Jefferson Center presents Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright is a Juno-winning, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter whose lush, theatrical pop harks back to the traditions of Tin Pan Alley, cabaret, and even opera. Quickly rising from club residencies to international headliner status, his fifth studio album, 2007’s Release the Stars, became his most commercially successful to date, with a reach that included the Top 30 of the Billboard 200 and as high as the Top Five in the U.K. and Norway. Demonstrating his appreciation for the vocal era as well as for her standing as a gay icon, he delivered the Judy Garland tribute Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall -- his first live album -- that same year. Challenging his composing and arranging skills, he premiered his first opera, Prima Donna, in 2009, and 2016’s Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets set select poems to Wainwright’s music. Wainwright returned with his first pop album in eight years, Unfollow the Rules, in 2020. A diverse set of covers, 2023’s Folkocracy embraced his family’s folk roots beside guests as diverse as John Legend, Sheryl Crow, and Nicole Scherzinger.