The Donald Trump-controlled Kennedy Center has lost another key member of the performing arts community: Jean Davidson, executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra.
Davidson, who first held the position in April 2023, said she was stepping down due to the “current climate.”
“As we all know, it’s been a very difficult year,” she told new york times. “So a few months ago I started looking for new opportunities.”
She said she “had hoped to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Office for National Statistics in 2031”. The Staatskapelle was founded in the nation’s capital in 1931 by cellist and conductor Hans Kindler. It has been an arts affiliate of the Kennedy Center since 1986.
Davidson’s decision comes more than a month after Trump announced plans to close Washington, D.C.’s performing arts center starting July 4 and continuing through 2028.
Donald Trump’s name was controversially added to the Kennedy Center in December 2025 (AFP via Getty Images)
Gene Davidson (centre) resigned as executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, citing the “current climate” as the reason for her decision (Getty Images)
“I don’t know how to be an effective leader in the current climate,” she admitted, adding, “There’s a lot of change happening, but very little communication. We’re learning about the situation through the media — at the same time as everyone else. Just like the center closed on July 4.”
The president said in February that the closure would allow for the construction of “new, spectacular entertainment centers.”
“This important decision, based on the input of many well-respected experts, will transform a tired, broken and dilapidated center that has been in poor financial and structural shape for many years into a world-class bastion of arts, music and entertainment better than ever before,” he wrote in Truth Social.
The Kennedy Center opened in 1971 to honor the late President John F. Kennedy. The Kennedy Center has faced significant and damaging changes since Trump fired the existing board of directors and replaced it with his own Republican allies shortly after returning to office.
Many performers have since withdrawn from scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center in protest. Renowned composer Philip Glass has become one of the latest to withdraw from the summer season, where he is expected to premiere his new symphony.
“After careful consideration, I have decided to withdraw my Symphony No. 15, Lincoln, from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” he said in a statement on Instagram.
“The Fifteenth Symphony is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the symphony’s message,” Glass said. “Therefore, I feel obligated to withdraw this symphony’s premiere from the Kennedy Center under current leadership.”