Artist Spotlight: Pink Martini
Celebrating its 30th Anniversary, the uber-hip, pop orchestra Pink Martini returns to the LBC almost three years to the day after its last sell-out performance here. If you don’t know much about Pink Martini, take it from the diverse, culturally curious fans who continue to fill the Ruth Finley Person Theater whenever this high-energy band visits Santa Rosa: Expect a fun, musically eclectic, culturally rich, visually elegant, vintage-meets-modern musical experience that feels like a global celebration.
Pink Martini’s performance here on Friday, December 6, will once again feature lead singer and songwriter China Forbes, just as it did on December 7, 2021. Recipient of the Ella Fitzgerald Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 2022, Forbes has been performing with the band’s charismatic leader, Thomas Lauderdale, since the group rounded out its first year. The two are known for their vibrant stage presence, which includes storytelling, humor, and invitations to dance or sing along.
Founded by Lauderdale in 1994, Pink Martini’s mix of Brazilian samba, party sounds of 1930s Cuban dance music, and Parisian Cafe cool has led to sold-out shows all over the world, from Carnegie Hall to the Royal Albert Hall to Paris’s legendary L’Olympia theater. Often accompanied by a symphony orchestra, their sound takes on a grand, lush quality equal in awe to the musical-tour-of-the-world experience you get listening to them perform in more than 20 different languages.
So, what’s with the name, Pink Martini? Lauderdale took a cue from his beloved film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, for the Henry Mancini-The Pink Panther-cocktail aesthetic of his performances. And the rest was history!
For tickets to the December 6 performance, visit the Pink Martini event webpage.
