An award-winning singer/songwriter and actor, versatile entertainer Klaus Hoffmann is also renowned as one of the leading interpreters of the legendary chanteur Jacques Brel. Born in Berlin in 1951, he started his career in his hometown's alternative club culture of the late '60s, and after training as an actor at the Max-Reinhardt-Schule, earned critical acclaim for his performance as Edgar Wibeau in the 1976 adaptation of Ulrich Plenzdorf's Die Neuen Leiden des Jungen W. Since his 1975 self-titled debut, Hoffmann has also pursued a successful music career, but it's his passion for the repertoire of Belgian Jacques Brel that has defined him as an artist. As well as covering many of Brel's classic chansons over his 30-plus albums, Hoffmann also wrote and produced the musical Brel: Die Letzte Vorstellung in 1996, and in 2008 he organized a tribute show at Paris' Maison Heinrich Heine to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Brel's death. ~ Jon O'Brien