{"id":2253182,"date":"2026-01-27T18:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2253182"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:33:14","slug":"philip-glass-cancels-kennedy-center-premiere-of-lincoln-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/philip-glass-cancels-kennedy-center-premiere-of-lincoln-symphony\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Glass cancels Kennedy Center premiere of ‘Lincoln’ symphony"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

World-renowned composer Philip Glass abruptly canceled June\u2019s world premiere of Symphony No. 15 \u201cLincoln\u201d at the Kennedy Center, saying its message does not align with the vision for the venue under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cSymphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony. Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership,\u201d Glass wrote Tuesday in a letter to the board that was shared with The Times.<\/p>\n

The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond for a request for comment.<\/p>\n

President Trump has served as board chair since early last year when he fired the existing board <\/a>and appointed former ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as president. The newly installed board promptly put Trump in his current position. The president\u2019s pursuit of a deeply conservative agenda for the arts unleashed unprecedented chaos at the nation\u2019s premiere performing arts center, resulting in massive upheaval and wave after wave of prominent artist cancellations.<\/p>\n

The news that Glass was canceling his appearance also caught the National Symphony Orchestra off guard. The NSO commissioned the symphony in 2022 for the Kennedy Center\u2019s 50th anniversary, and Glass was late to deliver. The symphony was, however, scheduled to be performed with the NSO on June 12 and 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have great admiration for Philip Glass and were surprised to learn about his decision at the same time as the press,\u201d Jean Davidson, the orchestra\u2019s executive director, said in an email.<\/p>\n

The news comes amid a growing wave of high-profile cancellations that have occurred since the center\u2019s board voted last month to rename the performing arts venue Trump-Kennedy Center,<\/a> and quickly added the president\u2019s name above that of Kennedy\u2019s on the exterior of the building.<\/p>\n

Jazz drummer Chuck Redd pulled out of a Christmas Eve show and the jazz group the Cookers canceled two New Year\u2019s Eve performances. Banjo player B\u00e9la Fleck also stepped away from concerts with the NSO and \u201cWicked\u201d composer Stephen Schwartz said he no longer planned to host a May 15 gala at the center. <\/p>\n

The arts world was rocked by the news earlier this month that the Washington National Opera\u2019s board approved a resolution<\/a> to leave the venue it has occupied since 1971. Kennedy Center leadership, including Grenell, quickly shot back that it was the board that asked the WNO to depart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have spent millions of dollars to support the Washington Opera\u2019s exclusivity and yet they were still millions of dollars in the hole \u2014 and getting worse,\u201d Grenell wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

Most recently, the center\u2019s website announced that soprano Ren\u00e9e Fleming would no longer perform in two scheduled shows. The reason cited was, \u201ca scheduling conflict,\u201d but speculation about the opera star\u2019s departure swirled as the center\u2019s artistic losses mounted amid what has been widely reported as plummeting ticket sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During the recent upheaval, arts watchers have begun wondering about the future of the NSO, which along with the recently departed WNO, represents the twin pillars of artistic programming at the center. <\/p>\n

According to Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi, the NSO isn\u2019t pulling out of the venue. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe relationship is strong, and we have a wonderful season here with Maestro [Gianandrea Noseda] in his 10th year leading the NSO,\u201d Daravi wrote in an email, noting the \u201crecord-breaking success at the recent Gala benefiting the NSO which launched the new season. The event raised $3.45 million, marking an all-time fundraising record for the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday Trump sought to boost his financial management of the venue in a Truth Social post that read, \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize that the Trump Kennedy Center suffered massive deficits for many years and, like everything else, I merely came in to save it, and, if possible, make it far better that ever before!\u201d<\/p>\n

The center\u2019s calendar is looking increasingly sclerotic as big names continue to defect, with the NSO providing much-needed padding as it moves on in the face of unending change.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jan. 27, 2026 10:30 AM PT World-renowned composer Philip Glass abruptly canceled June\u2019s world premiere of Symphony No. 15 \u201cLincoln\u201d at the Kennedy Center, saying its message does not align with the vision for the venue under the Trump administration. \u201cSymphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2253183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2253182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Philip-Glass-cancels-Kennedy-Center-premiere-of-Lincoln-symphony.com2Fzbk2Fdamlat_images2FLA2FLA_HAND.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2253182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2253184,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253182\/revisions\/2253184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2253183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2253182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2253182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2253182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}