washington, D.C. arts complex.

In a post published to social media Tuesday evening, Fleck wrote: “I have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center. Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music. I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art.”

The National Symphony Orchestra did not respond to requests for a response to Fleck’s decision to cancel. Tuesday evening, however, the center’s president, Richard Grenell, wrote on X: “You just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties. This mob pressuring you will never be happy until you only play for Democrats. The Trump Kennedy Center believes all people are welcome — Democrats and Republicans and people uninterested in politics. We want performers who aren’t political — who simply love entertaining everyone regardless of who they voted for.”

The Kennedy Center referred NPR to Grenell’s post on X and to a handful of replies on X made by individuals cheering on Grenell’s message.

In a statement emailed to NPR Wednesday morning, Fleck responded to Grenell, writing: “I didn’t make it political, it already was— and there was no mob pressuring me. Music should be about expression, creativity and inclusivity. This current dialogue doesn’t seem to be about any of those things.”

In February 2025, Trump fired the center’s former president, Deborah Rutter, ousted David Rubenstein, the center’s previous board chair, along with board members appointed by President Joe Biden, and appointed a new board slate that includes second lady Usha Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Fox News host Laura Ingraham. That board then named Trump chair of the Kennedy Center. Last month, the board voted to add President Trump’s name to the institution, although it has yet to be officially renamed by Congress. Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, who is an ex officio board member of the center, has filed a lawsuit challenging the renaming.

A line of cancellations

Fleck is the latest in a line of performers who have canceled engagements to perform at the Kennedy Center amidst the tumult. On Jan. 2, the celebrated musical theater composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, whose shows include Wicked, Pippin and Godspell, said he was withdrawing from plans to host a gala fundraiser in May for the Washington National Opera, which like the National Symphony Orchestra has its home at the Kennedy Center.

Last month, the jazz drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd canceled his annual Christmas Eve show at the Kennedy Center; in response, the Kennedy Center announced it would file a $1 million lawsuit against Redd. Days later, the jazz septet The Cookers similarly withdrew from their New Year’s Eve Kennedy Center show, as did the dance ensemble Doug Varone and Dancers, who had been slated to perform there in April.

Almost a year ago, after Trump announced his plans to oversee the Kennedy Center, there was a spate of other cancellations, including planned performances of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton; a show by Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning musician and composer Rhiannon Giddens; and an appearance by the actor Issa Rae, who is co-creator and a writer for the television series Insecure.

This story was edited for digital by Jennifer Vanasco.