{"id":474671,"date":"2025-12-27T09:20:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T09:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/474671\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T09:20:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T09:20:25","slug":"kennedy-center-president-rebukes-performer-who-called-off-christmas-eve-show-over-addition-of-trumps-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/474671\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Center president rebukes performer who called off Christmas Eve show over addition of Trump\u2019s name"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell lambasted a performer\u2019s decision to cancel<\/a> an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert, following the addition of President Donald Trump\u2019s name to the Washington, DC, arts venue.<\/p>\n

In a letter, which the Kennedy Center shared a copy of with CNN, Grenell sharply criticizes jazz artist Chuck Redd\u2019s actions and praises Trump for his leadership as the center\u2019s chairman \u2014 a role the president\u2019s handpicked board elected him to <\/a>early in his second term after he ousted his predecessor.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour decision to withdraw at the last moment\u2014explicitly in response to the Center\u2019s recent renaming, which honors President Trump\u2019s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure\u2014is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,\u201d Grenell, a longtime Trump confidant, wrote to Redd on letterhead bearing the new \u201cTrump Kennedy Center\u201d logo.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/a> first reported on the letter.<\/p>\n

Redd told CNN on Wednesday that he canceled the holiday jazz concert, which he has hosted for nearly two decades, after seeing the board\u2019s move to rename the building last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been performing at the Kennedy Center since the beginning of my career and I was saddened to see this name change,\u201d Redd said.<\/p>\n

Grenell goes on to fault Redd for financial fallout relating to what he called a \u201cpolitical stunt\u201d and said the center will seek $1 million in damages.<\/p>\n

CNN has reached out to Redd for comment on the letter.<\/p>\n

Roma Daravi, vice president of public relations at the Kennedy Center, echoed Grenell\u2019s sentiment, arguing that Redd \u201cfailed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cArt is a shared cultural experience meant to unite, not exclude,\u201d Daravi said in a statement to CNN. \u201cThe Trump Kennedy Center is a true bipartisan institution that welcomes artists and patrons from all backgrounds\u2014great art transcends politics, and America\u2019s cultural center remains committed to presenting popular programming that inspires and resonates with all audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cancelation of the free \u201cJazz Jam\u201d show<\/a> followed a vote by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts\u2019s board of trustees to rename the cultural institution for both the Democratic former president and Trump last week.<\/p>\n

In the hours after the vote, the center updated its website and the following day installed new signage to the facade of the building bearing Trump\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

The move quickly sparked outrage from Kennedy family, lawmakers and patrons of the historic center, including a lawsuit<\/a> from one Democratic congresswoman challenging whether the board has the authority to rename the facility, which Congress designated in 1964 as a memorial to the 35th president.<\/p>\n

Prior to the renaming, Trump\u2019s overhaul of the center <\/a>was already raising concerns about lost revenue as both artists and audiences flee for other venues. Artists<\/a> including Issa Rae, Ren\u00e9e Fleming, Shonda Rhimes and Ben Folds resigned from their leadership roles or canceled events at the space. And Jeffrey Seller, producer of the hit musical \u201cHamilton,\u201d canceled<\/a> the show\u2019s planned run earlier this year.<\/p>\n

This holiday season, lagging ticket sales have also impacted \u201cThe Nutcracker,\u201d historically one of the center\u2019s most popular events. Approximately 10,000 seats were sold for this year\u2019s production across seven performances, compared with around 15,000 seats each in the 2021 through 2024 performances, according to internal sales data reviewed by CNN.<\/p>\n

The Kennedy Center comped approximately five times more tickets for the performances this year than in the past four years, the data showed. And this year\u2019s show has fallen about half a million dollars short of its $1.5 million budgeted revenue goal.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated with additional details. <\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell lambasted a performer\u2019s decision to cancel an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert, following…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":474672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[213462,69,51,31760,84930,50,19917,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-474671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-chuck-redd","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-kennedy-center","12":"tag-kennedy-center-honors","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-richard-grenell","15":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115790795650269840","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}