National Symphony Orchestra Leader Steps Down From Kennedy Center

Another Kennedy Center leader is leaving the organization. Jean Davidson, executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, has announced she is stepping down from her position—citing Trump's planned two-year closure of the center as her primary reason.

The NSO has been in residence at the Kennedy Center since the latter opened in 1971. Davidson, who has been in her position for less than three years, will head to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in California. 

In an interview with the New York Times, Davidson said she started looking for a new job last year after Trump took over the center, firing its former leadership and installing his own loyalists. “There’s been a lot of change going on, and there’s not a lot of communication,” she told the Times. “We are finding out things through the press—at the same time as everyone else. Like the center closing on July 4.” 

She also added that Trump's announcement to close the Kennedy Center for two years for renovations, now beginning July 6, put the NSO into turmoil. The orchestra tends to plan its concerts years in advance, and the closure of the center means the NSO has to look for outside performance venues. “I didn’t see how I could be effective as a leader in the current climate," said Davidson.

She also said the NSO doesn't plan on severing its ties with the Kennedy Center. The Washington National Opera, another resident company, recently announced it was going to become a fully independent entity, citing decline in ticket sales and support following Trump's takeover.

Davidson's announcement comes as House Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Trump from closing the Kennedy Center or demolishing it. In her filing, she stated: "The [Kennedy Center] Board next meets on March 16, 2026, at the White House, where President Trump will seek ratification of his unlawful plans to shut down the Kennedy Center for two years and tear it down to build something 'new.' Plaintiff Beatty has not been invited to that Board meeting, nor provided any materials supporting the proposed closure and demolition, in clear violation of her rights as a member of the Board."

Beatty previously criticized the Trump Administration, saying last December, when the Kennedy Center board voted to rename the institution the Trump Kennedy Center via a Zoom call, her screen was muted and she was not allowed to voice her dissent.

Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell, appointed by Trump, recently said that the administration does not plan on demolishing the institution. He also said that the Kennedy Center Honors, now renamed the Trump Kennedy Center Honors, will be hosted at an outside, smaller venue.

Ever since Trump took over the institution last year, firing board members and its former leadership and appointing his own loyalists, there have been mass layoffs, and artists have canceled their engagements at the Kennedy Center en masse. Most recently, the San Francisco Ballet pulled out of a five-performance engagement. Other entities who are no longer performing there include composer Philip Glass (who canceled the world premiere of his Symphony No. 15, a tribute to Abraham Lincoln) and the national tour of Hamilton. In January, the center hired Kevin Couch, as its senior vice president of artistic programming; Couch resigned less than two weeks after he was announced.

As a result of all this turmoil, ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have fallen.

Though Trump's name has now been affixed to the wall of the center, members of Congress have decried the renaming, calling it illegal. An official renaming of federally funded institution requires Congressional approval. The web domain for the center remains Kennedy-Center.org.