Kennedy Center president demands $1m from musician who canceled Christmas Eve show | Donald Trump
The head of the Kennedy Center has demanded $1 million in damages and slammed the White House’s decision to abruptly cancel a musician’s Christmas Eve performance at the venue just days after announcing Donald Trump’s name would be added to the facility.
“Your decision to withdraw at the last minute, clearly in response to the Center’s recent renaming honoring President Trump’s extraordinary effort to save this national treasure, is classic intolerance and very costly for a nonprofit Arts institution,” the venue’s president, Richard Grenell, wrote in a letter to musician Chuck Redd shared with the Associated Press.
In the letter, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages “for this political demonstration.”
Redd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Redd, a drummer and vibraphonist, has presided over holiday jazz jams at the Kennedy Center since 2006, replacing bassist William “Keter” Betts. In an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday, Redd said he withdrew from the concert after the renaming.
“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and on the building hours later, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd said. He added Wednesday that the event is a “very popular holiday tradition” and often features at least one student musician.
“It’s one of the many reasons why it was so sad to have to cancel,” he told the AP.
President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him.
Grenell is a Trump ally whom Trump chose to put in charge of the Kennedy Center after dismissing the previous leadership. According to the White House, Trump’s hand-picked board approved the renaming, which academics say violates the law. Kennedy’s nephew, Kerry Kennedy, has vowed to remove Trump’s name from the building after he leaves office, and former House historian Ray Smock is among those who say any changes must be approved by Congress.
The law expressly prohibits trustees from making the center a monument to anyone else and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
