Musician who cancelled Kennedy Center holiday performance asks for suit to be dismissed

Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell, left, and Matt Floca are seated as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a board meeting of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON — Chuck Redd, the musician who cancelled a Christmas Eve performance at the Kennedy Center in protest of U.S. President Donald Trump’s influence over the venue, is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit the performing arts institution brought against him.

In a motion filed in D.C. Superior Court on Friday, lawyers for Redd said the breach of contract suit should be dismissed because he wasn’t contractually obligated to perform. The motion included the contract provided by the Kennedy Center, which the artist never signed.

But his lawyers argued there was more at stake than contract law, portraying the Kennedy Center’s suit as an effort to intimidate artists.

“The Trump Kennedy Center filed this lawsuit to send a message to anyone who dares to publicly disagree with the decisions of those in power,” lawyers Debra S. Katz and Lisa J. Banks said in a statement.

Representatives for the Kennedy Center didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the motion.

Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Brown, has presided over holiday “Jazz Jams” at the Kennedy Center since 2006. He called off last year’s performance shortly after Trump’s handpicked board at the Kennedy Center voted to add the president’s name to the facility.

“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd told The Associated Press in an email at the time.

Within days of his decision, Richard Grenell, the Kennedy Center’s president at the time, sent him a letter calling the cancellation “classic intolerance and very costly to a nonprofit Arts institution.” Grenell threatened to seek US$1 million in damages and the Kennedy Center filed suit on March 6.

Grenell left his post earlier this month and was replaced by Matt Floca, who previously managed the Kennedy Center’s facilities operations. Trump is closing the Kennedy Center later this summer for renovations that are expected to last roughly two years.

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Associated Press writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report

Steven Sloan, The Associated Press