Bela Fleck Withdraws From Kennedy Center Performance, Calling It 'Charged and Political' [View all]
Source: Rolling Stone
Béla Fleck is the latest artist to pull out of an upcoming performance at the Kennedy Center in the wake of Donald Trump‘s controversial takeover. The Grammy-winning banjoist was scheduled to perform with the National Symphony Orchestra in February, but announced last night that he has cancelled.
“I have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center,” Fleck wrote on social media. “Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music. I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art.”
Fleck’s cancellation comes only days after Stephen Schwartz, the celebrated Oscar-winning composer behind Wicked and other hit musicals, pulled out of a scheduled appearance at the Kennedy Center in protest of Trump’s takeover of the institution and its legally dubious name change.
Schwartz was set to host the Washington National Opera Gala at the Kennedy Center on May 16, but in an email sent to Newsday, said the Center “no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be.” He added: “There’s no way I would set foot in it now.”
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Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bela-fleck-kennedy-center-performance-withdraw-1235495243/
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