Despite the continued cancelations by artists at the the Donald J. Trump-run John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the National Symphony Orchestra has no intention of leaving.

In an article by the New York Times covering the cancelation of Philip Glass’ symphony at the Center, Music Director Gianandrea Noseda said the orchestra would not be leaving. He told the Times he was trying to ignore the turmoil and following the advice a friend who said, “not to make speeches, but to be present. Your presence speaks. Go to the core of the business of making music. Not talk too much: Do the work.”

Noseda also noted that he needed to build up the orchestra and could not make everyone happy. He said, “I cannot make everybody happy… I know why I am here — to serve the art, the music and the community. Music belongs to everybody and I think is also part of the life of this community. Someone will always say, ‘Oh, he’s associated with this administration.’ Someone else will say, ‘No, he is free-spirited.’ I am free-spirited.”

Meanwhile, Joan Bialek, the chair of the National Symphony Orchestra board said they would make it work and emphasize the need to convince patrons who had stopped attending to return. Jean Davidson, the orchestra’s executive director noted that it would be hard to move away from the center due to the fact that the orchestra’s finances were too entangled with the Kennedy Center. According to the Times, the Kennedy Center contributes about “$10 million a year to the orchestra’s $42 million budget, five times the subsidy it paid to the opera under its agreement.”

Since the Trump takeover, attendance has been down about 50 percent compared with the season before Trump took over. The center has seen organizations like the Washington Nation Opera and Vocal Arts DC, bedrocks of the institution’s identity, cut ties outright. In addition to Glass canceling the National Symphony Orchestra concert, Renée Fleming, and Béla Fleck have also canceled performances with the ensemble. At this point, the National Symphony Orchestra seems to the lone classical music organization in a Performing Arts Center whose identity is dominated less by the performances it presents and more by the regime dominating it.

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