Ben Folds has written an open letter to rally support for the National Symphony Orchestra after Trump’s name was removed from the Kennedy Center.
The orchestra is based at the arts venue in Washington DC, which became the centre of a political storm at the end of last year when its board voted to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center.
The controversial move was reversed last week when a US judge ruled that the venue cannot be renamed without congressional approval, meaning Trump’s name will be taken off the institution’s title and façade.
Now, Folds, who resigned as the National Symphony Orchestra’s artistic advisor when Trump was elected chairman of the Kennedy Center, has penned a letter calling for support for the orchestra as it battles through a difficult period.
“The NSO doesn’t have the luxury of time as it’s been suffocated by the financial turmoil that resulted from the presidential takeover,” he wrote.
Trump announced in February that the Center would close for two years for repairs, although that is now on hold. Folds said that the situation means the orchestra is “in real trouble” and “it may not survive”.
He also said there is “currently no plan or solution in sight to save the organization”, but added that “the public can turn the tide with overwhelming support”.
He said that while other orchestras have announced their programs for the rest of the year, the NSO has not as it “doesn’t even know if it has a home”. He stressed that the court order to remove Trump’s name is “good” but added that it is “not the time for a victory lap because it’s going to be a long messy process to get this all back to a healthy situation”.
A spokesperson for the centre has said they will appeal the name-change order, while Trump took to social media to say he will work with Congress to “transfer this failing institution back to them”.
He said that “Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of”.
Last year, Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz joined the growing list of artists boycotting the venue, saying it no longer represented “the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be”.
More recently, Milli Vanilli and The Commodores were reported to be among a slate of artists to have dropped out of Trump‘s Freedom 250 celebration at the Great American State Fair.
The event was announced earlier last week and is scheduled to take place at the National Mall in Washington DC between June 25 and July 10.
With an initial line-up including the likes of Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli, Flo Rida, Poison frontman Bret Michaels, The Commodores, Young MC, Morris Day & The Time, C+C Music Factory and more, the event – much like the Kennedy Centre fiasco – has seen a host of artists drop out in protest of Trump’s actions.
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