Rufus Wainwright

Born in 1973 in Rhinebeck, New York, and raised between the United States and Montréal, Rufus Wainwright comes from a musical family—his parents are Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. A Canadian‑American singer‑songwriter, Wainwright developed from the late 1990s an artistic world that blends orchestral pop, piano‑based songs, classical influences and references to opera and cabaret. His self‑titled debut album was released in 1998, followed by Poses in 2001 and the diptych Want One (2003) and Want Two (2004), which established a style marked by dense arrangements and detailed songwriting. He went on to release Release the Stars in 2007, the live album Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall that same year, All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu in 2010 and Out of the Game in 2012, while composing the opera Prima Donna, premiered in 2009, and later Hadrian in 2018. He also pursued projects around Shakespeare (Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, 2016), returned to a more direct form of songwriting with Unfollow the Rules in 2020, and explored a rearranged repertoire of folk and covers on Folkocracy in 2023. Equally present on concert‑hall and festival stages, Wainwright is noted for his continual work on voice and language—chiefly English, sometimes French—and for moving regularly between pop, art music and the culture of live performance.