Ben Folds has resigned as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra as President Donald Trump took charge of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
“Given developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I am resigning as artistic advisor to the NSO,” Folds wrote on Instagram today. “Not for me.”
Folds was named the NSO’s first artistic adviser in 2017. Since then, he’s primarily spearheaded the “Declassified” concert series, which finds the NSO reimagining classical and contemporary music alongside an array of different artists. Past performances have included Julien Baker, Sara Bareilles, Jon Batiste, Jacob Collier, and William Shatner.
In his resignation note, Folds thanked his various collaborators at the Kennedy Center and the NSO, and spoke about how much it’s meant to him to spend eight years “encouraging thousands of fresh new audiences to appreciate symphonic music.” He closed by thanking the NSO itself, saying, “Mostly, and above all, I will miss the musicians of our nation’s symphony orchestra — just the best.”
Last week, Trump announced his plans to gut the board of trustees at the Kennedy Center, including its chairman, billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein. He said the board did “not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”
Folds’ note coincides with today’s news that Trump has officially been elected as the center’s new chairman (via The New York Times). He’s also named Richard Grenell — former ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term — the center’s interim executive director, and filled the board with loyalists such as Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Second Lady Usha Vance.
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