"The Brentano String Quartet had finished their performance when a special guest dropped in backstage: the US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We thanked her for everything she had done for our country, recalls violinist Mark Steinberg. It was a nice moment. The year was 2016 and the place was the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington."
"Steinberg explained: I would have felt ashamed to walk out on stage there. I can't quite bring myself to go into the building at this point. It would be such a luxury to make art in a vacuum and that's what I yearn for but that's not possible right now. Had we appeared there, in my eyes, that would be a way of condoning everything that's happening and I couldn't stomach that."
The Brentano String Quartet encountered US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg backstage during a 2016 Kennedy Center performance. Over the following decade Ginsburg died, Donald Trump became president, and the Kennedy Center faced leadership and political controversies. The quartet canceled a recent engagement there, citing Trump's takeover of the complex and expressing shame at performing amid perceived institutional wrongdoing. A Kennedy Center official resigned less than two weeks after hiring. The Kennedy Center originated from a 1960s federal initiative, opened in 1971 with Bernstein's Mass, and over decades presented major festivals and stagings including Sondheim, August Wilson cycles, and Wagner.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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