National Symphony Orchestra to Open With National Anthem at All Kennedy Center Concerts

Whenever the National Symphony Orchestra opens a concert this year, one work will always be on the program. “The Star-Spangled Banner” will now open each performance, Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell said on Oct. 10.

“The National Symphony should be playing the National Anthem,” Grenell, a special envoy in the current administration and former acting director of national intelligence, said in a statement.

A Kennedy Center insider told The Epoch Times that the move marks a first for the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center. Two other orchestras—the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra—regularly perform the anthem.

A 1931 Congressional joint resolution made the song, with lyrics by Francis Scott Key, set to John Stafford Smith’s “To Anacreon in Heaven,” the official U.S. national anthem.

The move is the latest in a series of significant changes for the Kennedy Center, the country’s national performing arts space based in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump now serves as board chairman.

The venue has featured a sold-out run of performances of “The Sound of Music” stage musical. Grenell recently announced that both the Vienna Philharmonic and the Stuttgart Ballet will return to the venue. The ballet had been away from the Kennedy Center for 33 years; the Viennese orchestra hadn’t performed there for 14 years.

“It’s clear the public is craving common sense & traditional programming,” Grenell said of the Vienna Philharmonic when he noted their return on X, formerly Twitter, earlier this month.

The National Symphony Orchestra itself appears to be a beneficiary of renewed interest in Kennedy Center programming. On Oct. 3, the orchestra announced a $3.45 million haul at its annual fundraising gala, besting the New York Philharmonic’s event by $150,000. That record amount supports National Symphony Orchestra performances, education, and community engagement initiatives.

Under the center’s new leadership, the gala also drew a surge of new donors: more than half of the attendees were first-time guests, signaling expanding outreach. National Symphony Orchestra Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, who recently extended his contract through 2031, led a program combining American and Russian works, including Aaron Copland and Tchaikovsky.

Some long-time concertgoers have expressed surprise at the format change, noting that classical concerts traditionally begin directly with symphonic repertoire, not patriotic anthems. Nevertheless, the center’s leadership frames it as a return to national dignity and identity through the arts.