The National Symphony Orchestra “is in real trouble” and “may not survive” ongoing Kennedy Center chaos, Grammy-nominated alt-rock pianist Ben Folds warned Tuesday.
Folds, who resigned last year as artistic adviser to the NSO, urged orchestra fans to fight back with their voices.
“Our National Symphony Orchestra is in real trouble — it may not survive,” Folds told fans in an open letter on Instagram. “There’s no plan or solution in sight to save the organization.”
Folds asked fans of orchestral music to express their support for the NSO on public forums and to call members of Congress to “demand safeguards against this ever happening again to the Kennedy Center or any other federal arts institutions.”
“The public can turn the tide with overwhelming support,” he added.
Folds, the artist behind “Brick” and “Underground,” worries that the orchestra is on the verge of homelessness.
The orchestra has performances set for June, but nothing is scheduled for the rest of the year.
“Currently there’s no announcement for programming for the NSO’s upcoming season,” he wrote.
“All other orchestras have announced theirs by now because planning is always about 18 months ahead of performances. The NSO doesn’t even know if it has a home, given the previously announced two-year close of the Kennedy Center.”
The Kennedy Center has been rocked by ongoing opposition from the arts community over President Donald Trump’s bid to name the famed concert hall after himself.
A federal judge ordered the administration last week to remove his name from the venue’s title and to halt the planned two-year closure for renovations.
In Trump’s second administration, GOP political operative Ric Grenell and facilities operations veteran Matt Floca have served as Kennedy Center executive directors.
Folds wrote that “we need Congress and the Kennedy Center Board to create guidelines requiring any future director of the Kennedy Center to have actual experience in arts administration.”
Representatives for the Kennedy Center and the White House could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Ticket buyers and big-name acts have been steering clear of the Kennedy Center in Trump’s second term.
“We can see now what happens when an inept director who doesn’t know this business and spends time attacking people and artists who displease him or the President,” Folds wrote.
“Audiences go elsewhere. So much for running the Kennedy Center like it was any other commercial venue.”
