Wicked star cancels Kennedy Center event amid Trump | Music News

Composer Stephen Schwartz has develop into the latest movie star to cancel an look at the Trump-Kennedy Center.

The 77-year-old, who wrote music for the musical Wicked as effectively as the two-part movie adaptation, had been scheduled to host the Washington National Opera Gala on May 16. He announced his determination to cancel his look in an e-mail.

Schwartz said the middle, beforehand called the Kennedy Center, “no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be.”

In the e-mail, which Schwartz despatched to Newsday, the composer continued, “There’s no way I would set foot in it now.”

Schwartz’s determination to cancel his look at the Trump-Kennedy Center comes after textual content bearing the president’s identify next to John F. Kennedy’s was erected on the outside of the Washington D.C. venue.

Following Schwartz’s e-mail, Kennedy Center public relations official Roma Daravi claimed he had not been scheduled to seem at the event. Daravi told Entertainment Weekly, “Stephen Schwartz was never discussed nor confirmed and never had a contract by current Trump Kennedy Center leadership.”

However, a web page on the Trump-Kennedy Center web site beforehand listed an event titled, “Washington National Opera Gala: Featuring Stephen Schwartz.” The event was set to happen on May 16.

Schwartz is not the only musician to pull out of scheduled appearances at the Trump-Kennedy Center. Shows had to be canceled across Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve as artists pulled out amid the continuing Trump controversy.

Shows scheduled for January 14 and later in April have also been canceled.

Folk singer Kristy Lee is among those who have canceled appearances at the Trump-Kennedy Center and wrote on Instagram, “I’ve canceled my scheduled performance at the Kennedy Center on January 14, 2026. I don’t have much power, and I don’t run with the big dogs who do.”

Kristy continued, “I’m just a folk singer from Alabama, slinging songs for a living. Hell, my songs are really just my own diary set to music. They’re not polished or hit songs, but they’re my truth and nobody can take that from me. I’m proud of that.”

She continued, explaining why she couldn’t take the stage under the new identify, “When American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody else’s ego, I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night.

“America didn’t get constructed by branding. It received constructed by people exhibiting up and doing the work. And the oldsters who carry it don’t need their identify on it, they just show up. That’s all I’m doing right here.”

Other artists have adopted swimsuit including the jazz band The Cookers.