Jazz head at Kennedy Center is the latest firing at the beleaguered arts institution

By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Published September 11, 2025 at 7:12 PM EDT

The grand foyer in the John F. Kennedy Center for the performing arts

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has fired another staffer: Kevin Struthers, a senior director of music programming who had been at the D.C. arts institution for . Struthers confirmed his termination to NPR on Thursday.

His dismissal is the latest upset in a of firings and resignations at the Kennedy Center since President Trump and appointed Richard Grennell its new . The Kennedy Center and NPR co-present the annual concert A Jazz Piano Christmas.

Their firings were first reported by on Thursday.

Struthers had been the administrative director of the Kennedy Center's jazz programming. Previously, the Kennedy Center had been celebrated for inviting a vibrant roster of established and emerging jazz artists. The only mainstage jazz performance still on the Kennedy Center's schedule is anOctober performance by The Glenn Miller Orchestra, a group which began recording in 1939.

The Kennedy Center's press office did not immediately reply to NPR's request for comment on the dismissal and a query about the future of jazz and Millennium Stage programming. The former artistic director of the organization's jazz programming, composer and pianist Jason Moran, in July after joining the Kennedy Center in 2011.

Jennifer Vanasco edited this story.

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