I am a firm believer in the “sit down and hash it out” school of conflict resolution. That being said, I cannot imagine a pair who would benefit less from this approach than internationally-celebrated composer Philip Glass and Donald Trump.

Watch any interview with Glass and you will find a man circumspect to an almost disabling degree. Look to America and you will see a president who has perhaps never been circumspect about anything in his life. They are, in the overused phrase, divided by a common language.

What, then, to do about the simmering row between president Trump and the performing arts (excuse the phrase) “community”?

Shortly after his inauguration, the US president invited himself to be the chair of the supposedly bipartisan Kennedy Centre in Washington, DC. He dispatched the director, and most of the board. And late last year the name Donald J Trump was slapped on to the front of the building above “The John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts”. Ticket sales have tanked, patrons have protested, artists have departed, cancelled or played to half-empty rooms.

And then on Tuesday, Glass – armed with name recognition his fellow protesters may have lacked – escalated things. “Symphony No. 15 is a........

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