Kennedy Center’s New Year’s Eve Concert Scrapped as Artist Boycott Grows Over Trump Name-Change

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The Kennedy Center’s annual New Year’s Eve concert will now be canceled after jazz supergroup the Cookers pulled out in a move that comes as other artists protest the institution’s rebranding tied to President Donald Trump.

The band confirmed on Monday that they had scrapped two sold-out New Year’s Eve performances at the venue, just days after a long-running Christmas Eve concert was also called off. The withdrawals are part of a widening boycott that has seen musicians, dancers, and theater producers distance themselves from the venue.

The immediate trigger is the decision earlier this month by the Kennedy Center board — chaired by Trump himself — to rename the institution the “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The move prompted swift backlash from Democratic leaders and members of the Kennedy family alike.

Trump’s name was formally added to the building’s façade on December 19.

The Cookers’ official statement on the band’s website stopped short of naming Trump or the venue directly, but invoked jazz’s political roots, saying: “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.”

It added: “To everyone who is disappointed or upset, we understand and share your sadness. We remain committed to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”

One band member, saxophonist Billy Harper, was less restrained. In comments made during an interview posted to Facebook on Saturday, he said: “I would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African-American music and culture.”

The backlash has drawn a combative response from Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell, a Trump appointee, who dismissed the boycotts as politically motivated, writing on X Monday: “The arts are for everyone and the left is mad about it,” he wrote, later adding that “Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome.”

The New Year’s Eve cancellations follow a growing list of high-profile withdrawals, according to the Washington Post. Jazz musician Chuck Redd recently pulled out of his annual Christmas Eve concert, while folk singer Kristy Lee canceled a mid-January appearance.

Since Trump’s return to office and the reshaping of the Kennedy Center board earlier this year, planned performances of Hamilton, a concert by Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens, and a show by comedian Issa Rae have also been scratched.