Kennedy Center Bans Concert

[arpeggio]

I would like to address some issues that have been brought up some members.

I realize that many of Trump's actions are going to be more harmful than what happens at the Kennedy Center.

There have been politics involved in the admiration of the Kennedy Center.  But in the fifty years history of the Center, Trump is the first President who is trying to impose his aesthetics on the administration of it.

Latest travesty:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/music/trump-s-kennedy-center-cancels-pride-concert-that-would-have-featured-gay-men-s-chorus-of-washington/ar-AA1zkcZc?ocid=BingNewsSerp

I had no plans of attending the concert.  That does not mean I support the cancellation.

Maybe they will ban the programming of any music by Tchaikovsky.

I wonder how much damage that the Trump's administration does to the arts before we can question their actions.

[Madiel]

Expect to see a surge in attendance wherever the concert does go ahead.

[San Antone]

Elected officials often do things like this. Bloomberg wanted to ban large carbonated drinks.  Giulani closed down an art exhibit he felt insulted Christians.  And many more.  These days the "cancel culture" has produced many examples of being overly sensitive to something.

These things pass.

[Madiel]

I really don't think the carbonated drinks thing is in remotely the same category! It was a recognition of what serving sizes do to psychology, and hence health.

Lumping that in with decisions about art just doesn't make sense to me.

[arpeggio]

We should not stray too far from the subject of the OP or we risk having this thread locked.

[Madiel]

If you think about it, patrons dictating what kind of art they want is nothing at all new or remarkable. Composers in the past worked to order and musicians (including composers) were indeed employed by a specific prince or church. Pleasing their employer was fundamentally the job.

I think the differences now are:

1. In much more recent times we had moved away from that model to a much more pluralistic one, with arts organisations trying to attract and please a range of segments of "the market".

2. Many of us would find the basis for these new artistic tastes to be... well, distasteful.

Distaste is a completely different question to whether or not Trump and the new administration have the power and authority to decide what concerts get put on (and whether Trump had the power/authority to insert himself into the process). If they do, then the "remedy" is for people to "vote" with their feet and wallets. If ticket sales and attendances change enough, in either direction, that will send a messsage about the path the Kennedy Center. If ticket sales and attendances don't really change then that says people didn't care that much, or that people who left were replaced by newcomers.

[hopefullytrusting]

[arpeggio]

Latest link concerning what has happened at the Kennedy Center:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/what-s-going-on-with-the-kennedy-center-under-trump/ar-AA1zogSB?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=DCTS&cvid=facfe733c3c248479586ba4e2a11f5ee&ei=32

Note: I am a resident of the Washington, DC area.  I have attended performances at the Kennedy Center at a regular basis since it opened in 1972.

A few of my favorite performances:

Two great performances of the Britten War Requiem. One with Rostropovich conducting with Peter Pears.  The other with Noseda conducting.

Slatkin conducting the original version of Williams Schuman's Third Sympphony.

Heggie's opera Moby Dick.

Great production of Britten's Billy Budd with the National Opera.

There are many, many others.

[Daverz]

Musk and his minions are destroying our government.  I don't care about the Kennedy Center.

[arpeggio]

Musk and his minions are destroying our government.  I don't care about the Kennedy Center.

As I have stated in another post, I have acknowledged that there are other actions that Trump is doing that are much worse.

I am concerned that if we start going down that path that the thread may be locked down.

Maybe one can start another thread which can address Trumps's other policies.

[Daverz]

As I have stated in another post, I have acknowledged that there are other actions that Trump is doing that are much worse.

I am concerned that if we start going down that path that the thread may be locked down.

Maybe one can start another thread which can address Trumps's other policies.

My apologies that that came off as attacking the messenger.  I can barely watch the news these days without wanting to scream.

As we see here, people are willing to normalize this behavior with the cynical "both sides do it" dismissal.

[steve ridgway]

If you think about it, patrons dictating what kind of art they want is nothing at all new or remarkable. Composers in the past worked to order and musicians (including composers) were indeed employed by a specific prince or church. Pleasing their employer was fundamentally the job.

I think the differences now are:

1. In much more recent times we had moved away from that model to a much more pluralistic one, with arts organisations trying to attract and please a range of segments of "the market".

2. Many of us would find the basis for these new artistic tastes to be... well, distasteful.

Distaste is a completely different question to whether or not Trump and the new administration have the power and authority to decide what concerts get put on (and whether Trump had the power/authority to insert himself into the process). If they do, then the "remedy" is for people to "vote" with their feet and wallets. If ticket sales and attendances change enough, in either direction, that will send a messsage about the path the Kennedy Center. If ticket sales and attendances don't really change then that says people didn't care that much, or that people who left were replaced by newcomers.

@Madiel says it very well without getting dangerously "political". The thing to do nowadays is to vote with your feet and wallets, support those organisations you believe in and "cancel" those you don't .

[Florestan]

The expectation that an institution operate indefinitely under the very same conditions in which it was founded is unwarranted, especially in the case of an institution heavily dependent on political patronage.

In the case at hand, the question to be asked is this: are the actions of the new management legal? If they are not, then all those concerned about and affected by them should take the issue to court. If they are, then complaint is moot.

I'm sure that a moribund institution (if that will indeed be the case) can be replaced by others. After all, the financial and intellectual resources that can be put at the service of art are not all belonging to the government. Or are they?

[Madiel]

I of course should not be understood as having anything but a negative view of the merits of cancelling a concert by a gay men's singing group. I've given serious consideration to joining the local equivalent.

[arpeggio]

Latest article about the Trump takeover:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/not-what-we-signed-up-for-inside-trump-s-shocking-kennedy-center-takeover/ar-AA1zGaEV?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=DCTS&cvid=dab1133338ee4f5ca448b3e9da074d15&ei=15

[arpeggio]

Now they are going after NPR.

As of 2/11/2025 a House Bill has been introduced to defund National Public Radio and the Public Broadcast System. As of 2/24/2025 the full text has not yet been released.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1216/text

- Many, perhaps most, of the radio stations carrying the Met broadcasts are NPR stations. The few remaining Met telecasts are carried on PBS. New York's station WQXR, the "originating station" for the Met broadcasts, is not an NPR station but is a New York Public Radio station and may or may not receive some Federal funding.

You might want to start planning your bake-sales now.

Today the Kennedy Center, tomorrow the Lincoln Center.

[Kalevala]

Now they are going after NPR.

As of 2/11/2025 a House Bill has been introduced to defund National Public Radio and the Public Broadcast System. As of 2/24/2025 the full text has not yet been released.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1216/text

- Many, perhaps most, of the radio stations carrying the Met broadcasts are NPR stations. The few remaining Met telecasts are carried on PBS. New York's station WQXR, the "originating station" for the Met broadcasts, is not an NPR station but is a New York Public Radio station and may or may not receive some Federal funding.

You might want to start planning your bake-sales now.

Today the Kennedy Center, tomorrow the Lincoln Center.

You and others might find this to be of interest.  I hadn't realized how high the percentages of non-individual (or business) donations there were vs. funding.  https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3950550-the-truth-about-nprs-funding-and-its-possible-future/

K

[arpeggio]

Another cancellation:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/kennedy-center-appearance-for-bay-area-performing-arts-group-abruptly-canceled/ar-AA1zLsBB?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=fdba954a9f2a44e4c1128dc2f7cba714&ei=44

[steve ridgway]

Not much chance of the CIA funding another Darmstadt then?

[AnotherSpin]

The CIA's Cold War-era cultural funding, like its support for Darmstadt, was part of an ideological battle, but today's mechanisms are more subtle, diversified, and increasingly driven by funding from Russia and other players with their own agendas.