Luminato hires new artistic director, Jorn Weisbrodt

The Luminato Festival has announced today that its new artistic director is Jorn Weisbrodt, partner of Canadian musician Rufus Wainwright and patron of the arts. Weisbrodt, 38, will succeed Chris Lorway. He won the position after a far-reaching search and will begin his new position in January after five years as the director of Long Island’s The Watermill Center. Weisbrodt boasts an impressive resume, having worked with arts organizations all over the world—La Scala in Milan, the Bolshoi Theatre in Russia and Manchester International Festival to name a few—but apparently he is particularly keen on working in Toronto: “I’m very excited about working with Luminato and living in Toronto, because it’s clear this is a festival that wants to work with the world’s best artists on exciting new projects,” Weisbrodt told the Star.

Weisbrodt already has a history with the festival—he helped arrange the North American premiere of Wainwright’s opera, Prima Donna, at Luminato in 2010. In addition to his responsibilities as artistic director, he will be co-producing Luminato’s 2012 remount of Einstein on the Beach, and despite the fact that Weisbrodt and partner Wainwright plan to marry next summer, he was mum on the subject of another Wainwright-Luminato collaboration: “If [Wainright] does [take part], I don’t think anyone could accuse me of booking a mediocre artist for personal reasons,” Weisbrodt joked to the Star.

• Luminato hires Jorn Weisbrodt [Toronto Star]
• Jorn Weisbrodt named new artistic director of Luminato [Globe and Mail]