Wicked songwriter Stephen Schwartz has announced that he won’t be a part of a previously announced event at the Trump Kennedy Center because of its renaming.
Schwartz, who was supposed to appear in a Washington National Opera gala that he was going to host on May 16, revealed in an email to Newsday that he won’t be a part of the event because, “It no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be. There’s no way I would set foot in it now.”
Schwartz explained that he hadn’t heard any additional information about the event since last February, so he assumed that it had been canceled due to the sweeping changes that the Trump administration made to the center when it took over. But Schwartz made it clear that even if the show were to continue as scheduled, he wouldn’t want to be there.
The center’s vice president of public relations, Roma Daravi, released a statement denying Schwartz’s involvement with the center. “Stephen Schwartz was never discussed nor confirmed and never had a contract by current Trump Kennedy Center leadership,” said Daravi. “Schwartz said himself that he ‘heard nothing about it since February 2025…assumed it’s no longer happening.’ It is completely false to report otherwise.”
Schwartz pulling out of the performance is symbolic because he was the co-writer of the program back when the Kennedy Center opened in 1971.
The Wicked songwriter is the latest in a growing number of artists to distance themselves from the center in the wake of it being renamed after President Donald Trump. In December, the Jazz supergroup The Cookers canceled their performance on New Year’s Eve.
“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice,” the band’s statement on their website said. “Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us. We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.”
“Our hope is that this moment will leave space for reflection, not resentment,” the group added. “To everyone who is disappointed or upset, we understand and share your sadness. We remain committed to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”
On Facebook, the group’s saxophone player didn’t mince his words when writing about not performing, saying that he “would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing."