Stephen Schwartz Criticizes Kennedy Center, Saying He Won’t Host Gala

The Washington National Opera said the “Wicked” composer was scheduled to host its annual event at the center this spring.

Stephen Schwartz, the composer of “Wicked,” said on Friday that he would no longer host a gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, becoming one of the most high-profile artists to criticize changes at the arts center under the Trump administration.

In a statement to The New York Times, Mr. Schwartz cited his long history collaborating with the Kennedy Center, saying that it “was founded to be an apolitical home for free artistic expression for artists of all nationalities and ideologies.”

“It is no longer apolitical and appearing there has now become an ideological statement,” he said. “As long as that remains the case, I will not appear there.”

Mr. Schwartz, who also composed the Broadway musicals “Godspell” and “Pippin,” said that at the end of 2024, he had been asked by Francesca Zambello, the artistic director of the Washington National Opera, to participate in an event at the Kennedy Center this May.

He said he had agreed, but added that he had last communicated with the opera about the event almost a year ago, in February 2025. That month, President Trump purged and replaced members of the Kennedy Center’s board, which has since voted to add Mr. Trump’s name to the building.

Ms. Zambello confirmed in a brief interview on Friday that Mr. Schwartz had long been scheduled to be a host of the opera’s gala on May 16. She declined further comment.

Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president for public relations, said in a statement that “Stephen Schwartz was never discussed nor confirmed and never had a contract by current Trump Kennedy Center leadership.”

Richard Grenell, the president of the Kennedy Center, wrote on social media that “the Stephen Schwartz reports are totally bogus,” saying that the composer “was never signed and I’ve never had a single conversation on him since arriving.”

The Kennedy Center had promoted Mr. Schwartz’s involvement in the gala on its website since last spring, but his name was no longer included on Friday evening. A brochure advertising Washington National Opera events for the 2025-26 season said Mr. Schwartz would curate and host the gala.

“Witness the links between musical theater and opera come alive in this thrilling concert!” the brochure said.

Newsday earlier reported that Mr. Schwartz would no longer participate in the gala at the Kennedy Center. “There’s no way I would set foot in it now,” he said in an email that his assistant sent to the publication.

The Kennedy Center opened in September 1971 with a premiere of “Mass,” which was composed by Leonard Bernstein with English texts by Mr. Schwartz, who was then 23 years old.

Mr. Schwartz has since been nominated for a competitive Tony Award six times but has never won; he has several Grammys (“Godspell,” “Wicked” and the song “Colors of the Wind” from “Pocahontas”) and three Oscars (“Pocahontas” and “The Prince of Egypt”).

More recently, he wrote the score for “The Queen of Versailles,” a big-budget musical that reunited him with Kristin Chenoweth — a star of the original “Wicked” cast — during a brief Broadway run.

Mr. Schwartz joined several other artists who have publicly expressed disapproval with the Kennedy Center since Mr. Trump’s name was added to the building last month.

The jazz musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve concert he has hosted for nearly two decades, and the jazz septet the Cookers called off two New Year’s Eve concerts. The dance company Doug Varone and Dancers and the folk singer Kristy Lee also announced that they had canceled events.

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