The Washington National Opera will officially move from its home at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to several venues in Montgomery County, Virginia, and elsewhere in the Greater Washington, D.C., area, the WNO announced Friday.

Many WNO performances this spring season will be held at the Lisner Auditorium at The George Washington University in D.C. — where the WNO performed 70 years ago when it first began.

The Washington National Opera Orchestra will perform at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Bethesda, among other locations in the area. Its production of “My Genius, my Angel, my Friend,” a recital featuring Russian operas and songs, is set for Friday, Jan. 23, at 7:30 p.m.

More venues for shows debuting later in the year will be announced at a later date, the WNO added.

“We will soon announce our 2026-2027 season at an array of great venues. For this moment, returning to Lisner Auditorium is both a homecoming and renewal,” said WNO General Director Timothy O’Leary.

“Thanks to our community of support, WNO will continue to be a source of beauty, connection, and free expression for another 70 years and beyond.”

The Kennedy Center has seen a slew of performer cancellations and attendee boycotts in the past year after President Donald Trump appointed himself Chairman of the Kennedy Center, and again last month when the Trump-appointed board voted to rename it the “Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Though the name outside the building now includes the president’s name, some lawmakers have challenged the legality of the change, given that only Congress has the power to rename a memorial.

The WNO’s spring calendar includes three shows that artistic director Francesca Zambello said “explore themes at the heart of what makes our country great.”

“‘Treemonisha’ celebrates the triumph of education over ignorance, while ‘The Crucible’ is a cautionary tale about a righteous mob that murders innocent women and tears families apart,” Zambello added. “We close with ‘West Side Story,’ a modern spin on the Shakespeare play that Leonard Bernstein called ‘an out and out plea for racial tolerance.’ ... I hope our productions can serve as a springboard for dialogue and perhaps even a source of healing.”

The WNO Cafritz Young Artists program will host shows at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College and the George Washington Masonic Memorial, both in Alexandria, Virginia.

In addition to the new Bethesda location, Washington National Opera Orchestra will also perform the National Presbyterian Church in D.C., St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Orange, Virginia, the Hylton Performing Arts Center at George Mason University, and The Rectory on Princess Street in Alexandria.

The WNO change in venue come after the opera company, which has performed at the Kennedy Center since 1971, announced its departure last Friday. The National Opera and a spokesperson for the Kennedy Center called it an amicable parting of the ways.

In the three days following the announcement, the WNO said it received donations from more than 500 donors.