The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington has gone through big changes since President Trump’s recent takeover of the institution.
But there will be at least one constant in the coming years: The conductor Gianandrea Noseda will stay on as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, one of the center’s flagship groups. Mr. Noseda has extended his contract through at least 2031, the ensemble announced on Wednesday.
Mr. Noseda, 60, the ensemble’s maestro since 2017, said that he felt he still had more to accomplish with the orchestra. He wants the ensemble to tour more often, to commission more pieces and to perform more opera.
“We have established this kind of mutual trust in our relationship,” Mr. Noseda, whose contract had been set to expire in 2027, said in an interview this week. “It would have been a pity to stop.”
Mr. Trump took over the Kennedy Center last month, purging its board of all Biden appointees and installing himself as chairman. Deborah F. Rutter, the center’s president for more than a decade, was fired. She was credited with luring the highly esteemed Mr. Noseda to the orchestra in what was widely seen as a coup.
After the president’s takeover, Ben Folds, the singer and songwriter, resigned his post as an adviser to the orchestra. The orchestra has stayed largely quiet about the changes; its musicians issued a statement saying they were “proud to perform for our patrons, our community in our nation’s capital, and the country at large.”
But some of the drama has spilled over into performances. Last week Mr. Noseda led a concert of works by Shostakovich and Stravinsky that was attended by Vice President JD Vance and the second lady, Usha Vance. The Vances were loudly booed as they took their seats in the box tier.
Mr. Noseda said he had not been aware of the booing, which happened before he took the podium. But he said the atmosphere of the concert felt more intense than usual. Mr. Noseda said it was not his duty to judge, but that he felt “music should welcome everybody.”
Mr. Noseda has tried to stay out of politics. Asked about the president’s takeover, he said he was optimistic about the future of the Kennedy Center and its affiliates.
“In a situation of not danger, but some drama, we must underline the power of the art and the music,” he said. “This center will survive me, and it will survive everybody.”
He said music could create a sacred space. “When you come here, it’s sort of a holy place — you keep everything out,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you don’t believe or have your convictions. But when you go to that place, it’s just the place for the music.”
In Washington and elsewhere, Mr. Noseda, general music director of the Zurich Opera House and principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, has earned acclaim for his versatility in the symphonic repertoire and in opera. He has led ambitious recording projects and worked to expand audiences online and in the community.
Joan Bialek, chair of the orchestra’s board, said in a statement that Mr. Noseda had brought the ensemble to “new heights in the world of classical music.”
“He lives in the hearts of everyone around him, including the musicians, the N.S.O. staff and every N.S.O. board member,” Ms. Bialek said.
Mr. Noseda is leading a long-planned tour with the symphony this week in Florida, including a stop in West Palm Beach, not far from Mar-a-Lago — the orchestra’s first domestic tour since 2011.
Mr. Noseda said he would welcome the chance to have Mr. Trump at a concert someday.
“I would love to perform for the widest possible audience, so why not for the president, the vice president, the first lady, the second lady?” he said. “The music is for everybody. The art is for everybody.”
