There I was in uniform Looking at the art teacher I was just a girl then; Never have I loved since then
He was not that much older than I was He had taken our class to the Metropolitan Museum He asked us what our favorite work of art was, But never could I tell it was him Oh, I wish I could tell him Oh, I wish I could have told him
I looked at the Rubens and Rembrandts I liked the John Singer Sargents He told me he liked Turner Never have I turned since then No, never have I turned to any other man
All this having been said, I married an executive company head All this having been done, a Turner -I own one Here I am in this uniformish, pant-suit sort of thing, Thinking of the art teacher I was just a girl then; Never have I loved since then No, never have I loved any other man
My parents were serious working musicians, but they were not stars -not like pop stars that you have now. They had to make a living and that meant touring, working hard, going on the road -and we were roped in.
Tonight, Claire Fontaine and TheGrandma have gone to El Port Vell in Barcelona to listen to RufusWainwright, the American-Canadian singer, songwriter, and composer who has oferred an amazing show promoted by BlaumaríMusic.
The concert has been fantastic and Rufus has performed classics such as Poses, Cigarretes and Chocolate Milk, Going to a Town; a wonderful Complainte de la Butte;premieres such as Seasonal Pain in the Ass, Look Down at the Stars and Raining in Athens, and two very special songs: Leonard Cohen's Hallellujah and Barcelona, a song he dedicated to the Catalan capital in 1998.
Claire and The Grandma have always followed Rufus and whether at the Auditori de Sant Cugat del Vallès, the Teatre del Liceu and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona or his concerts in Montréal, it is always a pleasure to listen to this great artist who yesterday had an added challenge: singing at the Port Vell on a terribly warm night and a humidity that made both his guitar and his piano suffer.
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter, and composer.
He
has recorded nine albums of original music and numerous tracks on
compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical
operas and set Shakespeare's sonnets to music for a theater piece by
Robert Wilson. He is the son of musician and actor Loudon Wainwright
III.
Wainwright's self-titled debut album was released through DreamWorks Records in May 1998. His second album, Poses, was released in June 2001. Wainwright'sthird and fourth studio albums, Want One (2003) and Want Two (2004), were repackaged as the double album Want in 2005.
In 2007, Wainwright released his fifth studio album Release the Stars and his first live album Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall. His second live album Milwaukee at Last!!! was released in 2009, followed by the studio albums All DaysAre Nights: Songs for Lulu (2010) and Out of the Game (2012).
The double album Prima Donna (2015), was a recording of his opera of the same name. His ninth studio album Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets (2016), featured nine adaptions of Shakespeare's sonnets. Rufus' 10th studio album, Unfollow the Rules, was released on July 20, 2020.
Wainwright is the son of musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, and the older brother of singer Martha Wainwright.
Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York,
to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. His parents
divorced when he was three, and he lived with his mother in Montreal for
most of his youth. His father is a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the
17th century Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, later New York. Wainwright
has dual US and Canadian citizenship.
He
attended high school at the Millbrook School in New York, and later
briefly studied piano at McGill in Montreal. He began playing the piano
at age six, and started touring at age 13 with The McGarrigle Sisters and Family, a folk group featuring Rufus, his sister Martha, his mother Kate, and aunt Anna.
His song I'm a-Runnin',
which he performed in the film Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller at
the age of 14, earned him a nomination for a 1989 Genie Award for Best
Original Song. He was nominated for a 1990 Juno Award for Most Promising
Male Vocalist of the Year.
Through weekly shows at Cafe Sarajevo, Wainwright
was on the Montreal club circuit and eventually cut a series of demo
tapes produced by Pierre Marchand, who later produced Wainwright's album
Poses. The resulting tapes impressed his father Loudon, who
passed them on to his friend Van Dyke Parks. Parks sent the recordings
to Lenny Waronker, the DreamWorks executive who eventually signed Wainwright to his label.
Wainwright lived in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City for six months, during which he wrote most of his second album.
On June 5, 2001, Wainwright's second album, Poses, was released to critical acclaim but limited sales.
In 2003, Rufus released the full-length album Want One. Then Wainwright'salbum Want Two, from which four songs were released as the EP Waiting for aWant, was released by DreamWorks/Geffen on November 16, 2004.
Wainwright's fifth studio album, Release the Stars, was released by Geffen on May 15, 2007. The album was produced by Wainwright
and featured Richard Thompson, friend Teddy Thompson, sister Martha
Wainwright, mother Kate McGarrigle, Neil Tennant, Joan Wasser, Julianna
Raye, Larry Mullins, and actress Siân Phillips.
In November 2009, Wainwright announced that he had finished recording his sixth studio album, and was calling it All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu.
In December 2009, Wainwright
appeared with sister Martha Wainwright and mother Kate McGarrigle at
the Royal Albert Hall in London, raising $55,000 for the Kate McGarrigle
Fund, which was established in 2008 to raise awareness of sarcoma, a
rare cancer that affects connective tissue such as bone, muscle, nerves,
and cartilage.
In July 2011 a 19-disc box set called House of Rufus containing all his studio and live recordings as well as previously unreleased material was released.
In 2015, Wainwright launched a new version of his first opera, accompanied by a film directed by Francesco Vezzoli, featuring Cindy Sherman as the PrimaDonna.
Almost a year after releasing stand-alone single Sword of Damocles in October 2018, Rufus signed a record deal with music publisher and record label BMG Rights Management for a new album.
In February 2020, the album, Unfollow the Rules, was announced alongside the release of Joni Mitchell inspired single Damsel in Distress and was slated for an April release.
On March 7, 2023, Wainwright announced his eleventh studio album, Folkocracy, would be released in June 2023.
Wainwright's opera, Dream Requiem, premiered in 2024. A soundtrack album is due for release in February 2025; actress Meryl Streep is featured.
On 21 November 2025, Wainwright released the live album I'm A Stranger Here Myself: Wainwright Does Weill, in collaboration with Pacific Jazz Orchestra. The album contains performances of songs written by Kurt Weill.
Today, The Grandma is at home relaxing and listening to some music. She haschosen KateMcGarrigle, the Quebecerfolkmusic singer-songwriter, who was born on a day like today in 1946.
Kate McGarrigle (February 6, 1946-January 18, 2010) was a Quebecer folk music singer-songwriter, who wrote and performed as a duo with her sister Anna McGarrigle.
She is the mother of singers Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright from her marriage to American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, which ended in divorce.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, to Irish pianist Francis McGarrigle and French Canadian mother Gabrielle Latrémouille, the three McGarrigle sisters (Jane, Anna, and Kate, the youngest) grew up in the village of Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, north of Montreal.
Their family was a musical one on both sides, often gathering around the piano and singing, allowing Kate and her sisters to absorb influences as varied as Gershwin, French Canadian folk songs, Stephen Foster, and composer-singers such as Wade Hemsworth and Edith Piaf. The sisters were formally introduced to music by taking piano lessons from the village nuns.
In the 1960s Kate and Anna established themselves in Montreal's burgeoning folk scene while they attended school. From 1963 to 1967, they teamed up with Jack Nissenson and Peter Weldon to form the folk group, the Mountain City Four.
Anna, who is 14 months older than Kate, studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal (now part of the Université du Québec à Montréal) in Montreal; McGarrigle studied engineering at McGill University. It was at this time that they began writing songs.
Although she sang mostly in English, according to Juan Rodriguez, she and Anna put Québécois folk music...on the global music map in 1980 with Complainte pour Ste. Catherine, Entre la jeunesse et la sagesse (commonly known as the French Record) and 2003's La vache qui pleure.
The McGarrigle sisters' life has been chronicled in a book by Anna's husband, Dane Lanken, titled Kate and Anna McGarrigle: Songs and Stories.
Place Kate-McGarrigle was inaugurated on August 7, 2013 in Montreal's Outremont borough. It contains a sculpture by Robert Wilson in the form of a double chair. McGarrigle -a Montreal native- lived nearby before her death.
Her son, Rufus, says he discussed with McGarrigle the offer of his childhood friend, Lorca Cohen, for Rufus to sire her child. He says that McGarrigle strongly encouraged him to accept Cohen's offer, and that he regrets she didn't live long enough to see his daughter Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen's birth.
Kate and Anna's 1976 self-titled debut album was chosen by Melody Maker as Best Record of the Year. Their albums Matapedia (1996) and The McGarrigle Hour (1998) won Juno Awards.
In 1993, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
In 1999, Kate and Anna received Women of Originality awards.
In 2006, Kate and Anna McGarrigle were the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the SOCAN Awards.
McGarrigle was diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and established the KateMcGarrigle Fund at the McGill University Health Centre, which she set up in 2008 to raise awareness of sarcoma, a rare cancer that affects connective tissue such as bone, muscle, nerves and cartilage.
She died of clear-cell sarcoma on January 18, 2010, aged 63 at her home in Montreal.
She made her last public appearance, with Rufus and Martha Wainwright, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, just six weeks before her death.
On June 12, 2010, the Meltdown Festival staged a tribute concert in her honour, organised by Richard Thompson. The concert included performances by her daughter Martha Wainwright, son Rufus Wainwright, sister Anna McGarrigle, ex-husband Loudon Wainwright III, Neil Tennant, Nick Cave, Emmylou Harris, Richard and Linda Thompson, and longtime friends and musical collaborators Chaim Tannenbaum and Joel Zifkin. Her close friend Emmylou Harris wrote the song Darlin' Kate in her memory, which appears on her album Hard Bargain.
A Celebration of Kate McGarrigle was held on May 12 and 13, 2011, at New York City's Town Hall. Among the participating artists honoring her at these concerts were Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, Anna McGarrigle, Emmylou Harris, Lisa Hannigan, Norah Jones, Antony Hegarty, Jimmy Fallon, Krystle Warren, Justin Vivian Bond, Teddy Thompson, Jenni Muldaur, writer Michael Ondaatje and longtime friends and McGarrigle sidemen Chaim Tannenbaum and Joel Zifkin.
The celebration was curated by Joe Boyd and filmed by Lian Lunson. Sing Me theSongs That Say I Love You: A Concert for Kate McGarrigle was released in June 2013; Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle served as the film's soundtrack.
It is a great pleasure for The Grandma to introduce ClaireFontaine, a new friend from Québec, who is going to talk us about music, fashion, marketing and trends.
Today, Claire assists to a Rufus Wainwright’s Concert in Sant Cugat del Vallès. She’s a great fan of this fantastic and enjoyable artist who sings beautiful songs in English and French because he lives in California but he spent his youth in Montréal, Québec, hometown of her mother.
Rufus is Kate McGarrigle's son; Anne McGarrigle's niece and Martha Wainright's brother and his oeuvre contains several recurring themes:
opera, literature, pop culture, politics, and love. Kate and Anne McGarrigle are the members of The Garrigles, the famous folk duo.
He has recorded seven albums of original music and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written a classical opera and set Shakespeare sonnets to music.
Rufus became interested in opera during his adolescent years, and the genre strongly influences his music. For instance, the song Barcelona features lyrics from the libretto of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Macbeth. During this time, he became interested in Édith Piaf, Al Jolson, and Judy Garland.
In the present world, this technological, psychotic, politicised, nonsensical world, you have to believe that the good guys are going to win! That evil will be banished somehow!
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