Rufus Wainwright (with support from Nerina Pallot)
SUPPORT: Nerina Pallot
Praised by the New York Times for his “genuine originality,” Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of the great male vocalists, composers, and songwriters of his generation. The New York-born, Montreal-raised singer songwriter has released eight studio albums, three DVDs, and three live albums, including the fantastic Grammy nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, which captured his celebrated Judy Garland tribute performance at the London Palladium in 2007, and the album Release The Stars which went Gold in Canada and the U.K.
Wainwright has received Juno Awards for Best Alternative Album in 1999 and 2002 for Rufus Wainwright and Poses, respectively, and nominations for his albums Want Two (2005) and Release the Stars (2008). He was nominated for Songwriter of the Year in 2008 for his Release the Stars album. He also composed the original music for choreographer Stephen Petronio’s work BLOOM which has toured across the country.
Musically Rufus has collaborated with artists including Elton John, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, Pet Shop Boys and producer Mark Ronson among others. His most recent collaboration is on the title track of Robbie Williams’ latest album, Swings Both Ways, which was co-written with renowned musician and producer Guy Chambers and sung as a duet between Rufus and Robbie.
In addition to being a celebrated contemporary pop singer, Rufus has made a name for himself in the classical world. His much acclaimed first opera, titled Prima Donna, premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July 2009. The opera was subsequently performed in London at Sadler’s Wells in April 2010, in Toronto at the Luminato Festival in June 2010 and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House in February 2012. Now fully established as a composer of operas, Rufus has been commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company to write his second opera based on the story of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and Antinous. The new opera will premiere in Toronto in October 2018.
Rufus has also distinguished himself by playing original orchestrated pop songs and pieces from an extensive classical repertoire with well-respected opera singers and orchestras around the world. Wainwright was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony to compose “Five Shakespeare Sonnets,” a five-movement suite that sets the texts from selected Shakespearian “Sonnets” to orchestra and voice. “Five Shakespeare Sonnets” premiered in the US in 2010 and debuted in the UK in 2012 with the sixty-piece BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rory MacDonald. Rufus was asked by famed director Robert Wilson to compose music for Shakespeare Sonnette that was staged at the Berlin Ensemble in 2009.
Other recent achievements include the 2012 world premiere of Sing Me The Songs That Say I Love You: A Concert for Kate McGarrigle, the feature length music documentary starring Rufus, Martha Wainwright and their family and directed by Lian Lunson. The film captures the May 2011 tribute concert honoring Rufus’ late mother, the great singer songwriter Kate McGarrigle. Nonesuch Records released a record, Sing Me The Songs That Say I Love You: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle which included songs from the movie as well as selections from the three tribute concerts for Kate given in London, New York and Toronto and featuring performances by Rufus, Martha, Anna McGarrigle, Emmylou Harris, Emmylou Harris, Richard and Linda Thompson and many others. The movie and the record are both available on iTunes and Amazon.
In 2014, Universal Records released Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright, a new career-spanning collection that features eighteen standout songs defining one of music’s most innovative talents. Included in the collection are three brand new recordings, “Me and Liza”, “Chic and Pointless” and “WWIII." Also released on CD and Blu-ray is Rufus Wainwright: Live from the Artists Den which captures Rufus’ inspired performance at New York City’s Church of the Ascension in 2012.
Rufus recently completed his PledgeMusic campaign to record Prima Donna: The Album, a studio recording of his first opera with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He describes, “It is vitally important to me that Prima Donna be properly recorded and released so that I can tour a concert version of it in the coming year, and I have decided to do this with the help of both PledgeMusic and the incredible BBC Symphony Orchestra which in turn requires your generous support.” Wainwright chose the PledgeMusic direct-to-fan platform so his supporters can partake in the album-making process through behind the scenes updates and exclusive views into the creative journey. Deutsche Grammophon release of a double CD recording of Prima Donna with the BBC Symphony Orchestra is now available everywhere.
The initial success of Wainwright’s opera, Prima Donna, which premiered in 2009 at the Manchester International Festival, led him to create an artistic concert adaptation to share with the rest of the world.
The opera’s central character, a retired Diva struggling to make her return to the stage and regain her former years of greatness, was inspired by BBC Lord Harewood interviews with Maria Callas in her later years.
For the concert adaptation, Wainwright reconfigured the music he composed for the Opera, and scheduled the tour to coincide with the release of the studio recording of the complete opera with Deutsche Grammophon. Wainwright conceived of a film to accompany the live music and invited two legendary artists to collaborate with him on it.
Rufus also recently premiered Prima Donna: A Symphonic Visual Concert at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus at the Athens Festival in Greece on September 15th, 2015. Prima Donna: A Symphonic Visual Concert was also performed at the Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Portugal on November 27th & 28th, 2015, Buenos Aires at Teatro Colon on February 19th& 20th, 2016 and the Hong Kong Arts Festival on March 1st, 2016. In July 2016, it was performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival in Montreal, QC.
Rufus celebrated the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with the release of his latest album Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets on Deutsche Grammophon worldwide on April 22nd, 2016. Performers on the new record include Rufus’ sister Martha Wainwright, vocalist Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine, Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska; multiple Grammy-nominated composer and producer Marius de Vries; Sián Phillips, Peter Eyre who provides the introduction, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra; British actress Helena Bonham Carter, Americans Carrie Fisher and William Shatner, and the 92-year-old Inge Keller – one of the great names of German theatre.
www.rufuswainwright.com
www.facebook.com/rufuswainwrightofficial
www.twitter.com/rufuswainwright