Grammy-Nominated Singer To Perform With Student Orchestra In Princeton

PRINCETON, NJ — Princeton students are getting a once-in-a-lifetime gig: backing Rufus Wainwright on the McCarter Theatre stage.

The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter will perform one night only with the Princeton Playhouse Sinfonia on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m. The ensemble was formed just for this concert.

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The orchestra has more than 40 musicians. It brings together student musicians from Princeton University's Sinfonia, directed by Ruth Ochs, and the Princeton Playhouse Orchestra, directed by Solon Snider Sway. Members of the Princeton Jazz Ensembles and local professional musicians will also play.

McCarter says it's one of the biggest collaborations it has done with university arts programs, in terms of the number of students, programs and communities involved. Musicians come from both the Princeton Department of Music and the Lewis Center for the Arts.

The concert will feature songs from Wainwright's albums "Want One" and "Want Two," along with selections from "Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall," his take on Judy Garland's music.

"Our collaborations with Princeton University bring the creative life of the campus onto the McCarter stage, and this concert does that on a scale we've never tried before," said Debbie Bisno, McCarter's director of university and artistic partnerships, and Paula Abreu, director of presented programming.

They said the audience will "get Rufus's Garland and they meet the next generation of players, all in one night."

"Of all the stops on this farewell run, this is the only one where he'll share the stage with a super-orchestra built just for him," they said. "That makes Princeton's night one of a kind."

"Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall" recreates Garland's famous 1961 comeback concert. Wainwright premiered it at Carnegie Hall in 2006, and the live album earned him his first Grammy nomination, for best traditional pop vocal album. He has since performed the show at the London Palladium, the Hollywood Bowl, L'Olympia in Paris and Toronto's Luminato Festival.

"Want One" was named Paste magazine's No. 1 album of the year, and Rolling Stone included it among its top five albums of 2003. David Bowie called Wainwright's "Dinner at Eight" the best father-son song he knew, according to McCarter.

The songs have new orchestral arrangements by Sally Herbert, who has worked with Woodkid and Florence + the Machine, and Max Moston, who has worked with Antony and the Johnsons.

Elton John has called Wainwright "the greatest songwriter on the planet."

The concert is part of McCarter's Arts & Ideas series, which connects Princeton University scholarship and campus life with McCarter's programming. It's also part of WXPN Welcomes.

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