NSO in Paralysis

In a normal year the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) would present its annual budget for final approval in January, and by February or March would begin selling subscription packages for its next season. But this is no normal year. As summer begins, the NSO finds itself without an approved budget or season schedule, unable to contract guest artists and conductors, and uncertain where it will perform next season.

Already challenged by the downturn in ticket sales and philanthropic giving that followed Donald Trump’s takeover of The Kennedy Center in early 2025, the orchestra suffered an additional blow this past February when plans to close the center for a renovation lasting two years were announced. Less than a month later, Jean Davidson, the NSO’s executive director since 2023, announced she was decamping for Los Angeles, and Richard Grenell, whom Trump had picked to run the center, was replaced by Matt Flocca, whose métier appears to be facilities management.

The National Symphony Orchestra conducted by its Music Director Gianandrea Noseda

At the very moment that major decisions had to be made by the NSO, there was a power vacuum among professional decisionmakers. Early promises from Kennedy Center leaders that the Center would continue to fund the orchestra and help it find new venues during the closure have proven empty.

Repeated queries from the NSO seeking concrete information have gone unanswered. A quarterly board meeting of the NSO last week posed the matter in starkest terms to Kennedy Center representatives: “If we don’t have a budget, we don’t have a season.” Without a budget, alternative venues for the upcoming two seasons cannot be reserved. And concert programs cannot be finalized

To date the NSO board has publicly maintained an optimistic tone . “We are confident that, with continued constructive dialogue with Center leadership, the orchestra will continue to be able to share its gifts,” said a statement issued by the board after last week’s meeting. “We also remain immensely appreciative of the broader support structure of the Center.”

Such an approach may be good politics—after all Trump is not a bear you want to poke—but trustees have expressed off-the-record concerns that the KenCen will prove unable to continue supporting the NSO amidst the turmoil surrounding the arts center.

Outsiders share this concern, and some worry that the NSO board’s public statements are providing false assurances at a perilous moment. In a recent public letter, singer-songwriter-pianist Ben Folds issued a call-to-action on behalf of the NSO. “There’s no confidence that saving the symphony is actually a priority of the administration,” he noted. Rep. Chellie Pingree (Maine), the ranking Democrat on the congressional subcommittee that oversees the Kennedy Center, agrees. “The Kennedy Center is in a very precarious position right now,” she warned during a House Appropriations Committee meeting.

A federal judge’s recent order that the Kennedy Center halt its planned closure and remove Trump’s name from the building offers no certainty that the situation is going to stabilize anytime soon. As much as many would like to believe otherwise, one of the nation’s best symphony orchestras is under threat.

The Washington Post