• The Cookers cancel New Year’s Eve shows, Doug Varone and Dancers pull April performances
• Four acts have withdrawn from Kennedy Center since Trump’s name added to building December 19
• Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell threatens $1 million lawsuit against Christmas Eve cancellation

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TDR) — Artist cancellations at the Kennedy Center are mounting following the venue’s controversial renaming to include President Donald Trump‘s name. Jazz ensemble The Cookers scrapped two New Year’s Eve performances, while New York dance company Doug Varone and Dancers canceled April shows, marking the latest withdrawals from the storied institution.

The board of trustees voted earlier this month to rename the center “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Art,” marking Trump’s latest effort to leave his mark on the Washington arts institution. The center updated its website with the new name hours later and installed signage adding Trump’s name to the building’s facade the next day.

New Year’s Eve Jazz Shows Canceled

The Cookers, scheduled to perform twice Wednesday as part of “A Jazz New Year’s Eve,” backed out of the gig days before the performances. “With deep regret, we must share that we are unable to perform as planned on New Year’s Eve,” the group said in a statement Monday.

“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us,” the jazz ensemble stated.

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While the group did not explicitly cite the name change, drummer Billy Hart told The New York Times that the center’s decision to add Trump’s name “evidently” played a role in the cancellation. Hart noted concerns about potential retaliation.

The Kennedy Center had promoted the performances as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.” The cancellations leave the venue with gaps in programming for the holiday.

Dance Company Pulls April Performances

Doug Varone and Dancers, a decades-old New York dance troupe, announced Monday they were canceling two performances scheduled for April 24-25 at the Eisenhower Theater. The shows were intended to celebrate the company’s 40th anniversary and honor two departing dance administrators.

“It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating,” Doug Varone told The New York Times, adding his company would lose $40,000 by withdrawing.

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The dance company said they initially agreed to appear to honor Jane Raleigh and Alicia Adams, top dance administrators who have since left the Kennedy Center. Both departed following Trump’s takeover of the institution in February.

“While we totally disagreed with the takeover by the Trump Administration at the Kennedy Center, we still believed it was important to honor our engagement out of respect for both Jane Raleigh and Alicia Adams, who curated a first-rate dance season, as well as for the dance audiences in DC,” the group wrote on Instagram. “However, 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.”

Grenell Threatens Lawsuit, Dismisses Critics

Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell, a Trump appointee, dismissed the cancellations as “a form of derangement syndrome” in a post to X Monday night.

“The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership. Their actions prove that the previous team was more concerned about booking far left political activists rather than artists willing to perform for everyone regardless of their political beliefs,” Grenell said in a statement. “Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome.”

The center threatened aggressive legal action against jazz musician Chuck Redd, who canceled his annual Christmas Eve concert after seeing the name change. Grenell sent a letter Friday calling Redd’s decision a “political stunt” and alleging Jazz Jams have faced “dismal ticket sales.”

“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 wrote to Redd.

The Kennedy Center plans to seek $1 million in damages from Redd, who has hosted the holiday Jazz Jams since 2006. Redd told the Associated Press he chose to cancel after seeing the name change on the website and building.

Folk Singer Cites Integrity Over Paycheck

Folk singer-songwriter Kristy Lee, slated to perform January 14, also canceled her show due to the name change.

“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,” Lee said last week in a social media post. “I won’t lie to you, canceling shows hurts, but losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck.”

The Alabama folk singer said she believes publicly funded spaces must remain free from political capture, self-promotion or ideological pressure.

Legal Questions Surround Name Change

The name change has raised legal concerns about whether the board has authority to rename the arts institution. Congress designated the center in 1964 as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy following his assassination. The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from adding any additional memorials to the site.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio trustee of the board, sued Trump in federal court last week to challenge the name change, calling it a “flagrant violation of the rule of law.” Kennedy family members have also condemned the decision.

Earlier Cancellations Follow Trump Takeover

Before the renaming, Trump’s aggressive push to reshape the Kennedy Center had already prompted artists to back away from the venue. After Trump’s handpicked board elected him chair in February, at least 26 performances were canceled earlier this year, including 15 by scheduled acts themselves.

Artists including Issa Rae, Renée Fleming, Shonda Rhimes and Ben Folds resigned from leadership roles or canceled events at the space. Jeffrey Seller, producer of hit musical Hamilton, canceled the show’s planned 2026 run. Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning folk musician Rhiannon Giddens moved her concert to a different venue in the city.

Former Kennedy Center dance director Jane Raleigh told The Athletic that ticket sales had fallen and subscription rates were “down about 50 percent over where they should have been.”

Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi said in a statement that any artist canceling shows 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.”

Will the growing wave of artist cancellations force the Kennedy Center to reconsider Trump’s name addition, or will legal challenges determine the memorial’s future identity?

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