Philip Glass takes a stand against Trump: withdraws his symphony from the Kennedy Center

Philip Glass has joined the long list of artists, musicians and performers stepping back from commitments made with the Trump Kennedy Center. The American composer has decided to withdraw his "Symphony No. 15: Lincoln" from the National Symphony Orchestra's program, whose world premiere was scheduled for next June.

The decision was explained by Glass himself, who said that the work, conceived as a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, is now incompatible with the institution's current direction. "The symphony is a portrait of Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony. I feel obligated to withdraw it from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership," the composer stated.

Glass, who turned 89 at the end of January, is regarded as one of the most influential living composers in the world. Honored by the Kennedy Center itself in 2018, he is recognized as one of the pioneers of 20th-century minimalism, despite having built an extremely broad and wide-ranging body of work: from the intimate "Etudes" for piano and chamber pieces to grand symphonies and conceptually ambitious stage works such as "Einstein On The Beach", "Satyagraha" and "Akhnaten", all centered on historical figures.

"Symphony No. 15: Lincoln" had been jointly commissioned by the Kennedy Center and the National Symphony Orchestra and had already gone through several delays. Originally scheduled for March 2022, the premiere was pushed back to October of that year and later rescheduled for the current season, where it was meant to play a central role in the celebrations for America's 250th anniversary of independence.

Glass's decision follows just days after that of soprano Renée Fleming, who announced she was pulling out of two concerts scheduled for May with the National Symphony Orchestra, dedicated to Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring", officially citing "scheduling conflicts". Fleming had already stepped down last year from her role as artistic advisor to the Kennedy Center, after Donald Trump took control of the board and replaced Democratic members with advisors loyal to him.

Since then, numerous high-profile artists have chosen to distance themselves from the institution: among them Lin-Manuel Miranda, Béla Fleck, Issa Rae and the entire National Opera Company, which had performed at the Kennedy Center continuously since 1971. All of this comes amid a broader reputational crisis at the center, accompanied by a sharp drop in ticket sales, seen by many as a form of boycott by audiences in response to the politicization of a historically nonpartisan institution.

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