In February 2025, Ben Folds resigned his place as Inventive Advisor to the Nationwide Symphony Orchestra in response to Donald Trump taking up the Kennedy Heart. It solely obtained worse from there; by the top of the yr, it was introduced that the historic performing arts institution was being renamed the Trump-Kennedy Heart. Backlash ensued, and simply final week a federal decide ordered Trump’s identify off the constructing. At the moment, Ben Folds shared an open letter relating to the destiny of the Nationwide Symphony Orchestra.
Within the letter, the singer-songwriter urges that it is “time for an outpouring of public assist and love for our nation’s symphony orchestra,” emphasizing that the Kennedy Heart will stay however the Nationwide Symphony Orchestra is in hassle. This is what he wrote in full:
As you would possibly know, I spent practically a decade on the Kennedy Heart as Inventive Advisor to the Nationwide Symphony Orchestra. I resigned in February 2025, however I keep in touch with my mates who remained. And I might like to attract consideration to one thing that has flown beneath the radar because the drama surrounding the Kennedy Heart unfolds.
• Our Nationwide Symphony Orchestra is in actual hassle – it could not survive.
• There’s presently no plan or resolution in sight to save lots of the group.
• The general public can flip the tide with overwhelming assist.
Presently there is not any announcement for programming for the NSO’s upcoming season. All different orchestras have introduced theirs by now as a result of planning is all the time about 18 months forward of performances. The NSO does not even know if it has a house, given the beforehand introduced two-year closure of the Kennedy Heart. It is a very dangerous signal. Additional, the instruments for survival are entangled within the Kennedy Heart’s authorized and monetary troubles. Instruments such because the NSO’s endowment fund which is tied to a financial institution be aware.
All of us in all probability know there was a current courtroom ruling to take away the unlawful addition of Trump’s identify on the constructing and to revive political independence to the Kennedy Heart. That is good however not the time for a victory lap as a result of it is going to be a protracted messy course of to get this all again to a wholesome state of affairs.
US DISTRICT COURT RULING: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2025cv4480-50
The NSO does not have the posh of time as it has been suffocated by the monetary turmoil that resulted from the presidential takeover.
What can we do for now?
That is simply my checklist, however I think it will possibly make a distinction.
First:
Notice an essential Instagram account to observe: @nso_musicians
Followers of orchestra music and the humanities: It is time for an outpouring of public assist and love for our nation’s symphony orchestra. Whether or not you’ve got had the chance to see them carry out or not, the existence of a Nationwide Symphony is a present, and now we have among the best on the earth. They’ve been displaying up whatever the undignified partisan drama, the dwindling audiences, and workers reductions. We will present up for them now by simply following and displaying the world now we have their backs. Remark publicly. Write to them personally. They’re in hell they usually needn’t be alone.
Journalists: Please cowl the NSO in your tales. The elimination of Trump’s identify takes up all of the oxygen. The constructing will possible survive. The establishment will heal. However whenever you disperse the NSO’s 96 gifted musicians and render them unemployed, we’ll lose one thing that’s not so simply replaceable.
Donors: Because it all unfolds, I think the NSO will want loads of assist to get again on its ft. Proper now, they’re in purgatory and it is unclear what would possibly assist, however be in contact with them.
Residents: Let your congresspeople know we demand safeguards towards this ever taking place once more to the Kennedy Heart or any of our federal arts establishments. We want enforced independence for our arts from politics, in order that there might be belief once more – belief that artists and audiences of all walks can trade concepts and artwork in an apolitical setting. Additional, we’d like Congress and the Kennedy Heart Board to create pointers requiring any future director of the Kennedy Heart to have precise expertise in arts administration. We will now see what occurs when a clumsy director who does not know this enterprise and spends time attacking individuals and artists who displease him or the President. Audiences and artists go elsewhere. A lot for operating the Kennedy Heart prefer it was some other industrial venue.
A yr after resigning from the Kennedy Heart, it nonetheless hurts that I needed to depart. Throughout Trump’s first time period, he stayed out of the Kennedy Heart’s enterprise, permitting his Board’s appointees to work within the spirit of cooperation for the great of the Heart with the remainder of us in a politically free setting. That every one modified after he got here again into workplace. I might have cherished to remain on, however any artist akin to myself who related to the newly politicized Kennedy Heart risked getting used as a political pawn, implicitly siding with the POTUS’s politics by affiliation. I would not have finished that for both celebration. And my position was curatorial. How may I ask an artist to return carry out there, placing themselves at risk of displeasing the President or a Kennedy Heart director and discovering themselves beneath assault from the correct wing?
ARTICLE ON ARTIST HARASSMENT: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kennedy-center-union-investigation-yasmin-williams-heckling-1235438829/
Alternatively, how may I ask artists to return play however watch out what you say, discovering themselves beneath assault from the left wing for implicitly siding with a politicized Kennedy Heart? It was an unattainable state of affairs, and artists and audiences alike discovered this the arduous manner over the previous yr. The result’s now so dangerous {that a} federal decide needed to intervene. The members of the NSO had been in a special place. There was nothing to achieve from their resignation, besides easy unemployment. They’ve remained apolitical. They have been performing their butts off in that terrible state of affairs. The Nationwide Opera took a special strategy and left the Heart, however that has offered its personal perils.
I have been saying for years that the symphony orchestra establishment was itself an emblem of civilization. For us to attempt to work collectively for the higher good, we have to see that in motion, and symphony orchestras do that each evening. It is an essential image and when the symphony erodes, that is the sounding of an alarm for the well being of precise civilization. I’ve spouted this from phases in entrance of a lot of the orchestras within the nation. Audiences might have bored with listening to it. However this risk is occurring now, and our Nationwide Symphony Orchestra wants us. Because the politicization of the Kennedy Heart makes it very tough to draw audiences and artists, our strategies of assist are extra restricted. However I say, let’s allow them to know we’re right here and prepared. Let’s get the phrase out, even amid the muddy waters of the authorized dramas.
In any other case, think about a free western nation, with no Nationwide Symphony Orchestra. It is actual.
