Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center [View all]

Source: New York Times

Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center

The opera, which has performed at the arts center since 1971, was concerned by declines in attendance and donations during President Trump’s second term.

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Washington National Opera officials contend that exiting the Kennedy Center would also give it more control over programming decisions.Kenny Holston for The New York Times

Jan. 9, 2026, 5:40 p.m. ET

The Washington National Opera decided on Friday to move its performances out of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, abandoning the hall where it has played since 1971 in perhaps the largest artistic rebuke yet to President Trump’s campaign to remake the Kennedy Center in his image.

The opera company is seeking to sever its ties with the Kennedy Center after a tumultuous year in which both groups have faced cancellations by artists, empty seats and the retrenchment of donors protesting Mr. Trump’s intervention. Within weeks of beginning his second term, the president named himself chairman of the center and installed a political ally, Richard Grenell, as its executive director, while filling its board with supporters.

A resolution to leave was approved by the Washington National Opera’s board of trustees on Friday, according to a statement the opera provided to The New York Times.

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Adam Nagourney is the classical music and dance correspondent for The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/adam-nagourney

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/arts/music/washington-national-opera-kennedy-center.html