Rufus Wainwright and Jörn Weisbrodt

Praised by The New York Times for his “genuine originality,” Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of the great male vocalists, songwriters, and composers of his generation. The New York-born, Montreal-raised singer-songwriter has released ten studio albums to date, three DVDs, and three live albums including the Grammy nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall. He has collaborated with artists such as Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Miley Cyrus, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, Pet Shop Boys, Heart, Carly Rae Jepsen, Robbie Williams, Jessye Norman, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Sting, Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, John Legend, Anohni and producer Mark Ronson, among many others. He has written two operas and numerous songs for movies and TV.

Jorn Weisbrodt was born in Hamburg on January 26, 1973. He studied opera directing at the music conservatory “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin. He is married to Rufus Wainwright and currently manages his career and produces his work. Until 2016 he served as the artistic adviser to the Music Center in Los Angeles where he produced a large birthday concert for Joni’ Mitchell’s 75th birthday that was released as an album and movie across the globe. He was also the inaugural artistic director of ALL ARTS, WNET’s 24 hour cultural TV channel and online platform. Between 2012 and 2016 he was the Artistic Director of the Luminato Festival in Toronto where he commissioned and produced new works with artists such as Marina Abramovic, Lemi Ponifasio, Kid Koala, Dana Gingras, Ohad Naharin, and R. Murray Schafer. Before this appointment he was working as the executive director of RW Work Ltd. representing and managing the work of Robert Wilson and as the director of The Watermill Center—a laboratory for Performance founded by Robert Wilson in New York. He has been instrumental in producing productions such as “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic” and the worldwide tour and revival of Robert Wilson’s and Philip Glass’ opera Einstein on the Beach. For The Watermill Center he has established partnerships with the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Kampnagel Hamburg, the Donaufestival in Krems, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Performa, the Purnati Arts Center in Indonesia, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University among others.