“If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.” JFK, remarks at Amherst College, October 26, 1963.

The Kennedy Dream (subtitled A Musical Tribute to John Fitzgerald Kennedy) is an eight-part jazz suite composed in 1967. Sections of the suite are prefaced by a recorded excerpt from a JFK speech. It was a very moving performance, in the perfect venue for such a tribute.

Fifty years later, I was honored to receive a performance of my piece “Of Two Minds” by Dyad, an innovative duo consisting of Niv Ashkenazi, violin,  and Leah Kohn, bassoon, at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage in July of  2022.

It is infuriating to contemplate a possible renaming of the Kennedy Center to include our gameshow host president and/or his wife, neither of whom has any connection to the performing arts. This would be just another gratuitous Trumpian insult to the art world, and to our democracy.

President Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg recently posted strong criticism of the opera house’s renaming proposal. Schlossberg, Caroline Kennedy’s son, wrote, “JFK believed the arts made our country great and could be our most effective weapon in the fight for civil rights and against authoritarian governments around the world,” adding, “The Trump administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression.”