Ben Folds Outlines the National Symphony Orchestra’s Challenges

Photo Credit: Ben Folds by Justin Higuchi / CC by 2.0

Ben Folds explains the challenges now facing the National Symphony Orchestra amid Trump’s recent overhaul of the Kennedy Center in an open letter.

Musician and former National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) artistic advisor Ben Folds released an open letter outlining the challenges now facing the orchestra in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s recent overhaul of the Kennedy Center. Folds resigned from his position as artistic advisor for the orchestra early last year, after Trump took charge of the historic institution.

“Our National Symphony Orchestra is in real trouble—it may not survive. There’s currently no plan or solution in sight to save the organization,” Folds wrote on Instagram. But he added that “the public can turn the tide with overwhelming support.”

Folds explained that the NSO currently has no programming scheduled for the upcoming season, partly because the orchestra “doesn’t even know if it has a home.” That’s the result of Trump’s plan to close the Kennedy Center for renovations for two years. While the move was recently blocked by a judge, Folds stressed that “it’s going to be a long, messy process to get this all back to a healthy situation.” Meanwhile, the Kennedy Center’s Trump-appointed board has expressed intent to appeal the ruling.

Folds pointed out that the NSO’s “tools for survival are entangled with the Kennedy Center’s legal and financial trouble.” These include the NSO’s endowment fund, “which is tied to a bank note.” The NSO has also been “suffocated by the financial turmoil that has resulted from the presidential takeover,” as both ticket sales and fundraising efforts have taken a nosedive since Trump’s focus on the Center began.

Sadly, NSO concertgoers, swept up in the politics of the Kennedy Center, decided to punish the orchestra instead of supporting it. The results could be dire.

Folds’ letter called for more news coverage of the NSO’s situation, alongside more related Kennedy Center stories, such as Trump adding his name to the building (another move that the court recently blocked). He called on the public to voice their support for the NSO, be it through public comments or private letters. He urged donors to remember that the orchestra “will need a lot of support” to get back on its feet. Folds also further noted the importance of the public contacting their congresspeople to demand safeguards to protect the Kennedy Center and other federal arts institutions.

“We need Congress and the Kennedy Center Board to create guidelines requiring any future director of the Kennedy Center to have actual experience in arts administration,” Folds added. “We can now see what happens when an inept director who doesn’t know this business and spends time attacking people and artists who displease him or the President. Audiences and artists go elsewhere.”

Finally, Folds wrote that his decision to resign as the NSO’s artistic advisor “stills hurts,” but he couldn’t risk “being used as a political pawn, implicitly siding with the POTUS’ politics by association.” He also noted that the members of the NSO were in a “different position.”

“There was nothing to gain from their resignation, except simple unemployment. They’ve remained apolitical. They’ve been performing their butts off in that awful situation,” Folds explained.

“As the politicization of the Kennedy Center makes it very difficult to attract audiences and artists, our methods of support are more limited,” he concluded. “But I say, let’s let them know we’re here and ready. Let’s get the word out, even amid the muddy waters of the legal dramas. Otherwise, imagine a free Western country with no National Symphony Orchestra. It’s real.”