After five years as Artistic Director of the Luminato Festival, Jorn Weisbrodt has announced he will be stepping down after the close of Luminato’s 10th anniversary next summer in 2016.
Weisbrodt said he plans to relocate to New York City, where he shares a home with his husband, Rufus Wainwright.
“From day one, I’ve been welcomed extremely openly and enthusiastically, and I consider some of the things we’ve done at Luminato to be the finest of my career,” said Weisbrodt. He added that after a five-year term, he felt the time was right to move on.
Weisbrodt has been a valuable asset for Luminato for his ability to attract internationally renowned productions to the city. These include Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach and Atom Egoyan Feng Yi Ting. He was instrumental in premiering Ronnie Burkett’s The Daisy Theatre, Kid Koala’s Nufonia Must Fall, and Terence Koh’s Tomorrow’s Snow. He was also responsible for bringing the historic performance by Kate McGarrigle and Joni Mitchell to the Toronto stage.
More recently, he championed the resurrection of Apocalypsis by R. Murray Schafer, with Lemi Ponifasio, and David Byrne’s Contemporary Color, a multimedia work that mixed music and color guard. Pushing the boundaries of experimental music, he had a hand in bringing the Unsound Festival of electronic and experimental music to Canada for the first time at the Hearn Generating Station.
“Jorn’s tireless work and unwavering vision for the past five years represents a renewed platform from which to enter our second decade, said Tony Gagliano, Luminato Festival co-founder and chair. “Though we are sad to see him go, we understand and support his decision to move on for both personal and professional reasons, and wish him the very best in future endeavors.”
The Luminato Festival’s Board of Directors and CEO have begun the international search for a new Artistic Director to starting in the summer of 2017.
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