Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell blast the jazz musician after be pulled out of concert last minute following the addition of President Donald Trump’s name to the Washington, DC, arts venue.
According to Associated Press, the president of the center on Friday, December 26 fiercely criticized a musician’s sudden decision to cancel a Christmas Eve performance at the venue days after the White House announced that president’s Donald Trump’s name would be added to the facility.
Grenell, wrote in a letter to musician Chuck Redd, “Your decision to withdraw at the last moment, explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure, is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution.”
In the letter, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages “for this political stunt.”
A drummer and vibraphone player, Redd has presided over holiday “Jazz Jams” at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William “Keter” Betts. In an email Wednesday to The Associated Press, Redd said he pulled out of the concert in the wake of the renaming.
Redd said, “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert. (The event has been) a very popular holiday tradition” and that he often featured at least one student musician.”
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him.
