A veteran musician at the Kennedy Center says he is seeing a cultural institution lose its audience right before his eyes after Donald Trump took charge.
Daniel Foster, a violist who has been with the National Symphony Orchestra for the last thirty years, told the Washingtonian that he has been playing to rows of empty seats since Trump’s MAGA takeover of the Kennedy Center. He feels increasingly disheartened by the shrinking crowds while trying to concentrate on his work, rehearsals, performances, and preparing music at a high level.
“Right now, I’m focusing on what I’m there to do, which I love: I have music to prepare,” Foster said. He made it clear that the empty seats are not just an aesthetic issue. “I try not to get overly big-picture about things, but the money from ticket sales is not just extra.”
Trump took it upon himself to attempt to change the Kennedy Center, a venue that for years tried to be an apolitical national arts center. In February, Trump installed himself as chair after calling the institution too “woke,” a term he and his allies use uses to criticize cultural spaces deemed to liberal.
He also appointed MAGA supporter Richard Grenell to lead the institution, despite Grenell’s lack of experience in the arts or culture. Other White House officials and Trump allies joined the board, shifting what was once a predictable arts governance structure into a new battleground in the administration’s culture war.
According to reports and industry chatter from around the venue, the result has been a significant backlash. Productions have withdrawn from runs that would typically be easy money, especially Hamilton, which canceled a planned engagement. Ticket sales have reportedly dropped with The Washington Post reporting in October that over 40 percent of tickets for performances had gone unsold, a shocking figure for a key institution in the nation’s capital, especially one used to attracting tourists, donors, and a steady local audience.
Inside the building, Foster said the change has taken an emotional toll and musicians are taught to block everything out and focus on the music, to play as if the hall is full even when it isn’t. But when the empty seats keep showing up night after night, it no longer feels like an off evening, it starts to feel like something is wrong, like a quiet signal that the place itself is in trouble.
I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump…
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) December 18, 2025
There is also speculation among staff that the Kennedy Center has been giving away more free tickets to fill seats and keep up appearances. If true, it shows how the institution is crumbling under the financial pressure. With the ticket revenue, it is unclear how long they will manage to keep the doors open.
After performances, he reveals he hopes the Kennedy Center’s former regular audience would return, not as a political stance, but because the experience matters to them too. “I think it would have value to them,” he told the publication, continuing: “People want to feel things. It makes us feel alive.”
Foster was careful to avoid making his comments sound like a lecture to potential concertgoers. “It’s not appropriate for me to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do,” he said. Still, he warned that if ticket sales keep falling, the Kennedy Center’s long-term future could be at risk.
