NEED TO KNOW
- Béla Fleck won’t be performing at Kennedy Center concerts
- In an Instagram post shared on Tuesday, Jan. 6, the 18-time Grammy-winning banjo player wrote in a statement that “performing there has become charged and political”
- Fleck was scheduled to perform with the National Symphony Orchestra in February
Béla Fleck has withdrawn from performing at Kennedy Center concerts.
On Tuesday, Jan. 6, the 18-time Grammy-winning banjo player shared a statement on Instagram about his decision.
“I have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center,” Fleck, 67, wrote in a statement. “Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music.”
He added, “I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art.”
In a statement to the New York Times the same day, Fleck elaborated further.
“It has become less and less a musically and artistically based situation and more of a highly politicized and divisive one,” he told the outlet. “This pushes against the deepest motivations of why I want to be a musician.”
Fleck was slated to perform “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin with the National Symphony Orchestra in February.
An updated listing on the Kennedy Center’s website for the event claims that Fleck had to withdraw “due to personal issues” for his performances on Feb. 19, 21 and 22.
“American Mosaic will now feature NSO Principal Clarinet Lin Ma performing Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. The rest of the program will remain the same,” the description states.
When asked for comment, the Kennedy Center directed PEOPLE toward an X post from its president Richard Grenell.
“You just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties,” he wrote on the platform. “This mob pressuring you will never be happy until you only play for Democrats.”
He continued, “The Trump Kennedy Center believes all people are welcome – Democrats and Republicans and people uninterested in politics. We want performers who aren’t political – who simply love entertaining everyone regardless of who they voted for.”
Fleck told theTimes in his statement that he was in a “no-win situation” because it would upset both political parties in different ways.
“I 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,” added Fleck.
In a statement shared with the Times, Jean Davidson, the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra said that the organization’s “audience will miss him, and we hope to welcome him back in the future.”
Per the outlet, performers including Wicked and Godspell composer Stephen Schwartz, jazz musician Chuck Redd and jazz septet the Cookers have all withdrawn shows at the Kennedy Center in recent weeks.
Read the full article here
