Philip Glass Withdraws From Kennedy Center, as Its Symphony Vows to Play On
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On Tuesday, Glass informed the Kennedy Center that he did not want his symphony, based on Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address, performed on its stage. “Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the symphony,” he wrote in a letter asking that the orchestra not play his work. A copy of the letter was shared with The New York Times.
The withdrawal of work by Glass, 88, who received a Kennedy Center Honors award in 2018, is the latest blow for the center — and particularly for the increasingly isolated National Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Gianandrea Noseda.
While much of the arts community and many Kennedy Center patrons have rebelled against President Trump’s efforts to remake the center in his name, the orchestra’s leaders have soldiered on, staring down empty seats, cancellations by artists like Glass and the celebrated soprano Renée Fleming, and comparisons with the Washington National Opera, which moved its shows out of the center.
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Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president for public relations, denounced Glass’s decision, saying there was no place for politics in the arts. “Leftist activists are pushing artists to cancel, but the public wants artists to perform and create — not cancel under pressure from political insiders that benefit from creating division,” she said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/arts/music/kennedy-center-national-symphony-orchestra-gianandrea-noseda.html
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Daravi has no idea what it means to have a conscience.
= new reply since forum marked as read
This idiot not only doesn't know squat about the history of art, but seems clueless why art exists at all.
And this from a patron/spokesperson type of figure ?
As the saying goes - both laughable - and at the same time incredibly SAD ....
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Confusing editorial with quotation is a really common and easy thing to do when reading. In fact, I just (randomly) stopped in the middle of constructing my own comment, which had been to the exact same effect as yours. But half the time I miss that I'm doing it, and have to go back and correct it later 
"political insiders that benefit from creating division"
Hey fucknut? That's EXACTLY who Trump is in this case, and he decided to put his name on the center and name himself Director TO CREATE DIVISION.
These cultists are SUCH shameless hypocrites, gaslighters and liars, and their brazenness is almost breathtaking to behold. 
