Béla Fleck Backs Out Of Kennedy Center Performances With NSO

Banjo player Béla Fleck withdrew from upcoming performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Fleck was scheduled to appear with the NSO on February 19, 21 and 22.

“I have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center,” Fleck wrote on social media.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 followed other musicians who have distanced themselves from the Kennedy Center, whose Board of Trustees appointed President Donald Trump as Chair in February 2025. Last month, the board controversially voted to change the institution’s name to “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

“It has become less and less a musically and artistically based situation and more of a highly politicized and divisive one,” Fleck told The New York Times of the “no-win” situation. “This pushes against the deepest motivations of why I want to be a musician. 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.”

The New York Times reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment, which highlighted a social media post made by the current president, Richard Grenell, responding to Fleck.

“You just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties,” Grenell wrote. “This mob pressuring you will never be happy until you only play for Democrats. 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.”

The Kennedy Center website cited “personal issues” for Fleck’s withdrawal from the February concerts. NSO principal clarinet Lin Ma will now perform Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto.

“Our audience will miss him, and we hope to welcome him back in the future,” executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra Jean Davidson told the New York Times.

Along with Fleck, other recent artists who have backed out of Kennedy Center appearances include The Cookers, Kristy Lee, Chuck Redd, Stephen Schwartz and Doug Varone and Dancers.

Fleck will embark on another BEATrio tour, with harpist Edmar Castañeda and drummer Antonio Sánchez, on January 31 in Glasgow, Scotland.