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Photo Credit: Julianne G. Macie \/ CC by 3.0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
B\u00e9la Fleck, celebrated banjo player and 18-time Grammy Award winner, announced on Tuesday the cancellation of three concerts at the Kennedy Center. The move makes Fleck the latest artist to bow out of playing at the venue<\/a> since the many changes enacted by President Trump since late last year. Fleck was scheduled to play with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in February.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has become less and less a musically and artistically based situation and more of a highly politicized and divisive one,\u201d Fleck told<\/a> The New York Times<\/em>. \u201cThis pushes against the deepest motivations of why I want to be a musician.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI also am cognizant that not performing punishes the symphony for something they have nothing to do with, which is why it has taken me a while to decide what to do here,\u201d Fleck explained.<\/p>\n He also added in a social media post<\/a> that performing at the Kennedy Center had \u201cbecome charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music.\u201d<\/p>\n When The New York Times<\/em> asked the Kennedy Center for comment, they were directed to a social media post by Richard Grenell, interim president of the performing arts center appointed by Trump in February last year. Grenell has also threatened to sue jazz musician Chuck Redd<\/a> for $1 million+ after he cancelled his scheduled performance.<\/p>\n\u201cYou just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties,\u201d wrote Grenell in response to Fleck\u2019s post announcing the cancellation of his shows. \u201cWe want performers who aren\u2019t political\u2014who simply love entertaining everyone regardless of who they voted for.\u201d<\/h4>\n