With an eclectic set-list featuring songs sung in French, Croatian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, the 12-piece mini-orchestra Pink Martini performs its romantic, multilingual repertoire on the world’s most respected concert stages. “Pink Martini is like a romantic Hollywood musical of the 1940s or ‘50s…but with a global perspective which is modern,” says founder Thomas Lauderdale. “We bring melodies and rhythms from different parts of the world together to create something new, exciting and beautiful.” Tickets are $55 general, $55 Senior/Child and $25 HSU students. Tickets are available at the University Ticket Office and at humboldt.edu/centerarts.
In 1994 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas Lauderdale was working in politics, thinking that one day he would run for mayor. Like other eager politicians-in-training, he went to every political fundraiser under the sum…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 – and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike, he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini in 1994 to provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education and parks.
“All of us in Pink Martini have studied different languages as well as different styles of music from different parts of the world. So inevitably, our repertoire is wildly diverse,” says Lauderdale. “At one moment, you feel like you’re in the middle of a samba parade in Rio de Janeiro, and in the next moment, you’re in a French music hall of the 1930s or a palazzo in Napoli. It’s a bit like an urban musical travelogue. 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…comprised of people of every country, every language, every religion.”
Featuring twelve regular musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia, and North America. Pink Martini made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998 under the direction of Norman Leyden. Since then, the band has gone on to play with over 25 orchestras around the world, including multiple engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the San Francisco Symphony and the BBC Concert Orchestra in London.
Pink Martini’s debut album Sympathique was released independently in 1997 on the band’s own label Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog), and 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. All five albums have gone gold in France, Canada, Greece and Turkey, and have sold well over 2 million copies worldwide.
For more information and credit card orders call CenterArts at 826-3928 or at humboldt.edu/centerarts.