Rufus & Martha Wainwright Announce Manhattan For The Holidays

09-22-2026

(BHM) Rufus & Martha Wainwright announce Manhattan for the Holidays, this year's installment of their annual holiday extravaganza. The benefit concert will take place at Town Hall in Manhattan on December 6, and will feature a variety of special guests including Cyndi Lauper, Alice Phoebe Lou, and Jenni Muldaur, along with the Wainwright family including Loudon Wainwright III and Lucy Wainwright Roche. More guests to be announced soon.

Net proceeds from the event will go directly to Folk Cancer: The Kate McGarrigle Project, a heartfelt collaboration between Rufus & Martha Wainwright and Cancer Can Rock established in memory of their mother. The funds are being administered through the Kate McGarrigle Fund's fiscal sponsor, the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF).

Rufus and Martha shared the news saying, "The festive hour approaches and alas the joyful Wainwright McGarrigle holiday saga continues! This time we're in "Manhattan for the Holidays" at beautiful Town Hall. Home turf. Presumably lots of musical presents under THAT particular family tree wouldn't you say? Please come join us to honor the memory of our mother Kate McGarrigle and help raise money to help fight cancer. Can't wait to see you all there with bells, lights, whistles, tinsel and menorahs on."

"We had our biggest year yet - more artists recorded and premiered than ever before - and this partnership with Rufus and Martha has been the driving force of that growth." -Dirk Wooten, Executive Director, Cancer Can Rock

As part of the evening, the Murmrr Arts Foundation (MAF) will present its third artist commission. MAF is dedicated to commissioning, collecting, exhibiting, and preserving significant works across the visual, literary, and performing arts. Murmrr Commission No. 003 features acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Laurie Simmons with a specially selected artwork exploring ideas of home, family, memory, and the recurring image of the house and castle-subjects that have appeared throughout her work for decades. Proceeds from the sale of the artwork will go directly to Folk Cancer: The Kate McGarrigle Project.

For Simmons, the imagery has a deeply personal connection to New York and her own family history. She reflected, "My father was a first-generation American who grew up in Brooklyn. 'Home' was an idealized, inherited New World dream to him. His house, the house I grew up in, though somewhat modest, embodied all the success in his life. I really internalized this idea that my father's house was his castle. The castle, the house, interiors, are all images that repeat in my work. I keep recirculating and repurposing these images to emphasize their significance for me."

The Simmons project continues the work of MAF to bring contemporary artists into dialogue with live music, performance, and unexpected cultural settings.

Brian Kelly, Founder and Executive Chair of MAF commented, "The idea behind the Murmrr Arts Foundation is pretty simple: put great artists in places where people aren't necessarily expecting to find them. Laurie made a castle. Rufus and Martha made a Christmas show. Somehow they belong together."