Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz boycotts Trump’s Kennedy Center gala

7 January 2026, 09:47

The composer is the latest in a wave of angry artists.

Composer Stephen Schwartz has withdrawn from an upcoming gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC after the venue was renamed to include President Donald Trump’s name.

The Wicked composer is the latest in a wave of artists now refusing to perform at the institution.

Trump’s name was added to the front of the building on 19 December after the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees – chosen by Trump – voted to rename the landmark. The move has provoked criticism from lawmakers and political leaders, who have questioned both its legality and its alignment with the centre’s founding principles.

Schwartz said he would not appear at the centre’s May gala honouring the Washington National Opera, an event he was invited to host.

“The Kennedy Center was founded to be an apolitical home for free artistic expression for artists of all nationalities and ideologies,” he said in a statement. “It is no longer apolitical, and appearing there has now become an ideological statement. As long as that remains the case, I will not appear there.”

However, the Kennedy Center’s president, Richard Grenell, denied Schwartz’s involvement, claiming on X that “he was never signed” and that reports to the contrary were “woke high school” journalism. “I’ve never had a single conversation on him since arriving,” he said.

Read more: ‘I just stole it from Beethoven’: Stephen Schwartz on writing Defying Gravity

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Schwartz’s boycott adds to the growing number of performers severing ties with the institution since Trump’s name was added to the venue. The veteran jazz collective The Cookers cancelled two New Year’s Eve concerts and jazz musician Chuck Redd withdrew from his annual Christmas Eve performance and now faces a $1m damages claim from the Kennedy Center.

New York-based company Doug Varone and Dancers also pulled out of two April anniversary performances, despite losing about $40,000 in fees. Varone described the choice as “financially devastating but morally exhilarating”.

Grenell, a former US ambassador and Trump ally, responded to the wave of cancellations by accusing musicians of politicising the arts. “Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” he wrote on X. “The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far-left leadership … The arts are for everyone and the left is mad about it.”

The Trump Kennedy Center has not issued any further comment.