Violinist Hilary Hahn and cellist Seth Parker Woods announced that they have withdrawn from next month’s world premiere of Carlos Simon’s Double Concerto Suite at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and conductor Gianandrea Noseda. 

For the concert dates on March 12, 13, and 14, Hahn and Woods have now been replaced by NSO Associate Concertmaster Ying Fu and NSO Assistant Principal Cello Raymond Tsai.

Carlos Simon, who is currently the Kennedy Center’s Composer-in-Residence, wrote his Double Concerto Suite as an NSO co-commission. Bookending his work on the program will be Schumann’s Manfred Overture and Brahms’s Symphony No. 3. 

“We have chosen to withdraw from our concerts at The Kennedy Center this March,” Woods shared in a public statement. “We are sorry to not be with our friends and colleagues at the National Symphony Orchestra and hope to perform with them again in the future.”

This move also comes shortly after Hilary has announced her return to the stage after a serious injury.

 

While no reason was given for their decision to withdraw, Hahn and Woods’ announcement comes as many artists have chosen not to appear at the Kennedy Center in light of major changes to the venue since Trump’s takeover last February. The venue, which now bears Trump’s name on its building exterior, has also faced a fall in audience engagement and donor activity. 

Trump has also revealed plans to close the Kennedy Center for two years from July 4, 2026, for renovations, though insisted that he was “not ripping it down.” The planned closure has drawn protest from members of Congress and Kennedy Center Union Workers. 

Recently, the center’s president Richard Grenell has informed Kennedy Center staffers of impending layoffs ahead of the renovations, which will lead to “skeletal teams” and “some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,” Grenell said. 

“Far from being ‘tired, broken, and dilapidated,’ the Kennedy Center was beautifully renovated and expanded as recently as 2019,” members of Congress wrote to Trump. “Remaking this ‘national memorial’ as a monument to anyone or anything other than President Kennedy is plainly contrary to federal law and ultra vires.

“The closure of this national treasure could cancel more than 2,200 annual performances and exhibits and eliminate 400 free community events, to the sharp detriment of the Center’s two million annual visitors who are the intended audience and beneficiaries of the Act … It is also unclear how many, if any, Kennedy Center staff will continue to be employed through the prospective closure.”