NEW YORK (AP) — Robert De Niro will appear this week at Carnegie Hall, where he will recite excerpts from a Philip Glass symphony about Abraham Lincoln that the composer once intended to stage at the Kennedy Center.
Glass announced in January that he called off a scheduled premiere of Symphony No. 15, “Lincoln,” in protest of President Donald Trump's ouster of the center's leadership.
Glass' symphony will be part of a benefit Tuesday night for Tibet House US, a nonprofit educational institution which announced the participation of De Niro, a prominent critic of Trump. Glass and Laurie Anderson are the evening's artistic directors.
“Lincoln” is based in part on one of Lincoln's earliest major speeches, the 1838 “Lyceum Address,” when the future president assailed mob violence and warned of its dangers to democracy.
“I am so pleased Robert De Niro is going to read the Lincoln speech,” Glass said in a statement. “He is absolutely the right person.”
Renée Fleming, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bela Fleck are among the many other artists who have canceled Kennedy Center events.
Trump has renamed the facility as the Trump Kennedy Center, a change scholars say can only be enacted by Congress. The president, who has made the center a key part of his campaign against so-called “woke” culture, announced last month that the facility will be shut down in July for construction, a project he expects to last for two years.
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This story corrects name to Symphony No. 15.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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