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PDX Jazz Members Opening Night Celebration: Thomas Lauderdale and China Forbes of Pink Martini
Thursday, February 18, 2021 | 8:00 pm
Thu Feb 18 2021
Thomas Lauderdale and China Forbes of Pink Martini
8:00 PM PST (Watch online 48 hrs)
Livestream from Biamp World Headquarters (PDX Jazz Members Only Event)
We are thrilled to present the very special and rare presentation for the first time at the 2021 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival with the duo of Thomas Lauderdale and China Forbes of Pink Martini.
This Opening Night ‘live’ web stream is free for PDX Jazz members. No tickets will be publicly sold, become a PDX Jazz member to enjoy this show.
For over 25 years, Pink Martini has been the brightest light in the Jazz world coming out of the Pacific Northwest. Featuring a dozen musicians with songs in 25 languages, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America and North America. They are truly global ambassadors of the best the Pacific Northwest has to offer.
In 1994 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas Lauderdale was working in politics, with the intention of eventually running for office. Like other eager politicians-in-training, he went to every political fundraiser under the sun… but was dismayed to find the music at these events underwhelming, lackluster, loud and un-neighborly. Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop – he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini in 1994 to provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers and causes.
One year later, Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate who was living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. They began to write songs together. Their first song – “Sympathique” (Je ne veus pas travailler)- became an overnight sensation in France, was nominated for “Song of the Year” at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards. Says Lauderdale, “We’re very much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America… the America which remains the most heterogeneously populated country in the world… composed of people of every country, every language, every religion. Except for Native Americans, all of us are immigrants from every country, of every language, of every religion.”
