Jazz group the Cookers canceled their New Year’s Eve performances.

Band pulls out of New Year’s Eve shows after Kennedy Center name change

Jazz group the Cookers canceled their New Year's Eve performances.

By Daysia Tolentino

Daysia Tolentino

Daysia Tolentino is a writer at *. *She has written for * *since 2025. Her work has appeared in NBC News, Vulture, GQ, and InStyle.

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December 31, 2025 12:53 p.m. ET

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The Cookers, President Donald Trump. Credit:

Jack Vartoogian/Getty; JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty

The Kennedy Center will ring in 2026 with little fanfare after jazz supergroup the Cookers cancelled their New Year's Eve performances at the venue.

The move comes nearly two weeks after the Kennedy Center board voted to rename the building the "Trump-Kennedy Center." President Donald Trump began a takeover of the performing arts space in February after removing 18 board members and becoming the board's chair.

The Cookers said the decision to pull out of the Kennedy Center "has come together very quickly" in a statement on their website. The group did not explicitly say that the name change played a part in their decision to cancel their shows, although they suggested the choice was made in line with their values.

"Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice," the statement continued. "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."

Doug Varone and Dancers performing at BAM Harvey Theater on Wednesday, March 29, 2017.

Hiroyuki Ito/Getty

Dance company Doug Varone and Dancers also announced that it canceled its upcoming show in April. They shared they were pulling out because of the renaming of the Kennedy Center.

"With the latest act of Donald J. Trump renaming the Center after himself, we can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution," the company shared in an Instagram post. "The Kennedy Center was named in honor of our 35th President who fervently believed that the arts were the beating heart of our nation, as well as an integral part of international diplomacy. We hope in three-year’s time, that the Center and its reputation will return to that glory."

Doug Varone and Dancers later shared that they received an "outpouring of support" for their decision.

Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell claimed that the artists who were most recently canceled were "booked by the previous far left leadership," meaning the Biden Administration.

"Their actions prove that the previous team was more concerned about booking far left political activists rather than artists willing to perform for everyone regardless of their political beliefs," Grenell posted on X.

The venue was recently renamed the The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty

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These recent withdrawals come after jazz artist Chuck Redd canceled his annual Christmas Eve concert, which has been held at the Kennedy Center for nearly two decades. Grenell demanded $1 million in damages for pulling a "political stunt."******

"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," Grenell wrote in a letter to Redd.

It's unclear if similar action will be taken in response to these new cancellations. ** reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment, but did not immediately hear back.**

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Source: “EW Music”