Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell sharply criticized jazz musician Chuck Redd for canceling a long-running Christmas Eve concert following the decision to add President Donald Trump’s name to the Washington, DC, arts institution.
In a letter shared with CNN, Grenell accused Redd of withdrawing at the last minute in protest of the renaming and praised Trump’s leadership as chairman of the center. Trump assumed the role earlier in his second term after a board appointed by the president voted to remove his predecessor.
“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 on letterhead bearing the new “Trump Kennedy Center” logo.
The Associated Press first reported on the letter.
Redd told CNN on Wednesday that he canceled the annual holiday jazz performance—an event he has hosted for nearly two decades—after learning of the board’s decision to rename the building.
“I’ve been performing at the Kennedy Center since the beginning of my career and I was saddened to see this name change,” Redd said.
In his letter, Grenell characterized the cancellation as a “political stunt” and said the center would seek $1 million in damages related to the financial fallout.
Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, echoed Grenell’s criticism, arguing that Redd failed to uphold what she described as a core responsibility of public artists.
“Art is a shared cultural experience meant to unite, not exclude,” Daravi said in a statement to CNN. “The Trump Kennedy Center is a true bipartisan institution that welcomes artists and patrons from all backgrounds—great art transcends politics, and America’s cultural center remains committed to presenting popular programming that inspires and resonates with all audiences.”
The cancellation of the free “Jazz Jam” concert followed a vote by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ board of trustees last week to rename the cultural institution in honor of both the late Democratic president and Trump.
In the hours after the vote, the center updated its website and installed new signage on the building’s facade displaying Trump’s name.
The move sparked immediate backlash from members of the Kennedy family, lawmakers, and longtime patrons. A Democratic member of Congress filed a lawsuit challenging whether the board has the authority to rename the institution, which Congress designated in 1964 as a memorial to the 35th president.
Even before the renaming, Trump’s restructuring of the center had raised concerns about declining revenue as artists and audiences moved to other venues. High-profile figures including Issa Rae, Renée Fleming, Shonda Rhimes, and Ben Folds resigned from leadership roles or canceled appearances, while Jeffrey Seller, producer of the musical “Hamilton,” scrapped the show’s planned run earlier this year.
Ticket sales have also lagged during the current holiday season. “The Nutcracker,” traditionally one of the Kennedy Center’s strongest draws, sold roughly 10,000 seats across seven performances this year, compared with about 15,000 seats per season from 2021 through 2024, according to internal sales data reviewed by CNN.
The data also show the center distributed roughly five times more complimentary tickets than in recent years and fell about $500,000 short of its $1.5 million revenue target for this year’s production.
