Stirred, shaken, or on the rocks, Pink Martini cools hot summer temps July 14
Photo: Pink Martini, with China Forbes and Thomas Lauderdale at center. Photo by Autumn de Wilde.
HANOVER, NH, May 27, 2015—Pink Martini, the internationally celebrated “suave salon orchestra” (New York
Times) returns to the Spaulding stage on Tuesday, July 14, at 8 pm, with its expert cocktail of meticulous
musicianship, sparkling showmanship and globe-spanning repertoire, served with a twist of humor.
A sold-out Hop hit in 2007 and 2011, the Portland, Ore.-based band returns with vocalist China Forbes, a
“pitch-perfect chanteuse who…tempers heartbreak with savoir-faire” (New York Times).
Pink Martini embraces popular
song from around the world and
across the decades—a “highly
polished combination of class and
kitsch, swooning nostalgia and
deliriously romantic melodies”
(The Telegraph, UK). While most
of the neo-swing acts that
emerged in the 1990s favored a
combination of jump blues and
early rock ‘n’ roll, Pink Martini
offers a risk-taking blend of jazz
(mainly swing), world music,
cabaret, lounge, and 1940s-1950s
film music. With an ensemble that
includes brass, strings and
multiple percussionists, the group
can dip and dive from Cole Porter
and Duke Ellington to French icon
Edith Piaf to Latin greats such as Xavier Cugat, Beny Moré and Tito Puente. Forbes, a handy linguist, slips in
and out of various languages with convincing flair.
Wrote The Times (London), “Multilingual and defiantly cosmopolitan, Pink Martini have vacuumed up songs
from Turkey, Japan, Romania and beyond, using lush string and horn arrangements that hark back to the days
before rock ‘n’ roll…Pink Martini concerts are all about striking an insouciant pose in the face of life's
vicissitudes, as if nothing has changed since the age of Fred and Ginger.”
Says pianist and bandleader Thomas 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.”
Formed more than 20 years ago in Portland, Ore., by college friends Forbes and Lauderdale, 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.
More recent splashy appearances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2011 New Year’s Eve concert; the
Governor’s Ball at the 80th Annual Academy Awards in 2008; the opening of the 2008 Sydney Festival in
Australia; two sold-out concerts at Paris’ legendary L’Olympia Theatre in 2011; and Paris’ fashion house
Lanvin’s 10-year anniversary celebration for designer Alber Elbaz in 2012. In its twentieth year, Pink Martini
was inducted into both the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.
Pink Martini’s debut album Sympathique, released in 1997, quickly became an international phenomenon,
garnering the group nominations for “Song of the Year” and “Best New Artist” in France’s Victoires de la
Musique Awards in 2000. Pink Martini released Hang On Little Tomato in 2004, Hey Eugene! in 2007 and
Splendor In The Grass in 2009. In November 2010 the band released Joy To The World, a festive, multidenominational, multilingual holiday album that received glowing reviews and was carried in Starbucks stores
during the 2010 and 2011 holiday seasons.
In 2011 the band released two albums: A Retrospective, a collection of the band’s most beloved songs,
including eight previously unreleased tracks, and 1969, an album of collaborations with legendary Japanese
singer Saori Yuki. Pink Martini’s seventh studio album, Get Happy, released in 2013, features 16 globespanning songs in nine languages, with vocalists Forbes and Large plus a cavalcade of special guests including
Rufus Wainwright and Shapiro—as well as four great-grandchildren of Captain and Maria von Trapp, made
famous by the movie The Sound of Music. Pink Martini albums have sold over 3 million copies worldwide.
Lauderdale built the band’s eighth studio album, Dream a Little Dream (2014), around the von Trapps, with
guest appearances by The Chieftains, Wayne Newton, “Jungle” Jack Hanna, and Charmian Carr (who played
Liesl in the original Sound of Music).
The band has collaborated and performed with numerous other artists, including Jimmy Scott, Carol Channing,
Jane Powell, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Joey Arias, puppeteer Basil Twist, Michael Feinstein,
filmmaker Gus Van Sant, Mamie Van Doren, the original cast of Sesame Street. Singer Storm Large began
performing with Pink Martini in March 2011, when Forbes took a leave of absence to undergo surgery on her
vocal cords. Forbes made full recovery and now both she and Large continue performing with Pink Martini.
Download Word.doc press release and high-resolution photos
CALENDAR LISTING:
Pink Martini
A Hop favorite, this “little orchestra” combines retro glamour with a sophisticated songbook of classical,
jazz, world music and timeless pop in multiple languages. Their cocktail of meticulous musicianship and
sparkling showmanship, served with a twist of humor, have won them audiences spanning nations and
generations. This concert features vocalist China Forbes, a “pitch-perfect chanteuse who…tempers
heartbreak with savoir-faire” (New York Times).
Tuesday, July 14, 8 pm
Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
$35/50/60, Dartmouth students $10
Information: hop.dartmouth.edu or 603.646.2422
* * *
Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing
arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and
the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each
year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students
and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with
outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50th-anniversary season in 2012-13, the Hop
enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the
development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.